Iron legs horse eyes, and the appetite of a deity—Helena Law Lan: A lifetime of labour in front of the camera

Law Lan’s seven-decade career exemplifies the experiences of female labour in the post-war Hong Kong screen industries. This article relies on oral histories and interviews as both empirical evidence and performance text given the inaccessibility of primary sources from the era (such as contracts and correspondence). As Law Lan is forthcoming in these interviews about wages, costs of services and working conditions in her work pre-1969, so her career provides a good case study to understand the economics of acting as a career for a woman of her generation (born 1934) by comparing her experiences as a Special Contract Player (特約演員 dakjeok jinjyun) to her experiences as a Contract Player (合約演員 haapjeok jinjyun). As a special contract player (circa 1950–69), her work was comparable to a modern-day freelancer. As a contract player with Lan Kwong Film Co. (from 1960–63), she took a substantial pay cut but reported a positive experience. These two modes of employment are antecedents to how workers are contracted today in project-based productions. The final part of this article compares her career with other women of her generation and considers the context of her success.