Liu Kai Chi Battles Stomach Cancer
Award-winning Hong Kong actor Liu Kai Chi (廖啟智) is diagnosed with stomach cancer and is taking time off to recover and treat his illness. Currently hospitalized after receiving an emergency procedure, the 66-year-old is resting and remains positive that he will make a recovery.
His wife, Barbara Chan (陳敏兒), revealed that Liu Kai Chi was diagnosed last December. Since he did not have any work at the time, he went jogging every day but felt bloated during meals. A physical checkup revealed that he has stomach cancer. Asked about her husband’s condition, Chan Man Yee said that Liu Kai Chi is a very cooperative patient and has been eating all of his meals at the hospital.
The actor’s manager also came forth and thanked the public’s concern, “Liu Kai Chi has always loved his work and received immense support from everyone. However, with his current health conditions, he has decided to step back from work and will not be accepting anymore acting jobs. He is currently undergoing treatment, and has the company of his loving family to help care for him–everyone can rest assured. Liu Kai Chi has always been a low-key person, and is not someone who is very public about his personal affairs. We hope everyone will give him the respect and space, and allow him to quietly heal and recuperate. This will allow for his family to concentrate on taking care of him as well. Once again, thank you for everyone’s concern.”
This article is written by Su for JayneStars.com.
Liu Kai Chi and Barbara Chan Experienced Heartbreaking Death of Son
One of my favorite actors… Hope he recovers!
Nooo! One of my favourite veterans! I hope you fully recover soon!
Oh gosh nooo. I hope he recovers. Cancer really does suck
One of my all time favorite actors. Poor family, if recall correctly, his son died from cancer. I hope he gets better soon.
Liu Kai Chi has so many bad things happen to him. Why? 🙁
Agree with everyone else, we already lost Ngan to that horrible disease…Many prayers to Lui!!! He will recover.
hope he recovers.
Just got the news, he passed away. So sad RIP 🙁
@tt23 I’m shocked. Another actor, we grew up watching. Only in recent days that his wife was interviewed to be visiting him. Had the perception that he was recovering.RIP Great actor
@tt23 omg we never even saw him fulfill his potential. This is unjust! He had so much more life to give his roles….I’m really sad. First Ng Man Tat and now Liu Kai Chi.
@coralie
Understand. Lui Kai Chi is a terrific actor who wasted his prime from the early 90s-end2000s playing supporting and minor roles at TVB and sometimes just as comedy relief. This was after supporting or 2nd lead alongside the likes of the five tigers, Ray Lui and Chiw Yun Fat in the 80s. It wasn’t until he left TVB and moved into the movie scene for good that he became appreciated. It feels like he had a more lot to give like you said. Imagine his achievements if he had left TVB a decade earlier or 2 earlier….
@jimmyszeto I’m just glad he left tvb when he did. Tvb didn’t even value him until her won best supporting actor for the hkfa. Winter melon was his only main role and left after. After he was finally able to get big roles… It’s just so sad he hgot that big bang later on in life. His life has always been a tragedy. I hope he is at least reunited with his son now.
@abcd he* not her
@abcd
The Melon series was too little too late so he left.
@coralie
When watching Liu Kai Chi’s acting in Infernal Affairs II as the triad family uncle who didn’t say a word the whole movie apart from expressions and body language, and compare being put in that minor comedy relief role in A Taste of Love then it’s obvious that TVB has been a disgrace for wasting the talent of this fine actor for decades.
@jimmyszeto it is indeed disgraceful and tragic that such an acting talent had been wasted and buried in tvb’s factory for so long. i’m glad he was given an opportunity to showcase his skills before he passed away. i am ashamed to say i wasn’t aware how great he was either until he left tvb and his career soared. in that sense, i’m happy that he left a mark on everyone and proved/vindicated himself. hope he RIP knowing that he has distinguished himself as an acting maestro.
@coralie
You said it perfectly there. It would have been a tragedy if he didn’t get to show his skills and stayed at TVB to be treated like the average veteran till death. Liu Kai Chi is naturally talented. He was only in a few scenes in The Bund when he first started out after completing acting class but was brilliant. Got promoted to main villain for the sequel straight afterwards…
@tt23 Oh no… I was afraid the end was near but didn’t think he would die so soon after we were made aware of his diagnosis. I feel a part of my childhood is gone now.
@jimmyszeto I agree. He was so wasted. When he was acting with the Five Tigers, at least the roles were substantial and he always stood out even among them. But then they left and TVB had him in ridiculous bit and repetitive roles. He was disturbingly scary and awesome in that Irene Wan and Kenix Kwok Gentle Reflections series, even though it was limited in screen time.
So sad to see this news.
