James Wang Yu (28 March 1943 – 5 April 2022)[1] was a Hong Kong-Taiwanese martial artist, actor, film director, producer, and screenwriter.

According to The New York Times, Wang was "the biggest star of Asian martial arts cinema until the emergence of Bruce Lee.

Wang joined Shaw Brothers Studio in 1963 as a stunt performer, and had his first acting role in the 1965 film Temple of the Red Lotus.

If The One-Armed Swordsman was the movie that launched Wang's acting career, The Chinese Boxer was the film that sealed his fame in Hong Kong cinema.

The latter has been credited[citation needed] as being the first Hong Kong martial arts film that kickstarted the unarmed combat genre, mainly kung fu.

Chinese youths, in their bid to emulate Wang, took to punching sandbags, and reading up on the history of Shaolin Kung Fu.

The legal tussle that ended in the studio's favour led to Wang being banned from making films in Hong Kong.

Chan eventually repaid the favor with his roles in Wang's films, Fantasy Mission Force (1982) and Island of Fire (1990).

[5][6] In a 2007 interview with the Liberty Times, Wang claimed that Bai Wan-hsiung, the Kuomintang Director of Mainland Affairs, had asked him and another Bamboo Union member to assassinate Democratic Progressive Party chairman Hsu Hsin-liang in 1979.

[8] On April 23, 1976, Wang invited Hong Kong film mogul Charles Heung and several friends, including Bamboo Union members, to the Xinghua Pavilion restaurant in Taipei.

Wang allegedly instigated a fight between the two groups that ended in the deaths of Four Seas members Qiu Wenxiang and Gao Wenzhang.

[9] On January 10, 1981, Wang and a group of friends were eating at the Tianchu Restaurant on Nanjing Road, when they were ambushed by members of the Four Seas triad in an apparent assassination attempt.

On May 8, Wang and Bamboo Union members Huang Shaocen was charged by the Taipei District Court for first-degree murder.

[12] Wang was eventually acquitted due to a lack of evidence, though Huang Shaocen was sentenced to two years in prison for the attempted killing of Liu Tieqiu.

In an interview he admitted to even driving to his physical therapy session with the use of only one arm, but explained that his daughter put a stop to it when she found out, and that she had hired a driver for him.