How Fennie Yuen went from Happy Ghost idol to serious actress for Ringo Lam and Tsui Hark

Fennie Yuen Kit-ying was a major actress in the late 1980s and early 90s, starting off in teen fare like the Happy Ghost film series – she starred in three instalments between 1985 and 1990 – then changing tack with a career-making dramatic role in Ringo Lam Ling-tung’s School on Fire (1988).
She then cemented her fame as the memorable Blue Phoenix in Tsui Hark’s first two Swordsman films, released in 1990 and 1992, before moving mainly into television.
Here, we discuss Yuen’s primary roles with film historian Frank Djeng, who interviewed the actress numerous times to accompany the Shout! Factory Blu-ray releases of her major films.
Yuen had a different image from the other female stars of the era. What was her appeal?
Yes, she was different. She represented the rebellious side of Hong Kong teenagers, but she was not so rebellious that she would be taken for a “bad girl” or a triad girl.
Sara Lee Lai-yui’s character in School on Fire is very rebellious indeed and looks like she could do something evil. But even though Yuen’s character has a feisty attitude, you can see that deep down inside, she is still a good girl who wouldn’t do anything awful.
She is actually a good student in her films, and she gets good grades, even though she is a rebel. Teenage girls at that time identified with her.

Wasn’t she spotted in the street by Cinema City producers?
Raymond Wong Pak-ming from Cinema City was looking for someone to play a feisty female high school student in Happy Ghost II, and he wanted a newcomer.
When he and director Clifton Ko Chi-sum were driving one day, they passed a restaurant in Central and saw Yuen quarrelling with her boyfriend outside. He stared at her and thought, ‘She’s the kind of girl I’m looking for.’ So he got out of the car, gave her his business card and asked her to come to his office the next day for an audition – in the middle of the argument!
She won the part and she joined up with two other girls, Charine Chan Ka-ling and May Lo Mei-mei, and they became known as the “Happy Girls”.

Was Yuen still at school when she started acting?
Yes, she made films while she was still at school – she made her first Happy Ghost films back to back. She thought it would just be a summer job or something like that and she would be able to graduate.
But because she got so popular, her school suggested that she leave, although they didn’t actually expel her. The school felt she was becoming a nuisance because she was getting famous and her schoolmates were bothering her – they would actually go to her classroom just to stare at her.
So the principal said, ‘Maybe it is better that you leave and do acting as a full-time job.’ She was upset, because she really wanted to finish school, but the movie contracts were coming in, so she decided to leave and act full-time.

She gave an incredibly serious performance in School on Fire, playing a girl who is harassed and abused by a triad gang.
The turning point in her career came when Ringo Lam cast her in School on Fire, as before that, everybody thought she was just a teen idol who didn’t know how to act.
With School on Fire, she came out with a real head-turning performance. In the film, the triads get her to do worse and worse things until she snaps and decides to fight back. It was a bravura performance and audiences loved it.
Some of the scenes in which she is harassed by the triads are intense and disturbing. In Hollywood, a young actress like that would have to be extensively prepared for those scenes.
She just got stuck in and did it. But she told me that Lam explained every scene to her and why she was doing the things her character had to do. She said she felt that she had to go through quite a lot of emotional turmoil.
But she said that Lam and his brother Nam Yin, who wrote the script, were both very protective, so she felt very safe and confident doing those scenes.

Then came Pedicab Driver (1989) with Sammo Hung Kam-bo.
She was the second female lead alongside Nina Li Chi, and played a prostitute. It was quite a tough role, but just like Lam, Hung felt that she had the dramatic skills to carry it off.
It is one of Yuen’s favourite roles, although her all-time favourite character is actually Blue Phoenix from the first two Swordsman films.
What made her role as Blue Phoenix in the Swordsman films so special to her?
Yuen tried hard to make that character, which she closely based on the original in Louis Cha Leung-yung’s source novel, very memorable.
She asked producer Tsui Hark if Blue Phoenix could speak with a different accent as she was of Miao ethnicity. Although her dialogue was dubbed by another actor in post-production, it was Yuen’s creative decision to ensure the character did not sound too Cantonese.
She felt that Blue Phoenix was a very empowering character, because she is strong right from the start. She was grateful that Tsui also cast her in the sequel, because that allowed her to expand more on the character. She was actually the only performer from part one to come back and play the same role for part two!

Yuen doesn’t know kung fu, but did she do any wirework (“flying” on wires)?
Yes, she did some wirework, as she had some scenes in mid-air, mainly in Swordsman II, where she is attacked and Jet Li Lianjie has to save her. She is unforgettable in that – she played one of the stand-out characters in that film series.
She was also effective in John Woo Yu-sum’s Bullet in the Head, even though she only showed up in the Hong Kong sequences as Tony Leung Chiu-wai’s new wife. Do you know how she found working with Woo?
Yes, Woo didn’t give her a lot of instructions – she said he trusted his actors completely. Woo just said, ‘OK, this scene is your wedding night, and your husband went out after the wedding and hasn’t come back, you’re getting worried, that’s it.’
She had to interpret the character’s agitation and concern in her own way. Apparently, that’s how Woo works with actors. She found that approach liberating.
In this regular feature series on the best of Hong Kong cinema, we examine the legacy of classic films, re-evaluate the careers of its greatest stars, and revisit some of the lesser-known aspects of the beloved industry.
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