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• HO MENG-HUA 何夢華 (1929-2009): TRIBUTE TO A MASTER OF CINEMA - R.I.P.

  Saturday, Jun 6, 2009 5:52PM / News / Hong Kong Cinema / Members only
  18 comments

  Two days ago, I learned like everybody else, that David Carradine and Shek Kin 石堅 passed away. Two very sad news for American and Hong Kong cinema lovers. But I learned the same day, through Hong Kong friends, that director Ho Meng-hua 何夢華 left our world as well, since May 19^th. But it was announced in a minority Hong Kong newspapers on... June 2!

   

  

  Left: Ho Meng-hua at the Shaw studios in the late 50's
  Right: Elevyn Kraft of the set of "Mighty Peking Man" (1977)
  
  

  What a shame for such a great director who did some of the most successul and entertaining Kong Kong movies in the 60’s and the 70’s for the Shaw Brothers studios, from huangmei diao (“A Maid From Heaven 七仙女” - 1963) to action fantasy (The Monkey King movies, released in HK between 1966 and 1968) to drama (“Susanna 珊珊” - 1967) to swordsplay movies (“Killer Dart 追魂鏢” – 1968, “The Lady Hermit 鍾馗娘子” – 1971 ...)  to exploitation thriller (“The Kiss of Death 毒女” – 1973), to kung-fu movies (“The Master of Kung-Fu 黃飛鴻” – 1973) etc...

  
  

  
  
  "The Kiss of Death" (1973)
  
  

  Born in Shanghai in 1929, Ho Meng-hua studied drama at the Shanghai Municipal Experimental Drama School. After his graduation, he came to Hong Kong and entered the film company Yung Hwa 永華電影製片廠,  as a scriptwriter and assistant director.
  

  
  

  
  
  Ho Meng-hua (at the right) in 195?
  
  

  That’s where he met the director Yan Jun 嚴俊 (who was also a great actor from Shanghai, and became the husband of the legendary Li Li-hua李麗華in 1957) who took him as his assistant director.

   

  

  Li Li-hua and Yan Jun's wedding (1957)
  
  

  They collaborated on three movies in two years including “Miss Kikuko 菊子姑娘” (1956) and “The Valley of the Lost Soul 亡魂谷” (1957) both produced by Cathay Studio 國泰 and starring Linda Lin Dai 林黛 and Yan Jun (he often played in his own movies actually).
  

  
  

  

  Linda Lin Dai and Yan Jun in "Miss Kukiko" (1956)

  Source: Lin Dai fan site

  
  

  

  Linda Lin Dai and Yan Jun in "The Valley of the Lost Soul" (1957)

  Source: Lin Dai fan site
  

  
  

  Then Ho Men-hua had the opportunity to direct his first movie in 1957 for Cathay, “The Wild Girl 野姑娘”, but they didn’t release it until 1960.

   

  Before that, Run Run Shaw, the boss of Shaw Brothers, saw a preview of “The Wild Girl”, and decided to sign Ho Meng-hua as a director. Then he produced “An Appointment After Dark人約黃昏後” starring Lucilla Yu Min and Zhao Lei, and released it in July 1958. That how Ho Meng-hua director’s carreer started...
  

  
  

  

  Lucilla You Min in "An Appointment after Dark" (1958)

  Source: You Min fan site

  
  

  In the west, Ho Meng-hua was mostly known for his cheesy “bad” movies, like the “King Kong” rip-off “Mighty Peking Man 猩猩王” (1977 - distributed in DVD in America by Quentin Tarantino several years ago through Rolling Thunder Pictures), or the horror movie “Black Magic 2勾魂降頭” (1976) released previously in the U.S. on VHS as “Revenge of the Zombies”.

  
  

  
  
  "Black Magic 2: Revenge of the Zombies 勾魂降頭” (1976)
  
  

  I had the chance to meet Ho Meng Hua-hua a few times during my Hong Kong trips. The first time, It was actually during my first Hong Kong trip in 2002, at the premiere of “Shark Busters反收數特遣隊”, a silly comedy directed Herman Yau邱禮濤 starring Danny Lee 李修賢. I didn’t notice Ho Meng-hua at the premiere, because there were many people and I didn’t know how he looks like. I discovered that he was there, only a few years ago, when I was rewatching the footage that I shot that night. So, finally, the first time Ho Meng-hua for real was, one year later, in 2003.
  

  
  

  

  Ho Meng-hua (Hong Kong - 2003)
  

  
  

  At that time, I was starting to collaborate with Wild Side Films, to direct the DVD extra features of their Shaw Brothers movies. Among the 46 titles they had to release, there was of course, “The Lady Hermit”. I say “of course”, because “The Lady Hermit” was the very first Shaw Brothers martial arts movie to have an official theatrical distribution in France in the 70’s. Plus, it’s a very good swordplay movie, and probably the best movie starring Cheng Pei-pei.
  

  
  

  
  

  Cheng Pei-pei in "The Lady Hermit" (1971)
  
  

  So, in 2003, I interviewed Ho Meng-hua at Celestial Pictures office (the company who own the right of 750 Shaw Brothers titles) during approximatively one hour, which was enough time to cover the most important parts of his career.

  
  

  
  

  Ho Meng-hua and his cast on the set of
  "The Monkey Goes West 西遊記" (1966)
  
  

  I used a big part of this interview for my documentary “Ho Meng-hua: Le Commercial” (I named it that way because Ho Meng-hua kept saying that he was just a commercial director).
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  In the documentary, I also included interviews of actors and actresses who worked with him like Helen Ma, who played in the third Monkey King movie “The Cave of the Silken Web 盤絲洞” (1967) as one of the evil fleash-eater Spider-Women...
  

