Five Facts About Leng-Geh-Mng

《龍牙門》 or Leng-Geh-Mng is a Mandarin martial arts comedy written by Lee Shyh Jih and Lim Poh Poh. Set in ancient China, the play follows Yue-Liang-Hong, a palace cosmetics salesman on the run from the Imperial Court. He winds up at the Leng-Geh-Mng Inn where he meets an assortment of villainous characters. Leng-Geh-Mng was staged in 1998 by Drama Box, directed by Kok Heng Leun. The play also has the distinction of being Singapore’s first martial arts theatre production. On top of that, here are five other facts about this unique play and its 1998 premiere.

#1: Leng-Geh-Mng was inspired by the classic Chinese martial arts film Dragon Gate Inn.

Dragon Gate Inn is a martial arts film directed by King Hu. Set in the Ming dynasty, the Emperor’s chief eunuch Cao Shaoqin has executed his enemy, a noble minister, and sent his children into exile. On their way to the border, the children reach the Dragon Gate Inn. Unbeknownst to them, Cao has sent his men to murder them. However, three swordsmen, and the innkeeper, intervene to save the children.

Premiered in 1967, the film was a box-office success in Taiwan, Korea and the Philippines, and is credited with spawning an entire genre of martial arts films, even inspiring Hollywood smash-hits like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) and House of Flying Daggers (2004).

Besides loosely borrowing the title and setting from Dragon Gate Inn, Leng-Geh-Mng also spoofs the conventions of the Chinese martial arts film genre, which include gravity-defying fight choreography and a wailing Chinese instrumental soundtrack.

#2: Leng-Geh-Mng has no good guys.

Everyone in Leng-Geh-Mng, from the many supporting characters, to even the protagonist Yue-Liang-Hong, is a villain. There is no hero in the conventional sense. But in most stories, the audience expects the hero to win in the end. So what happens if the baddie wins? Director Kok explained their intentions for the absence of heroes in Leng-Geh-Mng:

We hope that this unusual plot will start the audience thinking about their own lives and to examine if such similar endings where the bad and not necessarily the good are rewarded, happen in their everyday life.

Thus, all the vices portrayed here must not be seen separately on their own but as means to an end … it is an amoral play about morality.Sex and violence? Yes, but it's R(A) or Really Artistic by Lee Shu Hui. In The Straits Times (10 November 1998).

In the programme notes*, Kok likened Leng-Geh-Mng to the late 19th-century French play Ubu Roi written by Alfred Jarry. Ubu Roi (meaning “King Ubu”), a parody of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, is also filled with villanous characters. The play was so wild and bizarre that it reportedly incited a riot among the audience at the end of the first performance.

Perhaps Kok had hoped Leng-Geh-Mng‘s anti-hero narrative would also stir its audience’s emotions, but maybe with less violent outcomes.

#3: Drama Box gave Leng-Geh-Mng an R(A) rating.

Although Leng-Geh-Mng and its 1998 staging did not contain any nudity or gore, Drama Box, on their own accord, decided to impose an R(A) rating on the production. This meant that anyone below the age of 21 was discouraged from attending the production.

According to playwright Lee, the creative team felt that “this play [was] more suitable for mature audiences”* because of the dubious morals of the play’s characters.

#4: The production cost a whopping $80,000.

Leng-Geh-Mng was Drama Box’s first outing as a professional theatre company, and they marked the occasion by staging an ambitious production which cost twice as much as typical theatre productions. And they had huge plans for Leng-Geh-Mng:

The $ 80,000 production took more than half a year to put together and involved a production crew and cast of more than 30 people.

To transport the audience back into the era, coloured flags and bamboo fire torches will line the sides of the road leading to the entrance of the Drama Centre.

The foyer will also be done up in the style of an ancient living room, complete with a 1.2-m antique oil lamp.

The audience can also expect a spectacular, adrenaline-pumping performance, with special visual effects. Actors will leap up a 2-m wooden plank, hang like a bat, upside-down, on a 7.6cm diameter rod, make a series of cart-wheel turns and jump and roll over tables.Sex and violence? Yes, but it's R(A) or Really Artistic by Lee Shu Hui. In The Straits Times (10 November 1998).

#5: The cast had to undergo five months of martial arts training.

Part of Drama Box’s ambitious plans for Leng-Geh-Mng was for the actors to be convincing martial artists onstage. They had to perform their own fight choreography and stunts. This meant hours upon hours of gruelling physical training months before the production.

[Kok Heng Leun] ensured that all nine actors bought their insurance policies and put them through rigorous wushu training under Mr Low Ee Chiang, a martial arts and gymnastics exponent, for five months or so.Former wushu star to act in a play by Chin Soo Fang. In The Straits Times (16 October 1998).

However, one member of the cast was exempted from all the martial arts training – Chiew Hui Yan, a former national wushu athlete who won two gold medals at the South East Asian games.