RIP Dean Shek Tin (1950-2021)

It was sad to hear that Dean Shek Tin has passed away. Like many others of his generation, especially in the film industry of China and Hong Kong, he represents a bygone era of hard graft in the studio stable, showcased by an insanely prolific career and the kind of resumé which makes you tired just reading it.

Originally from Tianjin, China, Shek moved with his family to Hong Kong at the age of 3, attended college, and later studied filmmaking and acting at Shaw Brothers Studio's actors training programme in 1968, where he would make a start as a contracted actor. Racking up a busy few years there, appearing in films such as The Singing Killer and The Fists of Vengeance, he left in 1973. In 1975 he made his directorial debut in The Monk, and would go to direct a few other features, mostly comedies.

However, the prolific Hong Kong comedian, actor and filmmaker is today best remembered from eccentric performances in classics such as The Iron Fisted Monk, Warriors Two, Snake in the Eagle's Shadow and Drunken Master. He was a friend and frequent collaborator of Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung and many other leading names. Of course, for fans of 1980’s “heroic bloodshed” cinema, he is equally well remembered from John Woo's A Better Tomorrow II starring Chow Yun Fat and Ti Lung, a VHS staple in the 1990’s, in which he gave an an evolving and surprisingly rich performance through the story.

While still acting, in 1979 he would go on to form his own Cinema City & Films Co with Karl Maka and Raymond Wong. The studio later produced much-loved movies from Tsui Hark, Ringo Lam, Johnnie To, John Woo and many more. They also made the popular Aces Go Places comedy franchise, the gritty Prison on Fire movies and one of my personal favourite, underrated gangster movies, Triads: The Inside Story from director Taylor Wong.

He booked his final acting role (before retiring) in the 1991 action movie The Raid, co-directed by Tsui Hark and Ching Siu-tung, not to be mistaken by the later Gareth Evans film. But, in fact, Shek made one last appearance playing a cameo, bringing him out of retirement, for his old friend Sammo Hung's My Beloved Bodyguard. He passed away from cancer in 2021 after a recent diagnosis.

His was a life well-lived and he left behind a significant cinematic legacy, as an actor who climbed the studio ranks, went independent, and appeared in true classics of kung fu cinema. Yet he also found perhaps his greatest personal success as a filmmaker and helped bring the visions of other filmmakers to the screen.