Chang Cheh

Cheh worked between 1923 and 2002 across film director, screenwriter and lyricist. This article rests on 14 scholarly references drawn from named institutional registers. Every statement below returns to a source shown in the evidence panel; where the record is silent or divided, the article says so instead of resolving it.

• Name — Chang Cheh • Birth Name — zh-Hant (Chang Yi-yang) • Born — 17 January 1924 • Birthplace — Shanghai, China • Died — 22 June 2002 • Place of death — Hong Kong • Years Active — 1947–1993 • Awards — Asia Pacific Film Festival 1970 Best Director (Vengeance!) Chang Cheh (17 January 1924 – 22 June 2002) was a Chinese filmmaker, screenwriter, lyricist and producer active in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. Chang directed more than 90 films in Hong Kong and Taiwan, the majority of them with the Shaw Brothers Studio in Hong Kong. Most of his films are action films, especially wuxia and kung fu films filled with violence.

Born to a military family in Hangzhou and raised in Shanghai Chang studied politics at the Faculty of Law of the Central University of Chongqing but dropped out to join a social education troupe. After World War II ended, he attracted the notice of Chang Tao-fan a high-ranking KMT official who appointed him secretary of the Cultural Movement Committee (CMC), Shanghai. His first contact with the film industry came when he took up the cause of the "Twelve Filmmakers Collaboration Case" in which twelve Chinese filmmakers who worked for the Japanese-owned China United Film Company during the war were accused of collaborating with Japanese forces. At this time, Chang ran a KMT-operated theater in Shanghai's Hongkou district and had difficulty securing films until he befriended the Liu Brothers (Liu Zhongliang and Liu Zhonghao) who ran the Jincheng Grand, now the Lyric, and Jindu Theaters. The Liu Brothers also produced films and as political tensions grew between Nationalists and socialists, Chang suggested that they movie equipment and personnel to Taiwan as a safeguard. To mask the move, they arranged to film a movie in Taiwan and Chang appointed himself its director. Happenings in Ali Shan (1949) became Taiwan's first locally-produced Mandarin-language film, and the song Chang wrote for it, "Over the Green Hill", became a popular hit. After this experience, Chang caught the eye of Chiang Ching-kuo, the oldest son of President Chiang Kai-shek, and became a member of his newly-established "Chief Political Department" and through that he became an official in the only film studio in Taiwan at the time, the KMT-run Central Motion Picture Corporation. However, Chang got caught in the middle of a political struggle and when he received an invitation from the MP&GI star Helen Li Mei to come to Hong Kong and direct her film Wild Fire (1957) he leapt at the chance to escape. Li produced the film herself and wanted a younger director who collaborate with her, but because Chang was unknown in Hong Kong rumors spread that the two were having an affair, and MP&GI persuaded her to remove Chang and finish shooting the film with an assistant. After that, Chang became a movie critic writing reviews for New Life Evening Post and columns for Taiwan's United Daily News, which caught the eye of MP&GI's Stephen Soong, who recommended him for a contract as a screenwriter for the company. Chang was unhappy there and within a year he had been recommended by his bridge partner, Raymond Chow, to Shaw Brothers as a screenwriter and took a contract with Shaw Brothers that began the day his MP&GI contract ended.

Shaw Brothers' enormous Movietown film studio opened in 1961, around the same time Chang started working there, and he successfully convinced the company's head, Sir Run Run Shaw, not to soundproof the studios and instead shoot films without sound and dub them later. As a result, Chang became head of the dubbing department as well as a screenwriter. In 1965 he received his first directing credit at Shaw alongside Yuan Qiu-feng for the huangmei opera movie, The Butterfly Chalice. In 1965, Shaw Brothers' magazine, Southern Screen, published an article called "Shaw Launches Colour Wuxia Century" in which it announced seven new films that were either completed or in production, claiming, “Shaws will break with tradition...Creating a new vista for martial arts films. The fake, fantastical, and theatrical fighting and the so-called special effects of the past will be replaced by realistic action and fighting that immediately decides life or death.” The films were Temple of the Red Lotus (1965) and The Twin Swords (1965), which were both supervised by Chang and starred Jimmy Wong Yu; Tiger Boy (1966), a black and white low-budget film written and directed by Chang, also starring Jimmy Wong Yu; Come Drink With Me (1966) directed by King Hu and starring Cheng Pei-pei; Knight of Knights (1966) written by Chang; and One-Armed Swordsman (1967), written and directed by Chang, starring Jimmy Wong Yu, and featuring action choreography by Tong Kai and Lau Kar-leung. It became a massive hit, often heralded as the Hong Kong movie to earn one million dollars at the box office, although in reality that barrier had been broken by The Golden Eagle (1964) three years previously. The success of One-Armed Swordsman heralded a new wave of martial arts movies at Shaw, shot in color, featuring more violent and realistic action choreography, and focusing on male, rather than female, leads who were Hong Kong's biggest box office draws at the time. The other two movies in the "Colour Wuxia Century" met less auspicious fates. The Sword and the Lute was shelved for two years until 1967, and Red Maiden was never released. That same year, Chang also wrote and directed the Jimmy Wong Yu movie, The Assassin, another hit with action choreography by Lau Kar-leung and Tong Kai. Together, this team would go on to make Golden Swallow (1968) a sequel to King Hu's classic wuxia picture Come Drink With Me co-starring Cheng Pei-pei and Return of the One-Armed Swordsman (1969), both of which became box office hits.

