Unicorn Fist – another ‘lost’ Bruce Lee location rediscovered (repost from 2011)

Originally posted on my old Wordpress blog (back in 2011), I noticed that one of my old posts pointed to this article, so, rather than just delete the link why not just republish the original post..and of course add a few updates where relevant (and removed quite a bit of my irrelevant ramblings). I was reminded as well by a recent video on the Stripey Rambles channel detailing a new magazine about the film and it mentions Pak Tam Chung. Seeing as I was the one who rediscovered the location, I thought a repost wouldn't go amiss. I also made it into the papers at the time for my nerdiness (see the SCMP article at the end).

Bruce Lee and I - one of the alternative titles of this movie

In my earlier days of this weird obsession - film location identification - and flushed with success at finding the location used for the fight scene between Sammo Hung and Bruce at the beginning of Enter The Dragon, I figured I would turn my hand to some other Lee-related places where the location was forgotten/unknown. Someone had asked me about the place where Bruce had been secretly filmed choreographing a fight scene for Unicorn Fist, so I figured I would have a stab at finding where it was.

I don't think this location was particularly coveted by Lee fans, largely because the film was such a piece of generic chop-socky trash that no one cared for it much, however, the story behind Lee's involvement in it it is quite interesting and still generates a fair bit of speculation even to this day.

Fist of Unicorn - another title.

Can you spot the common theme of the two title cards so far?

What was Bruce doing working on Unicorn Fist?

The events surrounding Lee's involvement in this film could, arguably, be traced back to Bruce's time as a Hong Kong child actor. It was during these formative years that he met, and became friends with, Siu Kei-lun (小麒麟) a.k.a Little Unicorn/Unicorn Chan, a fellow child actor who featured alongside Bruce in at least one film (that I could verify), Blame it on Father (1953).

When Bruce left for the US in 1959, Unicorn carried on his own local film career as a general stuntman, extra and bit player (a so-called ke le fe 茄哩啡). He may not have had the looks or charisma of a leading man, but he had excellent acrobatic skills and spent a solid amount of time working in the industry. I even spotted him in a scene from the 1964 French production, Le Monocle rit Jaune. You can see him in the screen shot below attempting to beat up the French stars on the Shatin Floating Restaurant.

Le Monocle rit Jaune - Unicorn Chan centre

When Bruce returned to Hong Kong in 1970, he got in touch with Unicorn and, knowing about his contacts in the industry, asked him to send some feelers out in the hope of scoring a film deal. This is how gwaan hai (關係 - guan xi in Mandarin) works in Chinese society. You know someone who knows someone and a contact can be made. Chinese-style 'networking'. Of course this goes on in many societies, but in China and Hong Kong personally vouching for someone is a very big deal. Wiki has a great explanation of the complex relationships involved here. The key to remember is that it is a very much a reciprical thing and this should go some way to explain why Bruce got involved in the Unicorn Fist film despite all the obvious red flags.

Unicorn had already taken small roles in both Fist of Fury and The Way of the Dragon and it wasn’t long after the latter that Chan managed to swing a deal for himself as the lead in a new kung fu film. There's speculation about the true nature of this deal but a likely scenario is that the production company, Sing Hoi, would only give Unicorn the deal if he could somehow get Bruce involved. There was no way a low-quality production house like Sing Hoi could land a deal with Bruce, so they took a different tack and took advantage of Unicorn's relationship with him.

Did Unicorn explain the situation to Bruce? Even if he didn't, Bruce was savvy enough to know what was going on. And besides, as explained above, he was obligated regardless. So, Bruce agreed to come along to the outdoor location and put some of the actors through their paces for a fight scene and help his friend do some of the publicity work back in the studio.

When the film finally came out it was marketed, almost completely, as a Bruce Lee film. The footage of him down at the outdoor location turned up during the opening and closing credits of the film along with the studio-shot publicity footage. Not only that, but an additional character, only ever seen from the waist down and from behind, turns up as Unicorn's sifu (matching Lee's attire during the secret footage: bare top with jeans) in a flashback interspersed with footage from the publicity shoot. The introduction of this character is really the smoking gun regarding Unicorn's complicitness. These scenes were obviously filmed after the secret footage was shot (to match Lee's clothing) and Unicorn was part and parcel of the whole sequence (shot at the Chuk Lam Sim Monastery in Tsuen Wan), so, there is no way he could plead ignorance as to what was going on.

Regardless of how much Bruce knew beforehand, it appears that the blatant use of his image and name to market the film was a step too far and he initated legal proceedings against Sing Hoi. I don't know the details of the lawsuit, but as far as I know it was still ongoing when he passed away in July 1973. This added fuel to quite a few whacky conspiracy theories that are still bandied about today.

