Influence Magazine #13 (April 1976),
translated by Michael Min-Chi Wong
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From Influence Magazine (Taipei, Taiwan) #13 (April 1976), pp. 17-20:
<17>
Chang Cheh's Directorial Journey
by Wong Yan
<18>
In the world of the Chinese movie-making industry, Chang Cheh is
probably the most often-criticized director, including among his
detractors the left wing -- who attacks him intentionally -- the other
directors who make up stories about him out of jealousy and pettiness,
and even the media -- that alternately makes unreasonable, justified,
objective, and conservative criticisms -- but Chang Cheh delivered
Chinese movies from genius scholars and beautiful girls -- heavily bent
on a females and females-crossdressing-as-males sort of soft feminine
cinema -- to male-centric, macho type hard guy movies, which is an
accomplishment that can't be ignored. Moreover these Chinese movies
brought us Wang Yu, David Chiang, Ti Lung, Chan Kwun Tai [Chen Kuan Tai],
Lo Leet [Lo Lieh], Fu Sheng, etc., who are male actors that are widely
popular all over the world. This contribution is incomparable.
BELONGING AMONG THE WORLD'S FAMOUS DIRECTORS
Although Chang Cheh didn't get recognized at the famous Cannes Film
Festival in Europe like King Hu did, he was awarded Best Director at the
International Asian movie festival, and he was also listed in the Who's
Who in the world's movie directors category in England and Japan. As a
representative Chinese director, his films were praised by British,
French, and Japanese film critics, so it can be said that he is as famous
as King Hu among the world's international cinemas.
Numerous articles have been written discussing Chang Cheh's
accomplishments in many magazines and newspapers, but how did Chang Cheh
succeed? What types of trials and tribulations did he overcome? These
are things that nobody else mentioned. The author of this article has
been acquainted with Chang Cheh for many years. From memory, summarizing
his experiences working as a director, or should I say his long arduous
learning experience, maybe this will be of some research value for fans
of Chang Cheh.
VICTORY AND REUNIFICATION OF THE COUNTRY AND FIRST JOINING THE MOVIE
BUSINESS
Chang Cheh's real name is Chang Yi Yang. He is originally from Jit
Kong, Ching Teen city, born on February 10th, '12 of Republic of China.
His father's name is Chang Au, middle-named Bing Larn. Chang Cheh was a
soldier and also in politics. During the war against Japan (WWII), he
followed his fellow refugee students to the inland area. He attended
Middle School in Szechuan, and later joined the social task force under
the Department of Education as a Captain. After this, he joined the
cultural work organization under Cheung Do Farn and Yu Kwun Tse as a
special member. Chang Cheh's accomplishments in the movies are deeply
influenced by these two senior-ranking officers who acted as both friends
and teachers to him. After the victory and the reunification of the
country, he followed Cheung Do Farn back to Shanghai. They took over the
theaters and cultural department that had been under Japanese control,
and became their business managers; besides showing movies, he also often
performed modern drama and classical "ping" drama. Because Cheung Do
Farn was the honorary director of the Cathay [aka Kwok Tai] movie
company, all of the movies shown in the cultural organization were
products of the Cathay movie studio and the Tai Tung movie studio.
Because of this, Chang Cheh became very well-acquainted with the actual
owners of the Cathay and Tai Tung film studios, the Lau Chung Ho and Lau
Chung Leung brothers. He soon became a part-time planner for the Lau
brothers.
Looking at it this way, Chang Cheh's involvement with the movie
business started even earlier than that of King Hu and Lee Horn Cheung.
The person who influenced him the most at that time was the director of
"Springtime of a Small Town," Fai Mu, who was the best director in China
in the 40's [in American years]. Chang Cheh had the utmost respect for
him, and he also benefitted a lot from his associations with him. Chang
Cheh's knowledge of the classical "ping" drama also had it's roots in
this period.
THE FIRST SCRIPT, "GIRL BEHIND A MASK"
In the 36th year of the Republic of China, Chang Cheh wrote a script
for the Cathay film company called "Girl Behind a Mask," which was
directed by Fong Pui Lum and starred Koo Lan Kwun, Yim Far. Parts of the
movie were shot in the vicinity of Tai Pei and Tam Sui. It was the first
Mandarin movie that featured exterior scenes in Taiwan. All the interior
scenes were done back in the Cathay film studio at Shanghai and it was
shown on screens right after it was finished. It created quite a stir
when it premiered both in Shanghai and Taiwan. One of its songs,
"Strange Love," has been popular for over twenty years. The success of
that movie made a lot of film companies in Shanghai eager to make movies
over here in Taiwan. Chang Cheh's actual involvement in film production
started with "Girl Behind a Mask." Naturally, he was doing this in an
amatuerish manner. The main male character of the movie, Yim Far, was
David Chiang's father, so one could say that David Chiang and Chang Cheh
are old family acquaintances.