In late 1969/early 1970, Jimmy Wong Yu broke his contract with Shaw Brothers and the ensuing legal conflict saw him barred from making films in Hong Kong for three years. Without his leading man and feeling like his movies were simply recycling previous films Chang made a musical, The Singing Thief (1969), and hired its screenwriter, Chiu Kang-chien, to write Dead End (1969), a semi-experimental "youth gone wild" thriller which he believed would represent a new direction for his work. However, the movie ran afoul of local censors, and Chang felt he needed to return to wu xia films. Chang took two young actors he had been working with and successfully paired them together as action leads in Have Sword Will Travel (1969). David Chiang came from a film family and he had been working as a stuntman at Shaw. Noting his good Mandarin, Chang began giving him lines, leading to bigger roles. Ti Lung had entered Shaw's Actor Training Program and after impressing Chang in a minor role in Return of the One-Armed Swordsman (1969), Chang had offered him the lead in Dead End. In 1970, Chang paired them in his movie Vengeance! which represented a new direction for him as a filmmaker. He abandoned the Qing Dynasty setting of most wu xia movies for a movie set in the early Republican era, and he abandoned wu xia swordplay for kung fu. The movie was an enormous hit, and won Chang "Best Director" and David Chiang (billed as John Chiang) "Best Actor" at the 16th Asian Film Festival, the first time a Hong Kong film had won these two categories. One year later, Chang delivered another David Chiang/Ti Lung action picture set in the early Republican era, The Duel (1971), which became the second martial arts movie to be dubbed into English and receive a general release in the United States. Now linked firmly in the public's mind, Chang, Ti Lung, and David Chiang became known as the "Iron Triangle" and would go on to make 19 movies together, not counting Vengeance! and the five films they made before it.

Before he left Taiwan, Chang had started working with several young stunt performers. Philip Kwok had attended to the National Taiwan College of Performing Arts and gotten a job doing stunts on Shaolin Avengers (1976). Lau Kar-leung pointed him out as being particularly impressive, so Chang asked screenwriter Ni Kuang to write a role for him in Marco Polo (1975). Lu Feng and Chiang Sheng also studied Chinese Opera in Taiwan, but at a different school than Kwok. However, the three of them knew each other and soon Lu Feng was working with Lau Kar-leung as an assistant choreographer, and Chiang Sheng came with them as a stunt performer. When Chang returned to Hong Kong he took them with him. There he decided to team them up with Alexander Fu-sheng on a movie he had in production called Chinatown Kid (1977), a showcase for a lot of his Taiwanese talent including Robert Tai and Johnny Wang Lung-wei. Philip Kwok would co-star with Alexander Fu-sheng, alongside a 22 year old newcomer who had beaten 1,000 candidates for the role, Sun Chien, and an accomplished Mantis Fist boxer, and the accountant at Chang's production company, Lo Meng. Lu Feng and Chiang Sheng appeared in small parts doing stunts. Sensing he had something, Chang asked Ni Kuang to write a script using these five newcomers and the resulting film The Five Venoms (1978) became a hit in Hong Kong and Taiwan and the actors became collectively known in the West as the Venoms Mob. Even though Chang Cheh dismissed the movies he made on his return to Shaw Brothers as the "recycling of tired, worn-out wuxia and fist-and-kick action films" he would make 25 movies featuring either the full Venoms Mob or some combination thereof. After making Ode to Gallantry (1982) the Venoms disbanded and returned to Taiwan, where Philip Kwok directed his only movie, Ninja in the Deadly Trap (1982). The following year, Chang's final film for Shaw Brothers was released, The Weird Man (1983), and his contract was not renewed. Seeing the great success of the Mainland China-shot Shaolin Temple (1982), Chang made it known that he would like to try the same. He shot The Dancing Warrior (1985) partially in New York City, which co-starred Shaolin wu shu instructor, Dennis Brown, and later that year the Chinese Ministry of Culture invited him to shoot a movie in Mainland China. Chang relocated his career again and filmed Great Shanghai 1937 (1986) followed by Cross the River (1988) as well as four more Mainland-set movies, some in association with various regional studios across Mainland China, including Slaughter in Xi'An (1990), which was filmed with the famed Xi'An Film Studio, birthplace of the Fifth Generation of Chinese filmmakers. In 1992, he released his final movie, Ninja in Ancient China (1993), and retired from filmmaking. He remained active as an advocate for Hong Kong film and filmmakers, and was in regular touch with the Hong Kong Film Archive. In 2001, they asked him to write his memoir, which he sent in weekly installments via fax. In March, 2002, the first draft was finished and in April of that year he received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 21st Hong Kong Film Awards. He died in June of that year.

