Collection: Jimmy Wang Yu

Jimmy Wang Yu belongs in any serious history of martial arts cinema because he was there before the form fully hardened into what people now recognize as the classic kung fu movie. He helped create the template.

From a young age, he trained in karate, tai chi, Wudang quan, and taijijian, and that mix gave him a rougher, more forceful screen style than many of the performers who came after him.

Jimmy Wang Yu died in 2022, but his place in the genre was secure long before that—he was one of the first giants.

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