Lam Ching-Ying touched too many people to count of the decades of his performances. Here you can find the words of a few who remember the Sifu, and glimpse a little of the blossoms he planted in the hearts of so many. A form is provided at the bottom of the page for any who would wish to contribute.
Personally, Lam Ching-Ying was perhaps my favorite actor. I say perhaps because I rarely have a singular favorite anything. Buy LCY consistently topped the list anytime I was asked in recent times, and I was just going through a period of rediscovery of his films in my collection after tracking down three I hadn't seen before when I heard the news of his passing. That made it feel more personal than it might have, especially since I watched Swordsman for the first time just hours after finding out. If you haven't seen Swordsman, I won't spoil it for you, but if you have, you can begin to guess how it felt seeing his exit from the film in that mood. And I had just watched Painted Faces again earlier that day. Bad combo perhaps, but perhaps not. It made me stop and think about how much I really enjoyed his work. And it made me feel as though I needed to do something to work out my feelings. That gave birth to this website.
I was first attracted to him as an actor through the characters for which he created the archetype, the supernatural fighting fat si, the Eternal Sifu (as he's referred to around these parts). I discovered the world of the Chinese supernatural with Lam as my guide. In this strange new realm where I knew none of the rules; where vampires knew no fear of the cross or garlic, where zombies can be animated with insects, where ghosts walk the land and love their living prey, where articles of power include yellow paper, the blood of a black dog, and sticky rice; there was always one who knew instantly what the danger was and how to counter it. Here was the star they had been missing in the U.S. to make the Dr. Strange movie. With elaborate precision and clarity of action he cast spells and played roles that would have, and did, look comic in lesser hands. The worlds Lam Ching-Ying opened to me in Close Encounters Of The Spooky Kind II, Mr. Vampire, and Magic Cop, and the dozens of movies with and without him that they led me to, will be with me always. And I'll always think of him whenever I encounter the Chinese supernatural in any of it's myriad forms.
But that's hardly all there is to LCY, only where I began to discover him. I didn't notice at first just how many movies I saw him in. His look varies heavily from movie to movie, something of a rarity in the HK market where stars tend to work on overlapping projects causing them to maintain a more constant appearance. His roles were widely varied, even if he was typecast in the Eternal Sifu role at times. But his performances were constant. No matter how the film is, you always knew you'd get everything from Lam. He always reminded me of the kids in Painted Faces when they get their first job as extras. The professionalism they showed on their first day while the old hands slacked off sums it up nicely. He was a real pro, and he was totally cool. How could you miss with a combo like that?
I used to be terribly annoyed that I had been unable to get my hands on some of what are considered to be Lam's best movies. Now I take some measure of joy in the thought that although he's left us, I'll still be able to discover him anew in the future.