MAKING "THE INCIDENT AT AH LI SHAN" AT TAIWAN
"The Incident at Ah Li Shan" (also known as "The Story of Ng Fung")
was Chang Cheh's second script. He co-directed the movie with Chang
Ying. (Chang Ying was already officially a movie director at the Cathay
film company, having previously directed "Traces of Her in the Abandoned
Garden.") It was Chang Cheh's directorial debut. He was still
twenty-six then, and he relied solely on his experience watching movies
and drama -- which make his accomplishments all the more impressive. The
movie was financed by the head of the Cathay movie company, who was the
famous director from the 40's, Tsui Yun Fu. If Chang Cheh didn't have
the talent and ability to perform, an experienced movie maker like Tsui
Yun Fu would not have entrusted him to do the job.
Tsui Yun Fu originally planned to start a new movie industry in
Taiwan. On the one hand, he would run the business of the Cathay movie
company in Taiwan. On the other hand, he'd organize the filming of "The
Incident at Ah Li Shan" by the Man Jeung movie company. The outdoor
scene team was led by Chang Cheh and arrived at Taiwan in the winter of
the 37th year of the Republic of China, but filming didn't commence till
June in the 38th year of the Republic of China. The film's many actors
included Lee Ying, Ng Ging Ming, Lee Gwor, Lam Teen Hung, Chang Sui,
Tsang Wun (the former wife of Chang Ying), Chang Si Si (the former wife
of Lam Teen Hung), Chiu Ming, Chow Lam Ping, Pang Sai Wai, Tsui Wing,
etc. Most of them were actors employed by Cathay. When they arrived in
Taiwan, Shanghai was lost to the communists. Most of the filming
equipment did not make it out of the city on time. This almost brought
filming to a complete halt. Also, the outdoor scenes took up two-thirds
of the movie. The actual "Ah Li Shan" had trees that are too tall, and
the hill was too steep, making lighting a big problem -- the result of
cameras back in those days being quite poor. Finally, the large song and
dance scenes required a lot of temporary actors [extras], and they are
simply not available in Ah Li Shan. Because of this, the project was put
on hold for more than half a year before finally recommencing in Fa Lian.
That was the first Mandarin film made in Taiwan, and it was well-received
by critics when finally released. Chang Cheh got to meet with president
Chang Kai Shek personally because of this.
Because of the situation in mainland China, Mandarin movies lost the
mainland market, and movie making was made even more difficult due to the
shortage of equipment. Chang Cheh lived in Tsui Yun Fu's house for two
years, and he finally wrote another script: "We Will Never be Apart." It
was made by the previous <19> incarnation of the Chinese movie studio,
the Lung Kow movie company. Tsui Yun Fu was the director, and filming
commenced on July of the 40th year of the Republic of China.
JOINING WORK FOR ANTI-COMMUNIST FILMMAKING
Chang Cheh and other members of the movie industry were forced to
work on plays because of the lack of actual movies being made. On April
29th of the 39th year of the Republic of China, the Chinese movie and
drama society was inaugurated. Under the call of the president to aid
the starving citizens in mainland China, they performed "Pictures of
Starving Citizens," and Chang Cheh was the director. On November 1st of
the same year [1950 in American years], the specialist magazine, "Movie
and Drama Battlelines" began publication. Chang Cheh was its founder,
and the contributing authors were all first-class writers. Eventually,
he worked for the chief political department, and he worked as the Chief
of Staff at the anti-communist/anti-Russia drama association founded by
Woo Wai Huck. He directed several big productions such as "Au Chin's
Reclaiming His Kingdom" and "Genghis Khan," which were all very well
received. He also acted as vice chairman of the Chinese experimental
drama group of the Department of Education, and lecturer in drama at the
school for political officials. The current professor of drama was a
student of his, back in those days. Those were the glory days of Taiwan
drama back then. Although there are other factors, Chang Cheh was the
main reason for the "Golden Age" of Taiwanese drama on the stage.
