King Hu

Hu Jinquan (胡金銓, 29 April 1932 – 14 January 1997), better known as King Hu, was a Chinese film director and actor based in Hong Kong and Taiwan. He is best known for directing various wuxia films in the 1960s and 1970s, which brought Hong Kong and Taiwanese cinema to new technical and artistic heights. His films Come Drink with Me (1966), Dragon Inn (1967), and A Touch of Zen (1970–1971) inaugurated a new generation of wuxia films in the late 1960s. Apart from being a film director, Hu was also a screenwriter and set designer.^[1]

Early life

Hu was born in Peiping to a well-established family originating from Handan, Hebei. His grandfather was the governor of Henan in the late Qing dynasty. His father had studied in Japan and was the owner of the local coal mine. His uncle was a high-ranking official in the Republican government. Several of his brothers held high positions in the Communist government. Hu grew up in Beijing as a child. He emigrated to Hong Kong in 1949, at first he wanted to study in the United States, but could not raise the money for tuition. He then worked for the local Voice of America in Hong Kong.^[2]

Career

After moving to Hong Kong, Hu worked in a variety of occupations, such as advertising consultant, artistic designer and producer for a number of media companies, as well as a part-time English tutor. In 1958, he joined the

Though critically hailed, Hu's later films were less commercially successful than his first two films. After his late comedy masterpiece All the King's Men, he moved to California in the early 1980s. Late in his life, he made a brief return from semi-retirement in The Swordsman (1990) and Painted Skin (1992), but neither achieved the renown of his first two, financially successful wuxia films. Hu spent the last decade of his life in Los Angeles. He died in Taipei of complications from angioplasty.^[4] At the time of his death, Hu was attached to direct The Battle of Ono, a project he had spent decades working on.^[5][6] He is buried in Whittier, California.

Filmography

• Sons of the Good Earth (大地兒女, 1965)
• Come Drink with Me (大醉俠, 1966)
• Dragon Inn (龍門客棧, 1967)
• Four Moods (喜怒哀樂, 1970, segment: "Anger")
• A Touch of Zen (俠女, 1971)
• The Fate of Lee Khan (迎春閣之風波, 1973)
• The Valiant Ones (忠烈圖, 1975)
• Raining in the Mountain (空山靈雨, 1979)
• Legend of the Mountain (山中傳奇, 1979)
• Zhong Shen Da Shi (The Juvenizer) (終身大事, 1981)
• Tian Guan Ci Fu (Heaven's Blessing) (天官赐福, 1981)
• The Wheel of Life (Part 1 short film segment) (大輪迴, 1983)
• All the King's Men (天下第一, 1983)
• The Swordsman (笑傲江湖 in part, 1990)
• Painted Skin (畫皮之陰陽法王, 1992)

Personal life

Hu loved Peking Opera and was a trustee of a Peking Opera institution. He promoted many young Peking Opera pupils into the film industry, such as Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung.^[7]

References