Rongguang Yu

Born on August 30, 1958 in Beijing, China, Yu Rongguang, also known as Ringo Yu, is a Chinese actor and martial artist who started his career in Hong Kong. He is an actor and director, known for The Karate Kid (2010), Iron Monkey (1993) and Shanghai Noon (2000). He is best known for the title role in Iron Monkey along with Donnie Yen as well as being featured in films such as The East Is Red, My Father Is a Hero, and Musa. He has Weihai ancestry and his parents are Yu Ming Kui. His children are Yu Zi Long. Yu Rong-Guang has worked with some of the best performers in the Hong Kong film industry. Action superstars like Michelle Yeoh and Jackie Chan are just a sample of the talented costars that populate Yu's filmography. Perhaps thoughts of movie stardom crossed Yu's mind as a youth in Mainland China, as he trained diligently in the Peking Opera School. As Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, and Yuen Biao had done before him, Yu parlayed his opera training into an impressive martial arts film career. Since his debut, Yu-Rong Guang has made several notable screen appearances. His most famous is perhaps the title role in Iron Monkey (1993), which saw Yu appear alongside popular action star Donnie Yen. Other noteworthy film appearances include Swordsman III: The East is Red (1993) with Brigitte Lin Ching-Hsia and My Father is a Hero (1995), in which Yu played a villain to Jet Li's heroic protagonist. Though many U.S. audiences might be unfamiliar with Yu's Hong Kong work, his small appearance in Shanghai Noon (2000) may ring some bells. The actor made his American debut in this popular Jackie Chan-Owen Wilson comedy as an Imperial guard who briefly duels with Jackie Chan near the film's climax. Yu's recent performance in the South Korean film Musa: The Warrior (2001) ranks among one of his best. In the sweeping epic, Yu plays a Mongol general battling a ragtag group of Korean soldiers in the hopes of capturing a haughty Ming princess (portrayed by current Chinese "It Girl" Zhang Ziyi). Based on the overall quality of the films he has associated himself with over the last decade and a half, it would not be a stretch to predict even more winning film performances from Yu Rong-Guang in the years to come. (Sanjuro 2003)