MEETING LEE MEI AND GOING TO HONG KONG TO MAKE MOVIES
At around the 45th year of the Republic of China, the freelance
movie workers in Hong Kong formed a group to visit Taiwan for the first
time. Tsui Yun Fu's old friend, Fung Ming Yuen, the owner of Hong Kong's
Wah Ming company, was one of those people. He invited Tsui Yun Fu to
direct a movie for him. The main actress was Lee Mei. Tsui Yun Fu
recommended Chang Cheh to write the script. Originally titled "Love at
the Sun and Moon Lake," the name was changed to "The Heart of a lover,
the Heart of a Wolf." It's a detective story. During the course of
filming the movie, Change Cheh often joined in with the crew at work on
location. The main actress, Lee Mei, admired Chang Cheh's talents and
genius, so she personally financed, out of her own pocket, the movie
"Wildfire" which was to be made by her own production company, the North
Star company. Not only was Chang Cheh hired to write the script, he was
also invited to go to Hong Kong to direct the movie. Chang Cheh arrived
in Hong Kong in mid-November of the 46th year of the Republic of China.
Originally, the movie was scheduled to start shooting at the end of
November, but Lee Mei suddenly had to attend the "Hing Heen" Expo
convention in Bangkok. When she finally returned from Bangkok, due to
contractual obligations with the International film company, she had to
act in International's new film, "Winning Both the Money and the Beauty."
So after one delay after another, the filming finally commenced in Wing
Wah studios after more than half a year. Lee Mei's original plan was to
invite Wong Kok from Taiwan as the main male actor, but due to the delay,
Wong Kok had to make "Long Road to Victory" in Italy and didn't have time
to come to Hong Kong, so they used Ko Yuen of the Sun Wah film company,
instead. That also affected the making of the movie. "Wildfire" was
about a woman who, due to physical and environmental influences, hated
all males [because of her upbringing and past experiences, hated men].
This type of personality is very suitable to Lee Mei's style of
performance, and she was very popular, due to her role in "Spring is
Gone," so theoretically her own production of "Wildfire" should also have
been a hit, but the film did extremely poorly at the box office, and it
didn't get screened in certain regions. The brief affair between Chang
Cheh and Lee Mei also ended because of this.
STRANDED IN HONG KONG, WRITING FOR A LIVING
Because of his failure at the movies, Chang Cheh felt ashamed to
return to Taiwan to face his family and friends, so he preferred to stay
in Hong Kong and make his living as a writer instead of going back to
Taiwan and getting a government job. Due to connections -- at that time
China film company was under reorganization -- there were actual
opportunities, but Chang Cheh's pride wouldn't let him do that. Most of
the movie people who didn't make it in Hong Kong simply returned to
Taiwan, but Chang Cheh stayed in Hong Kong for eleven years. He wouldn't
return to Taiwan until after his "One Armed Swordsman" and "The Assassin"
made him famous in both Hong Kong and Taiwan, where he finally returned
in triumph, accompanied by Wang Yu, on his vacation.
While he was working as a writer in Hong Kong, he wrote film reviews
for several newspapers, because the income from being a film critic is
limited, which was only enough to pay for cigarettes and tea. Meal money
and rent were paid by writing martial arts novels. In addition to that,
even though Chang Cheh was living in Hong Kong, he still thought about
Taiwan, so besides writing film reviews and martial arts novels, he wrote
a column for the United Newspaper of Taiwan, writing under the pseudonym
of Tsum See. Legend has it that he had to write almost 10,000 words a
day, and he spent months and years being sleep-deprived. As a writer,
Chang Cheh is a real iron man. Not only is he well-read and
well-educated, he also has a photographic memory, and he kept absorbing
new materials, so he not only made a name for himself as Ho Kwun (another
pseudonym he used when writing film reviews for the Hong Kong newspaper),
but his later employment at the Shaw Brother's studio was due to Run Run
Shaw's recognition of his talent from reading his reviews; his column in
Taiwan's United newspaper was also an excellent read. No matter whether
the subject was "ping" drama, movie, or script writing, what he wrote all
made perfect sense. He suggested that the way to save Chinese movies was
to use macho "Yang" films to replace feminine "Yin" films. The idea of
saving Chinese movies this way originated from this period.
Unfortunately, this didn't raise the awareness of the rich and powerful
movie moguls, and he had to prove it himself in the end. And it changed
the progress of Chinese filmmaking. Some people consider his "Macho Yang
rhetoric" as a way to excuse his martial arts movies, but actually, he is
just true to his words. If Chang Cheh was to collect all his previous
writings for various newspapers and publish it, I think it would
definitely help audiences understand his work better.
