Bullets in a Bully
The murder of this gangster was eerily foreshadowed in Jackie Chan’s The Twin Dragons (1992). In the film, Kirk Wong played a gangster who wore a bandage on his head (as seen below). This is significant because he had acted in a 1991 film produced by the murdered gangster i.e. Shanghai 1920 was produced by Jim Choi Chi-Ming for the English language market. One of the directors of photography was Walter Gregg. Kirk Wong was impressed with him enough that he hired him to be cinematographer for his own directorial feature: Taking Manhattan (released in November 1992). Walter was not just someone who was sought after for English language projects or Chinese productions that took place in the West. Jim Choi valued him enough that Walter was the cinematographer for Jim’s final film as producer - Secret Signs (which was released in April 1993). Back to the bandage, Jim wasn’t wearing it when his corpse was first photographed on the floor.
After acting in The Twin Dragons, which was produced by Golden Harvest, Kirk was going to direct Jet Li in Golden Harvest’s Crime Story. Jim Choi was Jet Li’s manager, and would have catapulted Jet’s career to heights greater (and sooner) than what Jet had to achieve without him. Jim Choi was gunned down on April 16, 1992 - the same day when Jet Li’s Once Upon a Time in China II was released in Hong Kong cinemas. Following Jim’s murder, Jet dropped out of Kirk Wong’s Crime Story but still agreed to act in Golden Harvest’s Once Upon a Time in China III. Upon its completion, Jet then refused to play the role of Wong Fei-Hung again or do any more movies for Golden Harvest. As for the aforementioned Walter Gregg, Jet Li recommended him to be the director of photography when the time came to reprise the role of Wong in Once Upon a Time in China and America (1997).
Although Jet refused to retire after Jim Choi was murdered, the same can’t be said for Jet’s girlfriend: Nina Li Chi. She retired in April 1992. Her 1992 films are notable: Sammo Hung's Lover's Tear (a May 21 release), Yuen Biao's A Kid from Tibet (a January 11 release) and Jackie Chan's The Twin Dragons (a January 15 release co-directed by Tsui Hark and produced by Ng See-Yuen). There are two things to note here. Firstly, Jackie, Sammo and Biao were well-known for making films with each other in the eighties. Secondly, the production of The Twin Dragons was mainly controlled by two men who were working with Jet on Once Upon a Time in China II. While Jet reunited with Tsui Hark on Black Mask (1996), he didn’t reunite with Ng See-Yuen with the exception of Once Upon a Time in China III.
Back to Nina Li Chi, her penultimate 1992 film was Miracle 90 Days (a May 1 release). This was made by two men who collaborated with Jet Li on the only film that he had ever directed i.e. Tsui Siu-Ming and Cho Wing worked on Born to Defend (1987). Tsui Siu-Ming also worked on The Twin Dragons as an actor and one of the many stunt coordinators but he didn't do any more nineties H.K. movies in any major capacity whereas Cho Wing would later work with Jet Li on Kung Fu Cult Master (1993). I single out “H.K.” because director Ronny Yu hired Tsui Siu-Ming to choreograph his first U.S. movie - Warriors of Virtue (1997). Returning to the subject of Nina Li Chi, Jet met her during the making of Dragon Fight in 1988. This was produced by a production company associated with the Sun Yee On Triad, as was Jet Li’s first manager. Jet’s second manager, Jim Choi, was affiliated with the 14K Triad. After Jim was slain, Jet acted in films made by the Sun Yee On.
In 1990, Jet Li divorced Huang Qiuyan. She was in Jet's Kids from Shaolin (1984) and Martial Arts of Shaolin (1986). What's particularly noteworthy about Nina's premature retirement is that Huang returned to acting by starring in two 1993 films – The Top Lady of Sword and The Tale of a Heroine. These were Taiwanese productions despite Huang being from Mainland China. She quit acting in 1987 after getting married, just like Michelle Yeoh did in that year. The difference is that Huang returned to acting after Jet Li's manager was murdered whereas Michelle returned in 1991 after her marriage with Dickson Poon had come to an end. Jet Li had two children with Huang Quiyan, so the 1993 films that she starred in seem like bribery to avoid paying any more alimony.
