There is a special kind of people that make good movies shine and bad movies fun and they routinely get little or no appreciation from the movie viewing public – the henchmen. Long haired, muscular and more often than not foreign people whose sole reason for existence in the movie world is to look cool and die making the hero even cooler in the process.
This is a tribute to greatest that ever was, is and ever will be, the grand- master of all henchmen- Albert “Al” Leong aka Al ‘Ka Bong’. With his receding but long hair, killer Fu- Manchu mustache and deadly martial art skills he embodied (but ultimately outgrow) Asian henchmen stereotype and went head on and all out with the stars caliber of Kurt Russel, Mel Gibson, Jean Claude Van Damme, Brandon Lee and Bruce Willis and has been brutally killed by most of them.
Now I will let Al’s hand and feet do the talking…
During his storied career Al has broken all his ribs at least twice, cracked his sternum twice and broken his arms… none of that stopped him of course, ’cause he’s the freakin’ Al Leong. His popularity was so enormous that he even outgrew henchmen position and also stared in roles of dangerous Sensei figures and even had memorable and frankly quite brilliant performance in Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure playing Genghis Khan (it was also one of the few films Al doesn’t die in!)
His most impressive performance, when he was paired with the late great Brandon Lee who was good enough martial artist to keep up with him and make it incredibly engaging screen fight in the process and also because simply somebody finally let him do his stuff instead of opting to kill him too soon.
Henching ain’t easy!
Worsemovies 