Moon Lee Choi-Fung 李賽鳳

Rating +66

Moon Lee Choi-Fung

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Born on February 14, 1965, in Hong Kong. The saying "small but mighty" might as well have been coined for Moon Lee. She is utterly delightful and probably the most unlikely action star imaginable. And that is one of the reasons she managed to attract a fanatical legion of fans in the West. Unlike Michelle Yeoh, who looks much bigger on screen than she actually is, Moon appears as small as she really is. Watching her on screen, where she sometimes seems like a dwarf next to other actors, one almost gets the feeling that Moon could easily be picked up and tucked into a back pocket.

It wasn't just her petite stature, pleasant personality and lovely looks that made her a star, though — it was what she did on screen. She simply astonishes. She is remarkably athletic and graceful (thanks to her earlier training in dance), and the ferocity, the determination to go all the way and the never-say-die attitude she brings to her roles make your heart stand still. In her fights she takes as many hits as she lands, and by the end of a film she is often battered and bruised, but never beaten. Watching Moon bring all of this to the screen is one of the pleasures that Hong Kong cinema offers.

After she finished school, Moon joined the RTV television studio and made her debut in the series Affection on Earth, then went on to appear in numerous RTV series through the early 1980s. Her big-screen debut came in 1981 in the light comedy To Sir with Love. She had a noticeable supporting role, and she looks great in one funny scene where she teaches her fellow students how to look sexy.

Two years later, in 1983, came her first significant role — in one of the most important films in Hong Kong history, Zu: The Warriors from the Magic Mountain. Here Moon plays one of Brigitte Lin's bodyguards, and sets off with Yuen Biao and Mang Hoi to battle the evil that has broken loose. Although she isn't really involved in the action, her shifting behavior on screen, now fierce, now gentle, was a clear hint of things to come. Also important for her career was the fact that she became friends with Yuen Biao and Sammo Hung. Over the following years she teamed up on screen with Yuen again and again.

She continued working in television and began taking part in action scenes on a regular basis in the series Drunken Fist Boxing. In 1983 she appeared with Yuen Biao in The Champions, where her role had no action, as well as in very small bit parts in three films featuring Yuen: Winners and Sinners (where she tried to stop the fight between Yuen and Jackie), Twinkle Twinkle Lucky Stars and Those Merry Souls. In 1985, however, Moon had roles in two films that were significant for the development of her career — in Jackie Chan's action film The Protector and in the classic Sammo Hung-produced Mr. Vampire. The following year she teamed up with Yuen again in the sequel to Mr. Vampire. And once again she wasn't involved in any action scenes in either of them — at that point her specialty was mainly the role of the lovely, cheerful girlfriend with a touch of comedy.

And finally, in 1988, came Angel. A few years earlier Michelle Yeoh had starred in the action film Yes, Madam (1985) and in the films that followed it, In the Line of Duty (1986) and Magnificent Warriors (1986). Those films brought the female action film into the modern day, but they didn't create a genre — Angel did, and it was with this film that the "Girls with guns" genre was born. "GWG" has its fans and its haters, but it's perfectly obvious that there is nothing else like it in world cinema. Of course, the films' budgets were small and the plots often primitive, but the actresses of this genre are astonishing, and the action is fast, furious and at times wildly fun. Watching women (whether they play heroines or villains) stand up to men and depend solely on their physical abilities for victory is a thrilling pleasure. Many of these action scenes are the equal of any others in Hong Kong cinema, but unfortunately the low budgets give them the status of B-movies.

Angel was expected to be a sensational hit, and Moon, together with her on-screen partner Yukari Oshima, began their rise to action stardom. As mentioned earlier, Moon trained in ballet and modern dance, but she also studied kung fu while she was training as an actress, under the tutelage of the renowned master and director Tsui Siu-Ming. So, fortunately, she was cast as one of Charlie's Angels in this film, and her fight scenes were incredible and brutal, particularly the final one against Yukari. Before filming Angel 2, Moon appeared in one more non-action film (her last), Midnight Whispers, in which she played a young girl reunited with her mother, but their problems drive them apart. In this film Moon still looks sixteen and gives her best in the role of a not particularly likable character. She stated that she would have liked to appear in more dramatic films, but it never happened — she was destined for the title of queen of female action.

Over the next six years, Moon appeared in roughly twenty-five action films (some of them classics, some not so successful), enduring numerous physical problems and performing some extremely dangerous stunts. In Devil Hunters an explosion was poorly planned, and as a result Moon, who suffered extensive burns, had to spend several months in hospital. If you've seen Fatal Termination and the famous scene where Moon tries to save her daughter, who is dangling from the window of a speeding car, and you've seen her leap onto the windshield, clinging to it to save her daughter's life, then you know that Moon Lee has great courage.

Some of her other best films: Angel 2, Killer Angels, Princess Madam (with a fight against the deadly Michiko Nishiwaki), Nocturnal Demon (a very fun film with excellent action), Dreaming the Reality (where she plays a trained assassin who later becomes a hero), Bury Me High (directed by her mentor Tsui Siu-Ming), Kickboxer's Tears (with one of her most brutal fights against Yukari), Yes Madam 92: A Serious Shock (the only time Moon played a villain) and Angel Terminators.

By 1993 the "Girls with guns" genre had completely run its course (the Hong Kong box office results for many of these films were extremely low, and most of these pictures were far more beloved in the West than at home in Hong Kong), budgets became even smaller — often shooting took place in the Philippines — and Moon decided to leave. She was so closely associated with this genre that it became impossible for her to get more dramatic roles. Her last film, titled Little Heroes Lost in China, came out in 1995 — a film focused more on children's kung fu than on Moon. Moon Lee returned to her first love — she teaches the art of dance, and occasionally appears in TV series.