Chang wrote the lyrics of more than 70 Chinese songs that have appeared in his films. The theme song of his directorial debut, Happenings in Ali Shan, also known as "Gao Shan Qing" (高山青; "The High Green Mountain"), is a particularly famous song in the Sinophone world.

In 1992, Chang produced Taiwan Television's Ma's Assassination (刺馬), which tells the same story as his 1973 film The Blood Brothers. The series is directed by Lu Feng and stars, among other actors, David Chiang.

Chang Cheh was born on 10 February 1923 in Shanghai. Cheh held the nationality of People's Republic of China and British Hong Kong. Cheh was educated at Nanjing University and National Central University.

Cheh worked for the screen, as film director and screenwriter. 88 films survive in the institutional catalogues, spanning 1949 to 1993. Among them are Happenings in Ali Shan (1949), Wild Fire (1958), The Butterfly Chalice (1965), Tiger Boy (1966), The Magnificent Trio (1966) and The Assassin (1967). The whole run is set out in the catalogue below.

Around 1974, Shaw Brothers encouraged Chang to start his own production company, which he called Chang's Film Co. (in Chinese 長弓電影公司, or Longbow Film Co.). Shaw had funds in Taiwan that could not be transferred out of the country due to financial controls and they wanted Chang to use these funds to make Taiwan-based productions. Shaw received all the profit from these movies, but because Chang was in charge of production he had more freedom. While checking into a hotel in Taipei, Chang ran into popular Hong Kong comedian Michael Hui. During their conversation, Hui told Chang that Taiwanese and Hong Kong films should focus on the folklore and traditions of Southern China, including their martial arts. When Chang returned to Hong Kong he met with Lau Kar-leung and Tong Kai to discuss how to make authentic Southern Chinese style martial arts movies and Lau Kar-leung suggested focusing on the legends of Shaolin Temple. Their first Shaolin movie, Heroes Two (1974), started with the burning of Shaolin Temple and focused on the Southern Chinese folk hero, Fong Sai-yuk, played here by Alexander Fu Sheng, a charismatic 20 year old graduate of Shaw's Southern Drama School. The movie emphasized the realism of Southern Chinese martial arts styles and in theaters it was preceded by a 9-minute short film called "Three Styles of Hung School's Kung Fu" in which stars Alexander Fu Sheng, Chen Kuan-tai, and fellow Shaw's actor, Chi Kuan-chun demonstrate authentic Southern style kung fu. It was the first movie for Chang's Film Company and became a box office success. Chang had enormous confidence in Alexander Fu Sheng's potential and cast him in the youth drama Friends (1974) that same year for which he won "Best Newcomer" at the 20th Asian-Pacific Film Festival. Fu Sheng went on to play one of the leads in all of Chang's follow-up Shaolin movies, including Men From the Monastery (1974), Shaolin Martial Arts (1974), and the epic Five Shaolin Masters, which Chang claimed drained the last of Shaw's money captured in Taiwan. It was also the first of these movies to be fully filmed in Taiwan, and because Tong Kai did not want to travel, Lau Kar-leung choreographed it with his brother, Lau Kar-wing. Fu Sheng also starred in Disciples of Shaolin (1975) but during the filming of this movie Chang and Lau Kar-leung fell out over artistic differences and it would be the last movie they completed together. Reportedly, Lau would work for a few days on Chang's historical epic, Marco Polo (1975), before walking off the set, vowing to quit the film industry and movie to America to open his own martial arts schools. Mona Fong, Run Run Shaw's mistress and then head of production at Shaw Brothers, persuaded him to come back to Hong Kong instead and make his directorial debut, Spiritual Boxer (1975). With his films now attracting Taiwanese investors as well as Shaw's, Chang decided to shoot a World War II film, 7-Man Army (1976), set in 1933, followed by Boxer Rebellion (1976) set in 1900. With a Taiwanese distributor, Lin Chong-feng, paying $1 million Hong Kong dollars for the Taiwanese rights, at a time when the average Shaw Brothers movie was budgeted at $200,000 Hong Kong dollars, Chang rented costumes from Europe, cast Richard Harrison for a role, and convinced actress Li Li-hua to come out of retirement to play the Empress Dowager in the film. For 7-Man Army, the Taiwanese military contributed troops, tanks, artillery, and aircraft for certain scenes. However, Chang's association with Chiang Ching-kuo caught up with him. Chiang's close associate, General Wang Sheng, considered himself the natural successor to the presidency and didn't appreciate the return of Chang Cheh, viewed as a one-time favorite of President Chang's. He pressed for Chang to return to Hong Kong, and claimed that films like Boxer's Rebellion showing Allied forces invading China should be banned. While the film was not banned, it was cut substantially and did not perform well at the box office. When the movie was released in Hong Kong, British censors forced Shaw to change its title to Spiritual Fists, and cut it further. It failed there, too. Despite the failure of the film, Chang's Taiwanese investor and distributor, Lin Chong-feng, stuck with him and offered him more money. Upon hearing of this, Run Run Shaw flew to Taiwan and offered Chang a $1 million, five-year contract to come back to Hong Kong and Shaw Studios. Worried that the Taiwanese film market was going into decline, Chang accepted.

