Happy Birthday, Ti Lung!

Happy 74th birthday, Ti Lung! After Shaw Brothers lost Jimmy Wong Yu to a lawsuit (banning him from making movies in Hong Kong for three years) director Chang Cheh discovered the golden duo of Ti Lung and David Chiang who became his new stars, the main men in an eternal big screen bromance.

Ti and Chiang starred in Duel of the Iron Fist, which became the second dubbed martial arts movie to hit American screens after a last minute, international mission by Serafim Karalexis who brought the negative back from Hong Kong in his suitcase.

As the San Francisco Examiner said of the movie:

“Duel of the Iron Fist is not as exciting as The Chinese Connection because it doesn’t have Bruce Lee. Its star, Ti Lung, is very sweet and traditional, whereas Lee is hip and modern. The film is distinguished only by the appearance of one David Chang, as the ‘Rover.’ He is a stone fox. I predict he will become the Billy Dee Williams of the East….”