I just found out the boy in the movie is really a girl - Siu nin Wong Fei Hung chi: Tit ma lau (2001) Discussion

[–] Forever_Hardcore 17 years ago

Wong Fei Hung is a real person and chinese folk hero. Their are many movies with him (character) in them. Iron Monkey is an example of a story that took place during his childhood. It's kinda like watching Phantom Menace seeing Anakin as a kid (Not being the main character of the story) knowing he will grow into a Vader. If I understand corectly he is a chinese "Robin Hood" and in Iron Monkey we see Wong Fei Hung learn about what it is to be an "outlaw" hero.

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[–] sef35 17 years ago

thanks for the reply

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[–] BennyEggs7 15 years ago

"Wong Fei Hung is a real person and chinese folk hero. Their are many movies with him (character) in them. Iron Monkey is an example of a story that took place during his childhood. It's kinda like watching Phantom Menace seeing Anakin as a kid (Not being the main character of the story) knowing he will grow into a Vader. If I understand corectly he is a chinese "Robin Hood" and in Iron Monkey we see Wong Fei Hung learn about what it is to be an "outlaw" hero"

Not a single word of this response post answered the OP's question...ROFLMAO

"Fuggedabout Joe the Plumber, what about Don the Jeweler?".

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[–] Cinevalley 17 years ago

I think you didn't get the proper answer yet. I would try to help you out on this, it's quite possibly very intentional weird choice of casting and i think it was very much up to the film's producer, whose purpose for that was to play with the audience's response to what might appear as an act of transvestism and part of the transgression of gender and class which can be very controversial as depends on who might realize that. This is my viewpoint, but i know that this producer had this long-time personal fascination about the change of gender, that by doing so women can sort of equal to men, which as we know doesn't happen very often. Weird, isnt it. But i can't give you better explanation. I only know that there's the reason to that.

"Righteousness exists in Heaven and on Earth. Merging into all life forms."

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[–] 17 years ago

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[–] Nakrophile 17 years ago

That's hilarious. Well done.

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[–] info-4857 17 years ago

It's probably a lot more simple than you think.

trying to find a child actor who:
a: has the right look
b: Can act worth a damn
c: Can do great martial arts
Must be so difficult they probably found that the girl who played the charater of Wong Fei Hung was the only one who fit all three criteria so instead of recasting a bad acting boy they just mocked up the girl as a boy, I knew it was a girl but I bought into it.

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[–] dilbertsuperman 17 years ago

It's an obvious plot by men to subjugate women.
OR wong fei hung is a male folk hero/legend of china.
Enjoy your ignorance and your obvious psychological issues with men.

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[–] 17 years ago

[deleted]

[–] mesame121489 17 years ago

the reason she had to play a boy is cause wong fei hong is a man

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[–] pvz-5 15 years ago

wow i thought he was just a girly lookin kid

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[–] pawtrax67 14 years ago

My assumption that she was cast instead of a boy is she is/was a good wushu artist. Perhaps she was better than the other boy actors that tried out for the part.

The fact she's now a HK cop is interesting too.

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[–] Falcon90 13 years ago

That was a girl!!! Wow, she was damn good anyhow!

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[–] rc-108 13 years ago

her wushu skills were amazing..

excellent choice for her to play the role.

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[–] delopowitz 12 years ago

That's what I thought, too... with kids, it can't be easy to find one who can do the martial arts well enough. And the baggy shirt covers a lot! So why not? More than that, I really can't think of another reason for them to do it. And it's the very definition of equal opportunity. Hire the most skilled person. Period.

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[–] Seaweed-2 10 years ago

I've gone through the movie carefully, but as far as I can tell, she really does have a shaved head! (Well the front half, anyway). How many 13 year old girls would be willing to shave their heads?! Fantastic skills though and I wonder if I would have realised if I hadn't read this site first. If you see her profile on IMDb it shows one other movie credit. Also, on the discussion Board for her profile someone has posted a link to the Wushu tournament in 2003 that she performed at. Interesting to see her at age 23, compared with this movie at age 13. A rugged clip of quite an aggressive form, flashing a shiny broadsword around and yelling frequently... not the most feminine style, but she has some serious skills.

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[–] BigRich 8 years ago

If you ever watched Eddie Murphy's The Golden Child (1986) the title character was supposed to be a boy, too, but was played by a girl. A simple answer could be that Asian children can appear somewhat ambiguous up until possibly puberty?

This is J.L. Reate playing the "boy" in the movie: http://alturl.com/a275f

And this is her now: http://alturl.com/2stov

http://36.media.tumblr.com/9291d57809ccb10f5606202e790114d4/tumblr_mzrjnc9Vg71t3zjgko1_500.jpg

_________
Every person that served can be called a veteran, but not every veteran can be called a Marine.

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