• Year — English title — Original title — Director — Writer — Notes • 1947 — Girl's Mask — 假面女郎 — Fang Peilin • 1950 — Happenings in Ali Shan — 阿里山風雲 — co-directed with Cheung Ying; first Mandarin film entirely produced in Taiwan • 1951 — Never Separated — 永不分離 — Chu Hsin Fu • 1957 — Wild Fire — 野火 — co-directed with Helen Li Mei • 1960 — Tragic Melody — 桃花淚 — Lo Wei • The Tender Trap of Espionage — 脂粉間諜網 — Lo Wei • Black Butterfly — 黑蝴蝶 — Lo Wei • 1961 — Song Without Words — 無語問蒼天 — Lo Wei • The Girl with the Golden Arm — 賊美人 — Tang Huang • You Were Meant for Me — 遊戲人間 — Wong Tin-lam • 1962 — It's Always Spring — 桃李爭春 — Evan Yang • Come Rain, Come Shine — 野花戀 — Tang Huang • Her Pearly Tears — 珍珠淚 — Wong Tin-lam • 1964 — The Amorous Lotus Pan — 潘金蓮 — Chow Sze-loke • The Female Prince — 雙鳳奇緣 — Chow Sze-loke • The Warlord and the Actress — 血濺牡丹紅 — Ho Meng Hua • 1965 — The Mermaid — 魚美人 — Kao Li • The Butterfly Chalice — 蝴蝶盃 — co-directed with Yuen Chow-fung • Crocodile River — 鱷魚河 — Lo Wei • Inside the Forbidden City — 宋宮秘史 — Kao Li • Call of the Sea — 怒海情仇 — Lo Wei • 1966 — Tiger Boy — 虎俠殲仇 • The Knight of Knights — 文素臣 — Hsih Chun • The Magnificent Trio — 邊城三俠 • The Perfumed Arrow — 女秀才 — Kao Li • 1967 — The Trail of the Broken Blade — 斷腸劍 • 1967 — One-Armed Swordsman — 獨臂刀 • 1967 — The Assassin — 大刺客 • 1968 — Golden Swallow — 金燕子 • 1969 — The Singing Thief — 大盜歌王 • Return of the One-Armed Swordsman — 獨臂刀王 • The Flying Dagger — 飛刀手 • The Invincible Fist — 鐵手無情 • Dead End — 死角 • Have Sword, Will Travel — 保鏢 • 1970 — The Wandering Swordsman — 遊俠兒 • Vengeance — 報仇 • The Heroic Ones — 十三太保 • The Singing Killer — 小煞星 • 1971 — King Eagle — 鷹王 • The New One-Armed Swordsman — 新獨臂刀 • The Duel — 大決鬥 • The Anonymous Heroes — 無名英雄 • Duel of Fists — 拳擊 • The Deadly Duo — 雙俠 • 1972 — The Boxer From Shantung — 馬永貞 — co-directed with Pao Hsueh Li • Angry Guest — 惡客 • The Water Margin — 水滸傳 • Trilogy of Swordsmanship — 群英會 — co-directed with Cheng Kang • Young People — 年輕人 • Delightful Forest — 快活林 — co-directed with Pao Hsueh Li • Man of Iron — 仇連環 — co-directed with Pao Hsueh Li • Four Riders — 四騎士 • 1973 — The Delinquent — 憤怒青年 — co-directed with Kuei Chih-Hung • The Blood Brothers — 刺馬 • The Generation Gap — 叛逆 • Police Force — 警察 — co-directed with Tsai Yang-ming • The Pirate — 大海盜 — co-director • Iron Bodyguard — 大刀王五 — co-directed with Pao Hsueh Li • 1974 — Heroes Two — 方世玉與洪熙官 • The Savage Five — 五虎將 • Men from the Monastery — 少林子弟 • Friends — 朋友 • The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires — English-language film, co-director • Shaolin Martial Arts — 洪拳與詠春 • Na Cha the Great — 哪吒 • Five Shaolin Masters — 少林五祖 • 1975 — All Men Are Brothers — 蕩寇誌 — co-directed with Wu Ma • Disciples of Shaolin — 洪拳小子 • The Fantastic Magic Baby — 紅孩兒 • The Bloody Escape — 逃亡 — co-directed with Sun Chung • Marco Polo — 馬哥波羅 • 1976 — Boxer Rebellion — 八國聯軍 • 7-Man Army — 八道楼子 — co-director • The Shaolin Avengers — 方世玉與胡惠乾 — co-directed with Wu Ma • The New Shaolin Boxers — 蔡李佛小子 — co-directed with Wu Ma • Shaolin Temple — 少林寺 — co-directed with Wu Ma • 1977 — The Naval Commandos — 海軍突擊隊 — co-director • Magnificent Wanderers — 江湖漢子 — co-directed with Wu Ma • The Brave Archer — 射鵰英雄傳 • Chinatown Kid — 唐人街小子 • 1978 — The Brave Archer 2 — 射鵰英雄傳續集 • Five Venoms — 五毒 • Invincible Shaolin — 南少林與北少林 • Crippled Avengers — 殘缺 • 1979 — Life Gamble — 生死鬥 • Shaolin Rescuers — 街市英雄 • Shaolin Daredevils — 雜技亡命隊 • Magnificent Ruffians — 賣命小子 • Kid with the Golden Arm — 金臂童 • Ten Tigers from Kwangtung — 廣東十虎與後五虎 • 1980 — Heaven and Hell — 第三類打鬥 • 2 Champions of Shaolin — 少林與武當 • Flag of Iron — 鐵旗門 • The Rebel Intruders — 大殺四方 • Legend of the Fox — 飛狐外傳 • 1981 — Sword Stained With Royal Blood — 碧血劍 • Masked Avengers — 叉手 • The Brave Archer 3 — 射鵰英雄傳第三集 • 1982 — House of Traps — 冲霄樓 • The Brave Archer and His Mate — 神鵰俠侶 • Five Element Ninjas — 五遁忍術 • Ode to Gallantry — 俠客行 • 1983 — The Weird Man — 神通術與小霸王 • Attack of the Joyful Goddess — 撞鬼 • 1984 — Death Ring — 擂台 • The Demons — 九子天魔 • Shanghai 13 — 上海灘十三太保 • 1985 — The Dancing Warrior — 霹靂情 • 1986 — Great Shanghai 1937 — 大上海1937 • 1987 — Slaughter in Xian — 西安殺戮 • Cross the River — 過江 • 1990 — Hidden Hero — 江湖奇兵 • 1991 — Go West to Subdue Demons — 西行平妖 • 1993 — Ninja In Ancient China — 神通