1950's
The Golden Age of Television...LIVE!
During the 1950's Kim Chan did some live television. Most notable among the shows were the following: The Winter of the Dog (co-starred with John Florsythe and Martin Balsam)

1952
The Clock (co-starred with Alan Marshal and Robert Enhardt) 1951
Thanks to Kim and to Sepiatint for supplying me with a copy of Kim's resume, otherwise I never would have been able to find this out!

1957
Announcer
I orginally did not include this in the Movie Review Page because Kim did not actually appear in it, but way back in 1957, he was the voice of a radio announcer in Elia Kazan's A Face in the Crowd. So please do NOT make the mistake I did, of running out and buying a copy! It is OOP and can only be purchased used.

1970
Theater Cashier
The earliest movie I can find him in (not counting those WWII propaganda embarrassments) is The Owl and The Pussycat. He portrays a ticket-taker at a porno theater, and he has a couple of lines: "What, meester?" and, "Yes, yes, sluts." If you can find the movie to rent, please note the snaggle-toothed grin <G> This movie is now 30 years old, so here's your best chance to see a much younger, darker-haired (but already balding) Kim Chan. BUY IT NOW

1971-1981
Kim Chan: The Mostly Missing Years <G>
I have not been able to find any sign of the adorable little guy during this ten-year period, with the exception of 1973 and 1974, during which, I have been reliably informed, he managed a Chinese restaurant in Lewiston, Maine, where his innovation was to make steak the specialty of the house! (Thanks to Sepiatint for this information.) Still, he must have made a name for himself in acting somehow, somewhere, because even when he gets little nothing parts, his name is listed in the credits anyway. You'll see...

1982
Harold the Cook
After the inexplicable (at least, I can't explain it) absence mentioned above, Kim Chan appears in Soup for One, soaking his feet in a swimming pool, sipping champagne and ogling half-naked women. No speaking part, though: Life is hard, and then you become one with the harmony of the universe <G> BUY IT NOW

1983
Jonno
In King of Comedy, Kim Chan plays a butler working for a Jewish comedian (Jerry Lewis). Chan does a remarkably funny, very subtle imitation of the way his boss talks..."I'm having a heart attack already!" he complains, when uninvited guests talk their way into the house and he can't handle them. Since he has many scenes in which he actually gets to speak, you will see that he either got that snaggletooth straightened, or else he was fitted with dentures since 1970 <G> This movie is the big time, folks...Martin Scorsese directs and Robert DeNiro stars! It is a most disturbing movie, don't be fooled by the title. DeNiro plays a demented fan named Rupert Pupkin (who Chan refers to as Pumpkin) stalking Jerry Lewis' character. BUY IT NOW

1983
Japanese Buyer #2
Funny, he doesn't look Japanese, but at least in Over the Brooklyn Bridge Kim Chan gets another speaking part...such as it is. He has two words, but he gets to repeat them dozens of times! "Hai," he says (yes, in Japanese) and "Ie" (no, in Japanese) over and over. The deal is, he is one of two Suzuki salesmen who have been mistaken for underwear buyers by the owner of a corset company (Sid Caesar). Whenever Caesar's character asks them if they like the gorgeous models parading around in skimpy underwear they answer, "Hai! Hai!" but when asked how soon they can take delivery of the product, both men chorus, "Ie! Ie!" Otherwise the movie is rather a bomb: a Jewish man (Elliott Gould) is blackmailed by his family into dropping his Christian girlfriend (Margaux Hemingway) for a Jewish woman the family feels is more suitable (Carol Kane). He spinelessly goes along until the very end because he has just started a new restaurant and Caesar's character is bankrolling it. The movie is silly, dated and predictable but has a few funny moments. "Japanese Buyer #1," by the way, is Aki Aleong, the actor who later will play the first Kwai Chang in the KF:TLC episode, "The First Temple." Coincidence?!? I think not <G> BUY IT NOW

1984
Desk Clerk
He gets a couple of spoken words in Streetwalkin' -- "Enjoy," and "Room Three." I have a feeling his part might have been larger originally and that some of it was cut, which is a shame because he looks the best in this movie that I have ever seen him. Personally, I think the entire senseless movie should have been cut, but he should have still gotten paid even if they'd never made it <G> Unpleasant story of a sweet, innocent hooker with a heart of gold who upsets her murderous pimp. Sex, violence, and Kim Chan... BUY IT NOW