Nina Li Chi retiring in April 1992 is significant because it was only in May 1992 that Golden Harvest decided to release a shelved Jet Li movie that was made in 1989 and 1990 i.e. Tsui Hark’s The Master. Like Dragon Fight, it was filmed in California. In 1988, Jet Li was already living in America with Huang (who he married in 1987). Jet wanted to work in American films but failed. He could have teamed up with the similarly ambitious Corey Yuen, but it took much later for them to collaborate. Corey could have been hired by Ng See-Yuen to direct No Retreat, No Surrender 3: Blood Brothers in Florida circa 1988 but wasn’t. When Yuen Woo-Ping declined to return as the fight choreographer for Once Upon a Time in China III in the summer of 1992, Corey could have been hired but wasn’t. Instead, Yuen Bun was hired. Bun directed an oil-themed fight scene that would later be remade by Corey for The Transporter (2002). Had Sammo Hung been hired to work on Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace, Bun would have done all the action on Tsui Hark’s Knock Off (1998).
On the subject of missed opportunities, Max Mok didn’t return to play Leung Foon in Once Upon a Time in China and America (1997) despite having played the character in every sequel including the TV series produced by Tsui Hark. This is something that needs to be taken into serious consideration because Max Mok was one of the leads for the Dragon Inn remake that Jim Choi was going to produce for Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh. While Michelle reunited with Jet for Yuen Woo-Ping’s The Tai Chi Master (1993), neither star reunited with Max for any other film (barring Once Upon a Time in China III). Ironically, he was the co-star for Yuen’s Fire Dragon (1994). My suspicion is that Ng See-Yuen exploited the fact that he knew an actor who was working for both him and Jim Choi, regardless of whether Max knew he was being exploited or not. Besides the fact that Ng was going to produce his own Dragon Inn remake, he felt threatened that Jim was a H.K. film producer who wanted to produce English language films like Ng did. Max was the star of Jim’s final film: Secret Signs.
John Woo’s business sidekick, Terence Chang, was instrumental in launching Michelle Yeoh’s film career to the extent that he became her manager for her English language career. Here’s an example of something that he said in his memoir: “I also accompanied Michelle Yeoh on a trip to Singapore and Malaysia to promote Easy Money. In addition to Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, I also went to her hometown of Ipoh. Completely different from Brandon Lee, Michelle Yeoh is very professional, enthusiastic and has no airs. In addition to promoting, she also took me to eat chili fish at a food stall in Singapore, eat different curries at the Kuala Lumpur Stadium, and even visited her home in Ipoh. I think her success is not only because of her beauty, professionalism, and good acting skills, but also has a lot to do with her cultivation and personality.”
As for Jim Choi being a bully, he was responsible for Andy Lau and Carina Lau being threatened to star in China White (1989) regardless of whether he did it in person or by using his cronies. This Ronny Yu film was an attempt to mimic what the Sun Yee On Triad were doing when they decided to make two versions of the same film - Casino Raiders (1989) for the Asian market and Fatal Bet for the Western market. Terence had mentioned in his memoir that 1988 was when Ronny introduced him to Jim Choi. This was a year after Michelle retired from acting after she married one of the bosses for the D&B film company. The Terence Chang connection fascinates me because not only did John Woo leave Hong Kong before he could finish editing Hard-Boiled but the film was released on the same day that Jim Choi was assassinated - April 16, 1992. Jim left behind a wife and daughter. At the time, Jet Li had two daughters.
When Jim was slaughtered, Michelle Yeoh’s comeback movie (Police Story III: Super Cop) had yet to be released. Jackie Chan’s previous film, The Twin Dragons, had only earned 27 million Taiwanese dollars by late February 1992 whereas Jet Li’s Swordsman II had earned 50 million by late March. Taiwan was Hong Kong’s number one market because, besides being bigger, the country was responsible for most of the financing in the Hong Kong film industry. Despite how many films that Jet Li would come to make with Corey Yuen Kwai, the latter was not signed on to work as the fight choreographer for Dragon Inn. The director was going to be stunt maestro Billy Chan Wui-Ngai, who usually directed films where the stunt coordinator was King Lee King-Chu (who Billy knew from his Bruce Lee days).
In an April 1992 article by the South China Morning Post, director Ronny Yu said something that suggested he was either lying or mistaken. He claimed that Jim Choi was just an ordinary businessman who wasn’t arrogant. Ronny was disingenuous about the possibility of Jim being gun-ridden by Triads. Surprisingly, Ronny got to direct Jet Li in Fearless (2006). For those who would like to know more about the relationship between Terence Chang and Michelle Yeoh, I recommend my Substack articles titled Ternary Terence and Smoke Signals. The latter in particular explains more about the connection to Ronny Yu. As for my Medium blog, I recommend my article titled Terrific Terence. To learn more about how insidious that Ng See-Yuen was, read my Medium article titled Doom Sees You.