"Kung Fu Hustle" brought Stephen Chow and Jin Yong closer together

5 Nov – There have been a lot of negative rumours about Stephen Chow and his eccentricity, but here's a story of kindness - which was revealed following the death of celebrated wuxia novelist Louis Cha aka Jin Yong.

As reported on Epoch Times, the late novelist reportedly once expressed his admiration for Stephen, who decided to pay him a royalty for using the names of his novels' characters in his 2004 film, "Kung Fu Hustle".

Said Jin Yong, "A lot of people have done similar things before (in terms of using the characters' names), but no one ever thought to pay me anything."

The novelist reportedly tried to decline the payment, but was told by Stephen, "These works have a great influence. These characters are already a cultural symbol. It is copyrighted."

Thus, when the two of them carefully analysed the movie, they found six known terms and characters in the movie that were lifted from his books, including the drunk landlord and his chain-smoking wife (played by Yuen Wah and Yuen Qiu), which were later revealed to be Yang Guo and Little Dragon Girl from "The Return of the Condor Heroes".

Jin Yong then told Stephen that he will accept the payment of HKD 10,000 for every character, which he later donated to the tsunami victims of 2004.

(Photo Source: NewsMagazine.Asia)