1984
LING (The Invisible Man)
If you can spot Kim Chan in The Cotton Club you're a better man than I am, Gunga Din! I can't find him at all. However, there's a scene where the main characters discuss going to a Chinese laundry to pick up their clean shirts and I'm guessing that there originally was a scene filmed in the laundry with him in it which ended up on the cutting room floor...but he is in the closing credits anyway! Will we have to wait for The Director's Cut to see his adorable face? <G> BUY IT NOW

1984
Chinese Customer
He speaks two words in Moscow on the Hudson (one in Chinese, one in English), but I guarantee you the movie wouldn't have been anywhere near as good without him. <G> This is the story of a Russian (acted extremely convincingly by Robin Williams) who defects right in the middle of Macy's in NYC, and the adjustments he has to make to live in a free country. The film moves from its beginnings in the Soviet Union, where Williams speaks only in Russian, to America. Excellent movie, and even though 1984 may sound like the dark ages to many of you, it is still worth checking out of your video store or catching it next time it comes on television, I promise! This movie gets the OPH seal of approval, 5 little bald heads 00000 <LOL> BUY IT NOW

1985
Park Bum
When she picks up and dons a very distinctive jacket, an unhappy housewife (Rosanna Arquette) is promptly mistaken for Susan (Madonna), a woman living an extremely unorthodox lifestyle who is being chased by just about everyone. This should probably be called "Desperately Seeking Kim Chan" instead of Desperately Seeking Susan! Not one of the park bums in the movie with a speaking part is Kim Chan, so...he has to be the balding guy sleeping on the park bench with newspapers covering his face. And for this -- for THIS -- he was in the credits! <G> Way to go, Kim Chan! BUY IT NOW

1985
Sam Wu
Even though "The Killer Within" was THE ONLY EPISODE BROADCAST TWICE in the final month that TNT was still showing Spenser: For Hire, I managed to miss it both times! *blush* So I don't have a clue about the plot or how big Chan's role was. Judging from his past track record, I'd have to guess maybe 3 lines heh heh but knowing my luck, he had the largest part of anyone in the episode except Robert Urich, who plays Spenser <G> Eventually I hope to find someone who has a copy (hint) and I will be able to revise this entry...

1985
Old Asian Man on Box
Foreshadowing their highly successful association in the 1990's, Michael Sloan picks Kim Chan for this Equalizer episode entitled "China Rain," in the pivotal role of an old Asian man sitting on a box in New York's Chinatown at night. Michael Sloan was so impressed by this performance that he used the exact same footage all over again a few seasons later in "White Elephant." Sloan was obviously so bowled over by Chan's box-sitting ability that he snapped him up to play The Ancient six years later when "Kung Fu: The Legend Continues" became a series! <G>

1986
Old Asian Man
As far as Kim Chan is concerned, call this "No Explanation" instead of No Mercy. Who is he supposed to be? What is he doing in the scene? Why does he throw such a dirty look in Richard Gere's direction? After all, he had no lines, was only on camera about 15 seconds, I assume he got paid (probably more than I make in a year) AND his name was listed in the credits...so I cannot imagine why he seemed so royally pissed off. <LOL> To understand why a carefully-planned sting operation went sour, a police detective needs the help of a beautiful blonde mystery woman. Kim Basinger co-stars. BUY IT NOW

1986
Chinatown Butcher
Maybe Kim Basinger felt sorry for fellow-Kim Chan having no lines in "No Mercy" and made it up to him in Nine and A Half Weeks? A fair amount of quality camera-time here and lots of lines, mostly in Cantonese. Absolutely wonderful Kim Chan role! A must-see!! All three minutes of it!!! <LOL> As to the rest of the movie, well, a woman falls under the influence of a sadistic lover and watches her life fall apart until she gets the courage to walk out on him. Mickey Rourke co-stars. Adult themes. BUY IT NOW

1986
Member of the Board
He doesn't look any more Japanese in Gung Ho than he did in "Over the Brooklyn Bridge"...and he has no speaking part, but he is on camera in close-up for a few seconds. (Then even some of that little bit is cut out by what they do when they format it for TV instead of letterboxing it *sigh*) He plays a member of the board of a huge Japanese auto maker which agrees to buy a failing automotive plant in a small town in America. Michael Keaton stars as the man who becomes his town's hero by convincing the automaker to buy and renovate their closed auto plant -- then watches his newly-won popularity plummet when the work ethic of Japanese management totally conflicts with that of the American workforce. BUY IT NOW

