The Cheeky Chap Chinese poster

If ever there was a kung fu movie actor primed for success, it was Wai Bak, AKA Wei Pei. He started his career at Shaw Brothers, with a key supporting role in the cult classic ‘Five Venoms’. After the move to Golden Harvest, Wai Bak got cast alongside Jackie Chan in ‘The Young Master’ and Sammo Hung in ‘The Magnificent Butcher’. He was given a key role by rising director John Woo in ‘Last Hurrah for Chivalry’. Good looking, physically gifted and a decent actor, everyone might have expected Wai Bak to become an action superstar in his own right. When Golden Harvest cast as the lead in ‘The Cheeky Chap’, it seemed that Wai’s time had come…

‘The Cheeky Chap’ casts Wai Bak as a comedic kung fu fighting youngster. As was de rigeur for genre stars of this era, he wore a  sleeveless green tunic, he fought in the Heroes Woods of Yuen Long, he was doubled for the more acrobatic fight moves by Yuen Biao…

For some reason, it was not to be. Audiences didn’t accept Wai Bak as a new kung fu comedy star, and, after one more lead role, he retired from the industry. But ‘The Cheeky Chap’ was later rediscovered by genre fans worldwide, and seen as a lost classic worthy of being rediscovered.

Reel East is happy to make this rare theatrical poster available to serious Hong Kong movie memorabilia collectors.