Moon Lee and Yukari Oshima: They brought the action

If you hear the names Moon Lee and Yukari Oshima, then you will probably know that when they come to fight, they bring us hard hitting action. It was the movie Angel(1986) that made people stand up and take notice with Moon, along with her co-star Yukari Oshima now on their way to becoming action stars.

Moon Lee
Other names: 李赛凤
Lee Choi Fong
Moon Lee

Birth date: 14/2/1965
Nationality: Hong Kong
Workplace: Hong Kong

Selected Filmography
1983: Zu: Warriors From The Magic Mountain
1985:The Protector
1985:Mr.Vampire
1986:Angel
1989:Princess Madam
1990:New Killers In Town
1992:Beauty Investigator
2008:Only The Way

BIO
From age 6 to 12, Moon lived in Kaohsiung, Taiwan for 6 years with her father, who had business there. She attended Youchang Elementary School. During her stay in Taiwan, she learned mandarin Chinese and developed her piano and dance expertise. As a result, she often had performances.

When she first returned to Hong Kong to attend middle school, her Cantonese was not perfect and she was sort of rustic. At age 15, Moon was accidentally discovered by a television director, Hsiao Hsianhui, during a school dancing performance. She was recommended to play a role in a television series 《Fatherland》. Since the play did not require too much of her time and she could still study at school, her parents agreed to let her play. In the series, she was a country girl, by the name of A Mun, who looked just like Moon. Ever since then, people liked to call her A Mun. Her performance in the series was so impressive that she began her career as an actress. Since she has been practicing dances from her childhood, it is easy for her to perform action movies with her agile and flexible movements. After her first martial art movie in ancient costumes《Zu Warriors from the magic Mountain》， she has not left the stage of action movies.

At 18, freshly graduated from middle school, she signed contracts with both Asian TV Station and Golden Harvest. Lee Choi Fung was sent to Japan to make an advertisement for Mitsubishi automobile company. The company asked her to pick an English name. She chose Moon, as the pronunciation of Mn in Cantonese is close to the English word, Moon.

She played in many television series, exceeding 400 episodes. Subsequently she focused her efforts wholly on movies, mostly action movies.

In the late 90s, she gradually left the movie field and was passionately involved in the promotion of the art of dance and established a dancing school to cultivate talented dancers. Her students won excellent awards in Hong Kong dance competitions.

Stunt accident
While performing the final stunt in Devil Hunters (1989), Moon sustained a third degree burn. Moon was supposed to jump off a window from a second story building to evade an explosion. Due to bad timing by the pyrotechnicians, she was engulfed in flames before she jumped down, resulting in severe burns to her hands and face. The epilogue of the film accounts the details about the accident, along with a message of commendation from the director for her courage and hardwork.

Yukari Oshima

Other names: 大岛由加利
Daai Do Yau Ga Lei
Cynthia Luster
Yukari Tsumura

Birth date: 31/12/1963
Nationality: Japan
Workplace: Hong Kong, Japan, Philippines

Selected Filmography
1986:Millionaire's Express
1986:Kung Fu Wonderchild
1986:Angel
1990:The Outlaw Brothers
1992:Mission Of Justice
1992:Beauty Investigator
1993:Avenging Quartet
2011:Legendary Amazons

Bio
Yukari Ōshima (大島由加里 Ōshima Yukari, Pinyin: Dàidǎo Yóujiālǐ, born December 31, 1963) is a Japanese actress and martial artist. Born Tsumura Yukari (津村ゆかり) in Nishi-ku, Fukuoka, Japan, to a successful Japanese businessman and fashion designer and to a Chinese woman. Yukari began studying Gōjū-ryū in junior high.

She was one of Japan's brightest female martial artists during the 1980s and one of the leading ladies of the babes and bullets fad of Hong Kong action cinema. She's known as the role “Farrah Cat” in Bioman, which aired not only in Japan originally but also worldwide. She is best known to Western audiences as Yomi in Riki-Oh. After her Hong Kong career dried up, she left for the Philippines in the 1990s and used the stage name Cynthia Luster.

The combination of martial arts and stunt skills were in evidence throughout Oshima's career. No other female action performer would equal her falls and capacity to take – as well as give – physical punishment. With changes in the industry, Oshima relocated to The Philippines where she appeared in work directed by Phillip Ko, before returning to make more films on the Mainland toward the end of the decade. At the peak of her physical condition Yukari was able to perform jumping split kicks at head height, forward and back flips, kip-ups, impressive combination kicks, as well as a split kick across her torso to either shoulder.

Her last noteworthy appearance was in the “It Takes a Thief” (1999), and although “Digital Warriors” was marketed under her name, her participation was canceled and the project emerged as “Techno Warriors” without her. She reportedly continues to appear in films produced in the Philippines. Fans seeking recent titles should also definitely locate “Vengeance is Mine” (1997).

Oshima resides in Fukuoka, Japan, where she's promoted tourism in the city. She is commonly known to Western audiences as the actress in the Marlboro Lite commercials (in the late 1990s). Her last role was in the Jackie Chan production of Legendary Amazons (2011).

Both these women were fantastic in there day, delivering high impact action, showing it's not only men who can bring great action to the screen.