1986
Korean Flower Vendor
Considering the fact that he is Chinese and his part is absolutely minuscule, you'd think they could have referred to him as a "Chinese Flower Vendor" in the credits of Jumpin' Jack Flash, or even just as a plain old "Flower Vendor," but noooooo. Whoopie Goldberg stars as a woman who works in a bank's computer center, where she receives an encoded message from an unknown source. After decoding the message -- a plea for help -- she finds her life in danger from an espionage ring who wants her dead before she can figure out how to aid her mysterious contact. Don't blink while the opening credits are on; that's the only place you'll see Kim Chan! BUY IT NOW

1989
Japanese Waiter
You know, I am not totally clear what bothers Kim Chan about the idea of Caucasians playing Asians even though there are so many Asian actors around...I mean, he sure doesn't seem to have a problem accepting a role as a Korean flower vendor or a Japanese waiter even though he's not Korean or Japanese, and I know there are lots of Korean and Japanese actors around. The reason I'm going off on this tangent is because it's been so long since I've seen The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd that I don't remember a thing about this particular episode, "Here's an Unexpected Twist on the Old Biological Clock," and I'm trying to distract everyone from the fact that I don't have any idea what his part was like in it. <G>

1989
Chinese Store Owner
If he truly had Second Sight he might not have taken this part! Playing yet another vendor and getting a total of maybe six words (two of them -- "Ahhh, Goobers!" -- actually in English), at least this role really was meant for a Chinese person. Not that it matters! His part doesn't have much to do with the actual story, which is about a detective (played by John Laroquette) who uses a mystical psychic (Bronson Pinchot) to help solve his cases. Kim Chan is the owner of a store in Chinatown which happens to be open one night when the psychic has a clairvoyant fit and the only thing that will stop it is "Goobers" candy, which the store happens to have. BUY IT NOW

1989
Tailor
Not much to say about his part in Cookie. He speaks another six whole words and the camera zooms right in on the back of his head a couple of times! Peter Falk plays a mafia leader, just released from prison and attempting to get away from his wife, the feds and the mafia -- and still come out of it alive. During the course of the movie, his rebellious teenage daughter Cookie (Emily Lloyd) comes to terms with her jail bird father and even helps him disappear in the end. Interestingly, "Cookie" is one of the alternate titles for another movie Kim Chan was in, "Streetwalkin'," back in 1984. BUY IT NOW

1990
Li Ping
As we move into the 90's, Kim Chan starts to get larger speaking parts! In Thousand Pieces of Gold, more than half of his lines are in Chinese, but at least he gets lots to say! This is an excellent movie about a young Chinese woman sold into marriage by her father to enable him to buy food for the rest of his family during a time of famine in Northern China. Rather than becoming a bride, however, Lalu ends up in an Idaho gold-mining town, the property of a saloon owner who renames her China Polly and plans to sell her as entertainment for the locals. Refusing to become a whore, Lalu becomes a washer-woman and an inn keeper and anything else she can think of to save up enough money to return to China someday. This movie gets the OPH Chick-Flick Seal of Approval...highly recommended! 00000 BUY IT NOW

1990
Dr. Yang's Patient
I wish he'd gotten the part of Dr. Yang instead!! Oh well. A bit part in a Woody Allen movie...can you imagine the little old sweetie mellowed out on opium? Rent Alice and see it with your own eyes <G> If you aren't familiar with this movie, you're in for a surprise. Mia Farrow plays an unhappy housewife who turns to a Chinese doctor to help her with some psychosomatic health problems and ends up getting way more than she bargained for. Dr. Yang's magical herbs give Alice wondrous powers, and changes her life forever. BUY IT NOW

1990
Dim Sum Cook
Moving up in the world! In Cadillac Man, Kim Chan gets entire scenes with many lines in English! He does a great comic turn playing the owner of a dim sum restaurant which the police use as their command center after everyone in the car dealership directly across the street is taken hostage by a man threatening to kill everybody there if he can't get his demands met. Tim Robbins, Robin Williams. BUY IT NOW

1990
Jury Member
Don't blink or you'll miss it! In "Indifference," a first-season episode of Law & Order, Kim Chan sits on the jury panel looking serious. As well he might: this is the L&O version of the true-life Joel Steinberg case. Steinberg, an unlicensed New York lawyer who had illegally adopted a child named Lisa and then beat her to death, was convicted of manslaughter in the killing. Prosecutors dropped charges against his live-in lover, Hedda Nussbaum, after it was deemed that she had been too physically and psychologically damaged to be responsible for Lisa's death. Depressingly, Steinberg became eligible for parole only 8 years after his sentencing. However, as of this writing (2001) he is still incarcerated.