@potatochip
Liu Kai Chi crying scene in ‘The Intangible Truth’ when Roger brings Sheren’s ashes back to HK after she had been executed stands out. I can’t accept he’s gone because to me he is the young friend who shared a chicken leg in those wood houses with Ray Liu in ‘the Bund’ before turning villain in ‘the Bund II’ and taking out Patrick Tse in the pool table final black bomb scene. Still looked like a youngster back then. Afterwards playing 2nd lead as Michael Miu’s funny friend in ‘you only live twice’. From the 90’s on he was only given a few big roles such as in Justice Pao and Flying Fox of Snowy Mountains. Others have been few and far between with some memorable semi villain cameos in ‘Game of Deceit’ and ‘A Case of Misadventure’. Law Dis-Order on his comeback proved that he should have always been a lead actor….
@jimmyszeto He is so versatile. I need to rewatch and also find works of his that I haven’t seen yet. Loved “You only live twice”, so hysterical. Law Dis-Order was reminds me of how TVB treated Kara Hui, only appreciating an actor after they have been recognized outside. Too bad it was his only series that they promoted him, and the series had an unmemorable plot.
He could have been as great or greater than Wayne.
I was teary-eyed when I saw this news. I don’t recall another actor’s death having this significance for me.
@potatochip tvb also gave him a leading role right after he won best supporting actor. But he left tvb after that, he probably figured they would go back to treating him like trash. After he left tvb he had a leading role in a movie, and two leading roles in a TV series…. Of only he had left tvb earlier.
@abcd
Yeh. We need to thank HKTV for giving these talented veterans and also lower support actors lead opportunities. Although the station did not receive a licence, it showed the general audience what some of us already knew. There are some serious talent that have been ignored in TVB over the years in favour of idols and promoted leads. Storylines are tailored towards the promoted actors with barely any significant roles assigned to the veterans apart from playing mums and dads. The movie industry also played a part in displaying these strong actors such as Liu Kai Chi and Eddie Cheung. Maybe the HK are comfort TV watchers who don’t like to think which is why Come Home Love and Virtues of Harmony were such a success. If it not TVB’s fault then it’s the target audience which has wasted these great veterans….
@potatochip
The Grand Canal anniversary series was another big one for Liu Kai Chi. Huge cast for that series. It’s crazy they kind of left him and Jimmy Au behind from lead roles after that considering they were brilliant in that. It’s great to see Jimmy and Wong Yee Kam acting as a couple again after all these years.
Agree it’s been horribly sad period of time. COVID19 and the loss of many greats including Savio, Ng Man Tat, Liu Kai Chi. It is comparable to the SARS period when we lost the 3 superstar singers….
@jimmyszeto The Grand Canal was so great. I love re-watching it and catching actors in smaller roles becoming big like Bobby Au Yeung. Jimmy and Wong Kee Kam were my favorite couple, which series are they together now?
I only recently watched Twin of Brothers, because I was on a TVB hiatus when it came out, and was excited to see Jimmy reprise the same role. Unfortunately, they underused him and made the Hong character a useless cheerleader. Interesting to see Derek Kwok and Newton Wayne in the same time period since they were also in The Grand Canal.
I also liked Liu Kai Chi in Andy Lau’s “Heir to the Throne”, The Yang Saga, The Legend of the Book and Sword, and so many other series. Refreshing my memory with Wikipedia, I can’t believe that he won HK Best Supporting Actor in 1992, yet TVB still mistreats him after that. No wonder they are in such a downfall with dumb decisions like that.
@potatochip
The Grand Canal has one of the best casts of all time which was intentional for the anniversary series. Jimmy and Wong Yee Kam had the best chemistry since the chemistry between Tony Leung and Idy Chan was almost non-existent. Apart from every outstanding veterans there were also leads playing big roles in it, Felix, Sean, Margie, Hugo Ng etr. I only accidently saw a few days ago while my mum was watching, Jimmy and Wong Yee Kam playing husband and wife. Jimmy playing a dad which seems weird to me since I have always seen him in my mind as a dashing martial arts hero like in ‘The Grand Canal’.
Yang’s saga masterpiece will never ever be matched again. It was only back then they would put together almost every young lead and veteran in the whole station to work together to film an intense mini series.
@potatochip
Jimmy Au/ Wong Yee Kam in ‘The Runner’.
@jimmyszeto Ah, I wasn’t planning on watching The Runner because the storyline and leads weren’t really interesting, but might have to due to their reunification.
And yes, Iol, Idy and Tony didn’t really work well together. It’s superficial, but Tony’s beard really didn’t work either.
@potatochip
I won’t be watching ‘The Runner’ either. Tony didn’t have correct looks and build for the role but then and again he normally pulls it off anyway like in ‘New Heaven Sword Dragon Sabre’.