English Name: Dick Wei
Cantonese Name: Dik Wai
Mandarin Name: Ti2 Wei1
Little is known of Ti Wei's background. We know he is Taiwanese, His place of birth is listed, on the Encyclopedia of Asian stars page, as the town of Pingdong in southern Taiwan. According to John Brennan, in an article for 'The Best of Eastern Heroes', he was in the Taiwanese army, attaining the rank of captain and was an instructor of unarmed combat - specifically Tae Kwan Do. The Japanese Dick Wei site states that he took up martial arts in Junior High School and won numerous competitions... which would explain how he was good enough to be an instructor during what was probably National Service.
Even during his army days he did some film work, mainly in low budget Taiwanese productions but the earliest movie I have spotted him in is The Shaw Brother's 'Iron Chain Assassin', a Ti Lung film from 1974. He is only in it briefly but has a quality fight with Ti Lung. I do scrutinize the background 'hench' in any film made in Taiwan in the late 60s and early 70s but I haven't seen many and I haven't spotted him so far.
He had a martial arts studio in Taipei where he was spotted by Chang Cheh, who persuaded him to have a screen test which was shown to Sir Run Run Shaw. He later signed with Shaw Brothers and in 1977 he moved to Hong Kong. Here he made several films under the name Tu Lung. These included, 'The FiveVenoms', 'Kid With a Tattoo' and 'Kid with the Golden Arm' among them.
From Shaw Brothers he moved to Golden Harvest where he joined Sammo Hung's team of actor/stuntmen along with such notables as Yuen Wah, Lam Ching-Ying,Chong Fat and Meng Hoi. He played many wonderful characters like Lo San Pao (the colourful pirate king in 'Project A'), Bandit number 6 (the one with the red scarf)in 'Shanghai Express', one of Frankie Chan's henchmen in 'Prodigal Son' and the fabulously petulant King in 'The Champions'.
The 'Fortunes' evidently rate him highly. Sammo used him to help train Joyce Godenzi (the future Mrs Hung) for the movie 'Eastern Condors' . The end fight sequence in that film includes a carefully choreographed fight between him and Joyce Godenzi where he manages to make her look quite accomplished, despite her inexperience. In 'Project A' Dick Wei has a fight where he takes on Sammo, Jackie Chan and Yuen Biao (and, at times, Mars) all together - a fairly daunting prospect, I would think. He was also hurt during this fight, when Sammo takes a flying leap at him. He has some good fights with Jackie Chan in 'My Lucky Stars', 'Twinkle, Twinkle...', 'First Mission' and 'Dragons Forever'. However my personal favourite to date is the fight against Yuen Biao in 'Shanghai Express'.
Dick Wei works well with Biao. Careful watching of the balcony fight in 'Shanghai Express' makes you realise that the timing and trust between these two men must be very good indeed. The speed and complexity could easily have left one or other of them very badly injured had anything gone wrong. He also co-starred in two Yuen Biao projects - 'The Champions' and 'Rosa'.
Dick Wei, was not everyone's favourite, though ... he is, after all a champion martial artist and has a reputation to protect, it seems you didn't try to best him at his own game (see Mike Leeder's comments in the interviews section) - not with impunity. He could also be a tough opponent, reputed to have once broken Cynthia Rothrock's jaw and in 'Mismatchable Couples' throws Donny Yen out of a boxing ring with, what looks to be, disasterous consequences. (Could this be where Donny sustained his terrible shoulder injury?) However, these things are bound to happen occasionally when filming fast and furious fights. He was trusted with the training of some of the up and coming people in the eighties - as well as Joyce Godenzi (see above) he was also involved in Michelle Yeoh's training when she first began to make martial arts movies. A fact she was very keen to point out in a tv interview, correcting the interviewer who had failed to mention his name in that context.
He moved on to play a variety of honourable villains and driven cops in films starring such people as Cynthia Rothrock, Cynthia Khan and Yokari Oshima. He has worked with Chow Yun Fat, Chow Sing Chi, Ti Lung, Simon Yam, Jackie Cheung and was action director and co-star on one of Jet Li's earlier films, 'Dragon Fight'. In'City Warriors' he plays the hero and is utterly charming in it - definitely one for the fans.
More recently - sometime before Handover - he has moved back home to Taiwan where he has turned his hand to directing and producing. He seems to be working in Taiwanese television and has starred in a number of movies - including some made-for-television. Some good, some bad. The quality of the lighting and sound on some of my tapes is appalling - but this could be the copy rather than the original film quality. Last news I heard was that he was rumoured to be involved in a 'Magnificent Seven' type project along with such veterans as Leung Kar Yan. And the Asian Film Bulletin mentioned a film called 'Guard Soldier', starring Ti Wei, which had a cinema release in Taibei earlier this year.
Dick Wei is more than just a good fighter and stuntman. He has screen presence and is an accomplished actor. We know from the films that he can swim, ride a horse, dance, ride a motor bike, drive a car, fall into Hong Kong harbour - we've seen him. He is a martial artist rather than an acrobat but he still manages to pull off some pretty acrobatic stunts - his dive from a third storey window sill in 'Pom Pom' is a case in point. His timing is superb and he works well with inexperienced martial artists - managing to make actors with little martial arts skill look good.
He has that classic body shape - broad in the shoulders and slim at the hips - that looks good in most things. In fact he dresses well in most of his films, favouring plain colours and formal western and eastern suits. His high cheekbones give him the kind of face which will keep on getting better as he gets older. I would say, from the way he seems to have built up muscle as he's got older, that he probably weight trains in addition to his kung fu regime. He also sports an armband type tattoo on his right bicep, it is clearly visible in several films made years apart and in others pains have been taken to hide it. When he had this done and what significance it is (more likely to be an army thing than anything else) I don't know - it's certainly lurking under the Lo San Pao makeup in Project A (1983) and is clearly visible in 'Twinkle, Twinkle..." Though you get the clearest view in 'Mismatched Couples'.
He is probably in his late forties now - given that he was an officer in the army before he started his career 20 years ago. The Japanese site claims that the 'Hu Star Encyclopaedia of 1983' says he is 30 - which would fit. On the one interview I have seen (a transcription of which appears on these pages ) he appears modest and shy. He is relatively tall - he looks to be of similar height to Jackie Chan (about 5'9'') and Ti Lung (5'10''). Unfortunately we know very little more about him.
(Thanks for much of the above to the Eastern Heroes Magazine, Rick Baker and Kari. Addition info gleaned from 'Impact', AFL Marie, Black Tauna, the author of the Japanese site - Megumi - (see the links page) and all of you who have e-mailed comments and feed back. If anyone else knows more about his background, education, what he is doing these days, where I can get in touch with him, his birthday or anything else - please let me know so I can update this page.)
MJS September 2001
(copyright- All the information on this page has been gleaned from various sources - I have tried to attribute where possible and expect anyone who copies from these pages to observe the same courtesy. mjsatropos 2001)