1991
Restaurant Manager
This second-season episode of Law & Order is called "Heaven." Five words in English..."Do you have a warrant?" and then he bursts into Chinese...unfortunately not subtitled, but from the situation, it's not hard to guess what he's saying. This is the L&O version of the real-life case of the March 25, 1990 fire at the Happy Land Social Club in the Bronx that took 87 lives when it burned down while filled to bursting with human beings who couldn't get out due to no fire alarms or sprinklers, and not enough exits. In this version, Detectives Lenny Briscoe and Mike Logan have laboriously traced a possible suspect to his job at a Chinese restaurant, but the restaurant manager (Chan) cries out a warning to his employee.

1991
Master Kwan
American Shaolin is not available for sale anymore, but please see 1993's "American Shaolin: King of the Kickboxers II" for comments (when I get around to 1993 <LOL>).

1992-1996
Lo Si (The Ancient)/Ping Hai/Ancient Apothecary
On this show, you cannot get away from the adorable sweetie. His three roles in Kung Fu: The Legend Continues almost make up for all the times he has been listed in movie credits but could barely be found in the movie. And when you see how much other work he did during this time, it is completely understandable why he wasn't in over a third of the eps. Which also probably explains why the show folded after only four seasons. <G>

1993
Fuji
Who's the Man? is, at least in my opinion, not very well-directed, so no matter how hard everyone in it TRIES to be funny, a lot of the humor falls flat. But Kim, as the extremely eccentric forensic expert Fuji, gets some good lines and lots of odd things to do. The movie, which is billed as "The First Hip-Hop Mystery," stars rappers Dr. Dre and Ed Lover as two goof-up hair stylists who join the police force, and end up discovering oil in the Bronx while looking for the murderer of their kindly mentor. Okay, maybe you just have to see it, heh. It's really not bad! (Note: Kim Chan doesn't look any more Japanese in the 90's than he did in the 80's. <G>)

1993
Master Kwan
In American Shaolin: King of the Kickboxers II, Kim Chan plays the adorable but slightly nefarious Master Kwan, who has been running a kung fu studio, pretending to be a Shaolin master! *gasp* When his best student cannot win in a tournament, he confesses his lies and tells the boy he has no more to teach him. Said student goes off to China about 10 minutes into the movie, and that's the end of Kim's part!! Thumbnail description of movie: swingin' American youth goes to the Shaolin Temple and shows those stuffy Chinese how to really LIVE. 'Nuff said 'bout that <LOL> To the best of my knowledge, "American Shaolin" and "American Shaolin: King of the Kickboxers II" are, confusingly, both the same movie. If I understand this correctly, the company which made "American Shaolin" went belly up and never distributed the movie. Later on many of their movies were bought and released by another production company. If anyone knows more about this, please contact me!

1994
Son (Old Man)
Vanishing Son II is a made-for-TV movie. The "Vanishing Son" series of movies has not been released on tape as far as I can tell, but they do get re-run on TNT now and then, so keep your eyes peeled. Kim Chan plays Mr. Son, a Vietnamese fisherman -- he is NOT the vanishing son to whom the title refers <G>

1994
Son (Old Man)
In Vanishing Son IV Kim's part from "Vanishing Son II" is shown in flashbacks only, it's not a new part -- but, you guessed it, he still gets his name in the credits anyway. All right!! Anyway, this third sequel to "Vanishing Son" also serves as a pilot for the TV series by featuring flashbacks from the first three films. After this movie, the storyline was turned into a weekly TV show (Canadian) about a young Chinese man being chased all over the country by the law and I really wonder where they came up with this plot device! <G> All four of the movies and the short-lived (13 episode) TV show starred Russell Wong, who played a really, really bad guy in "Romeo Must Die," thus getting to fight JET LI!!! who was in "Lethal Weapon IV." But I digress...back to Kim Chan now!!

1996
Meditation Teacher
With only 29 shopping days left until Christmas, David and Kathy have broken up because David can't bring himself to commit to her. When she finds out that he's applied for a job in Ho Chi Minh City, she asks for Breathing Room until Christmas, and the film is the story of how each copes without the other during the month. In David's case, he takes a meditation class! The very small part of the meditation teacher looks to me like it might have been written with a Tibetan in mind, but Kim Chan got it anyway!

