Ly Nguyen Ba: Wanted to replace Jackie Chan, was ungrateful to his benefactor, so he remains anonymous until now

Once expected to be Jackie Chan's successor, however, because he offended the director who supported him, until now, actor Ly Nguyen Ba is still just an anonymous name.

Successor to Jackie Chan

In 1982, the Hong Kong movie Ninja in the Dragon's Den with the participation of actor Ly Nguyen Ba (Conan Lee) resonated and achieved impressive box office results. In the Japanese market alone, the film earned 25 million USD. Total global revenue reached 100 million USD.

The success of the film helped Ly Nguyen Ba become famous overnight. At that time, not only did he have great kung fu, but his face and body were very similar to Jackie Chan. Therefore, he is hailed as the expected successor to Jackie Chan.

Ly Nguyen Ba was born in Hong Kong, China but grew up in New York, USA. He was trained in self-defense methods by his father from a young age, then discovered many types of martial arts from both China and the West, including: boxing, kung fu, Taekwondo and karate. He well applied the Northern Shaolin martial arts style and Wing Chun, thereby creating his own technique called Realistic Fist (roughly translated: realistic fist).

According to Hong Kong (China) media, while his career was skyrocketing, the actor born in 1959 wanted to go to Taiwan, China to develop independently. This caused him to have a conflict with Ninja in the Dragon's Den producer Ngo Tu Vien. In the end, their relationship ended unhappily. Ngo Tu Vien never invited Ly Nguyen Ba to act in a movie again.

In 1988, Ly Nguyen Ba finished filming his second movie, The Tiger Comes Out. However, contrary to initial expectations, his acting career in Hong Kong and Taiwan (China) gradually became gloomy.

In a conversation on Hong Kong (China) television in the second half of December, Ngo Tu Vien first shared about his disagreement with Ly Nguyen Ba about four decades ago. The famous director declared that Ly Nguyen Ba was an ungrateful person who, after gaining fame, immediately forgot the person who supported him.

"Actually, back then I was very ambitious. I wanted to train a second Jackie Chan - someone who could speak English. At a friend's party, that person brought him (Ley Nguyen Ba) to meet me because He grew up abroad. At that time, he was good at English. Even though he didn't have any skills, I thought I could train him. Therefore, I asked him if he was interested in acting. He We agreed so we started working together," he said about his relationship with Ly Nguyen Ba.

Ly Nguyen Ba signed a long-term contract with Ngo Tu Vien's company. The resounding success of Ninja in the Dragon's Den helped the producer strengthen his belief in creating a new legend for Hong Kong martial arts films.

Ungrateful people are "banned"

Ngo Tu Vien did not expect that becoming famous so quickly was actually a double-edged sword. Ly Nguyen Ba is sought after by many filmmakers with attractive salaries. The actor excitedly told his boss and expressed his desire to go to Taiwan (China) to film. However, Ngo Tu Vien now wanted to take advantage of the victory and prepare to arrange for Ly Nguyen Ba to star in the second film.

Although he was a bit hesitant, he tried to convince Ly Nguyen Ba: "I told him to rest assured, after filming the second movie, I will let him earn money from the third movie. According to the contract, I wasn't allowed to do that, but I still let him go. I reassured him and told him to calm down and finish filming the second movie."

Thinking everything was over, Ngo Tu Vien arranged for Ly Nguyen Ba to appear on TVB's Enjoy Yourself Tonight program, and also made an appointment to interview the actor. Not stopping there, he spent 80,000 yuan (more than 11,200 USD at current face value) to buy Ly Nguyen Ba a special billboard to increase recognition. However, all the efforts of the producer born in 1944 seemed to "go down the drain" with just one refusal from the person he wholeheartedly supported.

"At that time, I was extremely disappointed in that person. I did everything for him, why did he do that? I told him that his first movie salary was 200,000 yuan (more than 28,000 USD per day). today), the second movie's salary increased to 500,000 yuan (70,000 USD). You know what he said? He said he was worth 1 million yuan (140,000 USD). I promise if the new movie is successful, I will pay him that salary in part 3. He hesitated but was eventually persuaded to join the program," he said.

The story doesn't stop there. On the show, Ngo Tu Vien mentioned being scared in Taiwan (China) to the point of not being able to survive.

The producer offered 1 million yuan to invite Ly Nguyen Ba to cooperate, which was set in the underworld. When he heard Ly Nguyen Ba's response to Ngo Tu Vien not allowing the actor to act in another movie, this person hired a gangster to teach Mr. Ngo a lesson.

"That night, I still remember having to rush home to watch the World Cup because there was the final match. As soon as I stepped out of the hotel gate, 7-8 people rushed towards me.

After that, a friend helped me go to the police station to report the crime and then go to the hospital. After the examination, the doctor diagnosed me with a concussion and told me not to sleep at night and try to stay awake. In the middle of the night, I suddenly felt nauseous. I knew that if I vomited it could be life-threatening, I told myself to endure it. Finally, I overcame the most difficult period and returned from the brink of death. So, you say, what's wrong with me supporting an actor? That could almost never be the reason for death. After what happened, I no longer hire Ly Nguyen Ba to act in movies. The entire Hong Kong film industry also feels that this person should no longer be used," Ngo Tu Vien shared.

After being murdered by showbiz in Port Thom, Ly Nguyen Ba mainly participated in films in the US such as MacGyver, Armed Response, New York Cop, Aces Go Places V: The Terracotta Hit, First Strike, Lethal Weapon 4... but didn't leave much of an impression.

In the 1990s, he stopped acting due to his mother's poor health. In 2009, Ly Nguyen Ba appeared briefly in the famous American crime series Numb3rs. He also voiced several characters in the 2012 video game Sleeping Dogs.

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