THE CHANCE TO CHANGE, WITH "SPEECHLESS TO ASK GOD"
One of the two major movie companies in Hong Kong, the International
film company, was reorganized as the Deen Mou company while Chang Cheh
was making "Wildfire." When Chang Cheh was working as a writer, the Deen
Mou company would collect many scripts from all over the place, and when
there were filmable scripts, they will hire Chang Cheh to rewrite them.
This not only took care of his daily expenses, but his writing skills are
indeed superior; the filmmakers were always happy with the scripts
resulting from his rewrites, so they hired him to write the script for
"Speechless to Ask God." The script was very moving, so good fortune
finally shined on Chang Cheh. After it was made into a movie starring
Yau Mum, it was critical hit, so he was hired formerly as a scriptwriter.
Not long after Chang Cheh started his work for Cathay, the owner of the
Shaw Brothers studio, Run Run Shaw, who was very impressed by his movie
reviews, invited Chang Cheh for a personal meeting. After they met, he
was even more impressed by his talents and genius, and he also discovered
what a good job he did with the script of "Speechless to Ask God," so he
paid a lot of money to hire him as the head of the script-writing
department, so it could be said that he stole Chang Cheh away from Deen
Mou, but scripting contracts were all based on individual scripts, and
there were no strict rules, so Chang Cheh felt no guilt for switching
jobs.
<20>
BECOMING ESTABLISHED AFTER FIVE-AND-A-HALF FEATURES
In the 51st year of the Republic of China, even though Chang Cheh
was working for the Shaw studios script department, his career path was
still bumpy. He wrote two different scripts at that time. One is the
"Yellow Blossom Tune" musical "Adventure of the Two Phoenixes," directed
by Chow See Yuen. The other is a detective mystery directed by Ho Mung
Wah called "Bloodstained Flower Tears." Neither film was a success, so
he was in a rush to direct his own scripts. In his second year of
tenure, he started directing his own scripts with "The Butterfly Cup."
After filming over half of the film, Run Run Shaw was dissatisfied with
the results and burned the negatives. He hired Yuen Chow Fung as co-
director and the film was finally finished.
Even though the results of Chang Cheh's directorial efforts were
lacking, Run Run Shaw still considered him talented in script writing, so
he arranged for him to work with Tsui Chung Wung, having Chang Cheh plan
the movie and rewrite the scripts, while Tsui Chung Wung directed. Tsui
Chung Wung used his background as a photographer to make up for Chang
Cheh's weakness in cinematography, and using the old Kung Fu movies as a
blueprint, they made "Gong Wu Kay Hup"/"Strange Hero of the Martial
World," "Yin Yeung Gim Hup"/"The Swordfighting Couple," "Yuk Meen Fei
Wu"/"Jade-Faced Flying Fox," "Sun Gim Jun Gong Wu"/"Mighty Sword that
Shocked the Martial world," "Kum Gim Yun Sou"/"Gratitute and Revenge,
Lute and Sword," etc. -- which were all box office successes -- together,
but Tsui Chung Wung became a famous director while Chang Cheh languished
in obscurity behind the screen. In the 53rd year of the Republic of
China, Chang Cheh ended his partnership with Tsui Chung Wung with his,
"Tiger Boy," for which he both wrote the script and directed. At the same
time, he trained various kung fu actors such as Wang Yu, Lo Leet, Chang
Lay, Chan Hung Leet, etc., and made "The Magnificent Trio," "The Trail of
the Broken Blade," and "The One-armed Swordsman" -- a total of five and a
half films. Chang Cheh finally made a name for himself as a director
after this.
In the 55th year of the Republic of China, "The One-armed Swordsman"
was released to screens in Hong Kong. It broke all box office records
and made over a million HK dollars. Chang Cheh became the "million
dollar director" and turned his fortunes around. His ten years of bad
luck in Hong Kong were finally over. The company began treating him very
well. Lee Hon Cheung and King Hu's departure was also a factor. Chang
Cheh used the opportunity to go even further, and his work got more and
more mature along the way. In the 56th year of the Republic of China,
his new contract was $20,000 (HK) per movie, and he had to make at least
3 movies each year. In '59 of the Republic of China, his new contract
was $30,000 (HK) per movie and he had to make at least 4 movies a year.