The Location

So where was the outdoor filming location where Bruce was secretly filmed?

There were a few clues from the footage, including the white-painted bridge seen at the beginning of the film, the nearby house and, of course, the waterway that features in a lot of the opening scenes.

It seemed to me that the best way to find this spot would be to locate the bridge. The problem was that I had no idea whether or not it still existed, given the rate at which Hong Kong has developed in the intervening years. It features a lot in the film because it is located right next to where the young boy, Siu Fu (Meng Hoi), lives with his mum. So it’s no surprise that a lot of filming took place around here and of course was next to the spot where Bruce was filmed doing the fight rehearsals.

The white-painted bridge

I initially contacted a few Govt departments to see if anyone knew where it was, to no avail. So I ended up doing my usual and trawling through a pre-"Google lens" internet and GoogleEarth to identify possible sites. After a few days I found a likely candidate in Sai Kung - the Fuk Hing Bridge in Pak Tam Chung.

It later turned out that the bridge had its own interesting history, being one of the village infrastructure projects initiated by famed District Officer and writer, Austin Coates. It even gets a mention in Myself a Mandarin (at the end of the book as Coates describes his leaving Hong Kong via aeroplane and spotting the bridge he had helped fund). I later created a page for the bridge on Gwulo that has a bit more information.

I digress. From where I was living at the time, in Taipo, Pak Tam Chung was a bit of a traipse for me. To be fair, it's a bit of a traipse from anywhere. So I thought I would make a day out of it and headed out there with the whole extended family in tow (me, wife, 3 kids and the M-I-L). It was a "two birds one stone" thing because nearby is the Sheung Yiu Folk Museum which we had been intending to have a look at.

The bridge is located about 100 metres inside Sai Kung East Country, so you need to get to the Pak Tam Chung park entrance  (via bus from Sai Kung Town) and then walk through the gates and along the main road for a few minutes. As you can see the bridge is still there, but was in dire need of a hose down when I took this image.

This Fuk Hing Bridge!

Finding the location of the fighyt rehearsal footage didn't take too long once I found the bridge. I simply crossed the bridge and found the area, more or less, by comparing the opposite bank of the "river" with my screen caps. It's not really a river, it's a tidal inlet and so the water level goes up and down with the tide.

Bruce with hands on knees, centre left

The same view (more or less) in 2011

In case it's not that clear, you can see the same rough markings in the modern image as can be seen in the film. As usual the lens differences between my own camera (I think I was using my trusty Canon G7 at the time) and the cine camera mean the hills in the background are a bit stretched. Also, not that the angle isn't qite right on the gap in the background because, as mentioned, I was slightly to the right and forward compared to where Bruce and co were. This was the closest spot available at the time.

I had got the rough area, but actually, getting to the exact location was not possible. Check out the screen grab above and if you look carefully you can see a guy's head poking up between the two chaps on the right of frame. This is where the ground drops significantly on the river bank and where that guy was walking is the place you can see in the immediate foreground of my own images. When I took my own image, I was basically standing in the same spot as that guy is.

Even back in 2011 you could get to the exact location of the footage because that area had been partially overgrown and had trail running through the middle and a section of it had been taken over by the adjacent house (the one seen in the movie where Mang Hoi lives with his mum) and had become a garden area replete with a perimeter hedge and a gate. I was pretty happy though as I got as close as you could get to the place.

The story of the house took a different turn though a few years after my initial visit. It turns out that the house had some history to it (it was 160 years old!) and was in danger of becoming some sort of protected monument. Once a place gets declared a monument then it is protected by law - however, the Govt has never done this to private property without having to pay a hefty price to the owner, so the chances of this happening were pretty slim. The owner got spooked regardless, and by pure luck during a typhoon, a tree branch fell on the roof and damaged it. The owner took the opportunity to claim it was dangerous and had to be demolished. You can read a bit more about it here in an archived SCMP article: https://archive.ph/jVOrX. 

So, just a few years after my visit the place was demolished, and in its place now stands a spanking brand new modern house with a large swimming pool in that, aforementioned, garden area. No doubt the place is now worth millions. So, to end, for Lee fans, sadly there isn't much to see anymore but I know people will enjoy being in a physical location where they knew their hero stood.

My 15 minutes of fame, well and truly in the past.

Getting there: Catch the #94 bus from Sai Kung bus terminus and get off at the Pak Tam Chung barrier gate (which marks the entrance to the Sai Kung Country Park). Walk along the road on the right hand side and after a couple of hundred metres you will see the bridge immediately on your right.