1997
Chinese Waiter
In Howard Stern's Private Parts Kim Chan plays a waiter who chides Stern for making anti-Chinese comments. The movie is the story of Stern's rise to immense popularity from a radio station at his college to a Detroit station, to Washington and finally on to the NBC radio network in the Big Apple. Even if you don't like Howard Stern, you may well like this movie very much. It's a blast, and after all, Kim Chan is in it, too! BUY IT NOW

1997
Thai
Although he is listed in the credits of The Fifth Element as "Thai," in the movie he is addressed as Mr. Kim and apparently is a Thai cook. This is the character in the flying boat who arrives at Korben Dallas's (Bruce Willis) high-rise window with his lunch. Mr. Kim bets the lunch that a message just coming in for Dallas is good news, then loses the bet when the message turns out to be that Dallas has been fired. BUY IT NOW

1997
Second Chinese General
I know the Chinese revere the aged, but this is a bit much. A ninety-year-old general? I don't think so. In Kundun his clothes seem to be cut to make him look especially bony, old and weak. He plays the general who tells the Dalai Lama the story of coming across some people who are eating a baby to help explain why Communism is the best way. Kim is, as always, excellent. BUY IT NOW

1997
Chinese Man
Filming a movie on location in NYC? Need a totally adorable old Chinese man with an overbite for local color? I suppose they could have hired anyone for this part in The Devil's Advocate," but I'm glad they didn't. A chicken that plays tic-tac-toe? Well, you just have to see it. The movie, I mean, not the chicken -- the chicken never appears anyway. It's just that Al Pacino's character asks Kim's character something in Chinese, to which Kim replies, "Tic-tac-toe" with a big grin on his face. BUY IT NOW

1998
Uncle Benny Chan
Okay, so it's common knowledge that Lethal Weapon IV was thrown together and rushed out at the last second in order to get a release date in time for the 1998 summer blockbusters. Still, with all the Chinese names in the world, couldn't they even have come up with a different last name for the part other than the actor's own? Hong, Wong, Wu, Ho, Hu, Chow, Chu, Chen and Chin and all come to mind without even trying, right?!
This is the first time I've seen Kim portray a Real Bad Guy. And, his character was strangled to death by Jet Li -- what an honor! I can't stand to watch that particular scene and he doesn't have any speaking part in it anyway (except a groan). Also, there's the scene when Riggs (Mel Gibbs) lifts the sheet from Benny's dead body and says, "And I was actually starting like the old goat..." They made Kim up kind of bluish for that corpse scene, it's really creepy. My favorite Kim Chan line in the movie is when, under the influence of nitrous oxide, Benny suddenly blurts out, "I'm sleeping with my wife's two sisters!!" Yes, he's even adorable as a bad guy. And several movie reviewers commented that he stole that scene away from Mel Gibson, Danny Glover and Chris Rock. But of course! BUY IT NOW

1998
Yang Chen
Kim plays a character quite similar to the enigmatic Ancient in Nathan Grimm. Also, this award-winning short feature is very much like an episode of "Kung Fu: The Legend Continues" -- only it's really good. It was made on a shoestring by a 24-year-old right out of college, which really, really manages to put KF:TLC to shame.
I feel very privileged to have seen this movie because mostly it's shown only as part of film festivals. To the best of my knowledge it hasn't been on TV yet, either.
It's set deep in Chinatown in the 1940s, where someone is killing all the members of Chinatown's most powerful family in the same horrible way. The uptown cops are baffled.The lead investigator on the case is a soldier-turned-detective named Lt. Nathan Grimm. As he follows the clues to the store run by Yang Chen, he is warned of a phenomenon he "cannot possibly comprehend" -- the Curse of Shao Fang
AWARDED: Hollywood Best Young Filmmaker
NOMINATED: Hollywood Film Award Best Short

1998
Maitre'D
Mad About You final season opener, but I assure you his appearance on this episode had nothing to do with the show going off the air. Kim plays the maitre'd of a Chinese restaurant that Paul enters, looking for Jamie. The problem is that Paul has taken Viagra and now has a certain obvious physical problem for which the maitre'd kicks him out of the restaurant, proclaiming it to be a family place.

1999
Uncle Benny Wong
Again with the Uncle Benny. Well, at least in The Corruptor he was granted a different last name. He played another bad guy who dies. But this time, he gets to blow his own brains out right on camera! One of the times I saw the movie, the audience gasped "ohhhh" when he shot himself. Okay, maybe they were KF:TLC fans, but it's obvious that even as a bad guy, he's still an adorable little sweetie who appeals to the audience no matter what! The Corruptor is probably my favorite Kim Chan movie. BUY IT NOW