DIFFICULT TIMES AND HARD WORK FINALLY REWARDED
Chang Cheh's directorial journey has been difficult with a lot of
twists and turns, especially when it comes to his experience as a
director, which has a painful past. A proverb says, "Failure is the
mother of Success." Maybe this is the basis of his success later on in
life. He said, "My journey as a director was full of twists and turns;
it was not a 'flat' road for me. Let's not mention those bits and pieces
of 'minor works.' When I finally decided to be a director, I was already
over forty years old. The subjects of all my hard work are no longer
such big problems or obstacles now, for instance: using males as the main
protagonist, using new actors, not using pretty faces, not having happy
endings, letting the main character die, even using simple titles that
have only two or three words. Back when I first started, every single
one of those things were under intense pressure and scrutiny, and it was
in the middle of a lot of criticisms and sarcasm, which I managed to get
it done with hard work."
The "over forty years old" mentioned by Chang Cheh refers to the
period -- '52 of the Republic of China (1963) -- in which he directed the
"Butterfly Cup" for the Shaw Brothers studio. The minor works prior to
that refer to "The Incident at Ah Li Shan" and "Wildfire," both of which
are not even worth mentioning, comparitively.
LEARNING FROM THE STRENGTHS OF OTHERS TO MAKE UP FOR HIS OWN WEAKNESSES
Although Chang Cheh and King Hu are both directors of Kung Fu movies
who had Taiwanese roots, because they came from different backgrounds,
have different personalities, and different ways of doing things, we can
say they each have their own strengths, but King Hu had assisted Lee Hong
Cheung and Yim Chun, working as their assistant director and/or
secretary, and he also acted, so he had spent some time studying the
physical properties of the films used in movies and editing. We can say
he was very experienced in the process of filmmaking, but Chang Cheh
never attended a film school, and he also had never been an assistant
director or a director's secretary. Then, where did he acquire his
skills as a director? According to the author's guess, most of it was
from observing with his own eyes, besides absorbing the techniques of
action sequences in U.S. and Japanese films (especially those of Arthur
Penn and Sam Peckinpah; and selected works by Akira Kurosawa and Hiroshi
Inagaki), and combining it with Chinese culture. The other part was from
observing at the actual film sets, when other people are making movies.
When editing, he would pay a lot of attention, studying what they were
doing. When he watched other people make movies in Shanghai, he was
learning the basic skills, and when he watched other people make movies
in Hong Kong, he was learning from the strengths of others to make up for
his own weaknesses/shortcomings. Rumor has it that while he was watching
other people make movies, he was shooed away by them, but people are not
born knowing everything -- one must learn to acquire the knowledge.
Being willing to learn is nothing to be ashamed of; what's shameful is
that some Taiwanese directors, satisfied with their own limits, refused
to learn, and therefore never improved. Chang Cheh's style may be a
little broad and careless, but he is very careful when watching movies.
This aspect can be seen clearly in the movie reviews he wrote. Many
famous directors from other countries made their fame by learning the
strengths of others. This is how they became better.
Chang Cheh's personality has both good and bad points -- just as his
work is not absolutely perfect -- which is normal. Even though Chang
Cheh often quarreled with old friends and stopped associating with them,
as outsiders, we cannot blame that on Chang Cheh. Forming the Long Bow
film company -- where he employed a lot of old friends from Taiwan -- and
helping a lot of old Taiwanese friends during the years in which he
worked at the Shaw brother's studio are both examples demonstrating that
he had never forgotten his roots and that old acquaintances are important
to him. At the same time, Chang Cheh never hid his bad character traits,
which is also proof that he is a humble man. He once criticized his
work: "'The Magnificent Trio' was adapted from a Japanese movie. There
was only the trio in the movie. There wasn't any city at the border."
[The Chinese title for "The Magnificent Trio" is "The Three Heroes at the
Border Town." While the three heroes can be summed up as the trio, the
border town bit was not in the movie.] When a person is humble he can
improve himself. If one doesn't forget his roots, then he will be
successful in the future. Let's hope Chang Cheh takes care of himself,
and creates an even brighter future for Taiwanese films.
[P.S.: I consider this article a "fluff" piece. Most of the author's
comments are pretty much bullshit and a waste of time. The only
interesting things are the childhood and early history of Chang Cheh.]
[While I see your point, I find the article to be a breath of fresh air
insofar as it is a complimentary, fan-boy-ish take on the man that
accentuates his accomplishments rather than his excesses, failures, and
decline. As such, it makes up for a lot of other critics' more jaundiced
takes on Chang Cheh's oeuvre.]