  
  

  

  
  

  
  Helen Ma (Hong Kong - 2004)
  
  

  ...and of course, Cheng Pei-pei, who did four movies with him between 1966 and 1970 (“Princess Iron Fan 鐵扇公主”, the second Monkey King movie, and also, “The Jade Raksha 玉羅剎”, “Lady of Steel 荒江女俠” and “The Lady Hermit”).

  
  
  Cheng Pei-pei (Paris - 2004)
  
  

  “The Lady Hermit” was the last Cheng Pei-pei movie for Shaw Brothers.  At that time, she decided to quit the film industry to get married in the US, and she wanted Ho Meng-hua to direct her last movie. She finished to shoot her scene one day before the wedding. “I asked her to come the next morning at the sound studio to dub the fight scenes, and she had to take the plane in the afternoon!” said Ho Meng-hua during the interview.

  
  
  Ho Meng-hua, Lo Lieh and Shih Szu
  on the set of "The Lady Hermit" (1970)
  
  

  Another actress that I interviewed about Ho Meng-hua, was Lily Li 李麗麗. She started to play in Ho Meng-hua movies in the 60’s in small parts, in movies like “The Warlord and the Actress血濺牡丹紅” (1964), “Princess Iron Fan” (1966) ...

  
  

  

  ...and also the historical drama “The King with My Face 鐵頭皇帝” (1967), which was co-produced by the Shaw Brothers and the Korean film company Shin Films (founded by Shin Sang-ok).

  
  
  Lily Li (Hong Kong - 2003)
  
  

  She had the oppoputunity to play her first lead female role in a  Ho Meng-hua movie, 8 years later, with “Black Magic” (1975).

  
  
  Lily Li and Ku Feng in "Black Magic" (1975)
  
  

  “When I accepted to go to Malaysia to play in “Black Magic”, Ho Meng-hua told us that the phenomemons of the movie really exist and that he wanted to show them to the audience.” ...” said Lily Li. “The shooting was very long. At night, I was really afraid. I was thinking that something bad might happen to me. I don’t like that kind of movies. It scares me. I think black magic really exist...”. 
  

  
  

  
  

  Ti Lung and Lily Li in "Black Magic" (1975)
  
  

  After that, Lily played in two other Ho Men-hua’s horror flicks, “Black Magic 2” (1976) and the slimy “Oily Maniac 油鬼子” (1976), before doing two martial arts movies with him, “Abbot of Shaolin 少林英雄榜” (1979) and “Swift Sword 情俠追風劍” (1980)

  
  

  

  "Oily Maniac" (1976) - original poster
  Source: Celestial Pictures

  
  

  I also interviewed Kong Do, who played in a few Ho Meng-hua movies like “Mad Mad Kung Fu  怪招軟皮蛇” (1979), “Abbot of Shaolin 少林英雄榜” (1979) and the last movie directed by Ho Meng-hua, “Evil Black Magic 處女的誘惑” (1992). But during the interview we mostly talked about “The Kiss of Death”...

  
  

  

  "The Kiss of Death" (1973) Source: HKMDB

  
  

  “I worked for the first time with Ho Meng-hua on “The Kiss of Death”, which was also the first movie of the taiwanese dancer, Chen Ping. The director asked me to talk more with her, because I was from Taiwan too.” Said Kong Do.

  
  

   

  Kong Do (Hong Kong - 2003)
  
  

  

  Kong Do (left) in "The Kiss of Death" (1973)

  
  

  “A that time, hot films were rare, but in this one, there were very daring and realistic scenes...”
  

  
  

  
  "The Kiss of Death" (1973)
  
  

  Concerning this movie, Ho Meng-hua said: “It’s the story of a factory girl,  raped by four thugs, who get from them an incurable venereal disease, the ‘Vietnam Rose’. She decides to take revenge....”

  
  

  
  

  "The Kiss of Death" (1973)
  
  

  “I did’t have any trouble with the censorship, but there was one problem, the original title of the movie: “Vietnam Rose”. It upseted a lot vietname people. They wanted to burn the movie! So we had to apologize and change the title to “The Kiss of Death”...”

  
  

  
  

  "The Kiss of Death" (1973)
  
  

  Tony Liu劉永 played in only two Ho Meng-hua’s movies, “The Dragon Missile飛龍斬”  (1976) and “The Psychopath  色慾殺人王”  (1978). He said about Ho Meng-hua that “He was a commercial director. If the boss wanted him to finish a movie in three days, he could do it. He respected the schedules”.
  

  
  

  
  

  Tony Liu (Hong Kong - 2003)
  
  

  That was maybe the case in the late 70’s, but in the 60’s  Ho Meng-hua said that he had actually some problems finishing his movies on time: “The shooting of Susanna – Best Film at the Asian Film Festival 1968 - took one year of shooting. I was supposed to direct four movies per year for Shaw Brothers. So I own them. I tried to shoot more movies to have less debts, but they kept paying me. I coudn’t quit Shaw Brothers...”

  
  

  
  

  Susanna (1967) - Source: HKMDB
  
  

  The same case also happened with “Monkey Goes West 西遊記”  (released in HK in January 1966) and “The Flying Guillotine” (released in HK in February 1975).
  

  
  

  
  

  The Flying Guillotine (1975) - original poster
  Source: Celestial Pictures
  
  

  “The shooting of “The Flying Guillotine” took more than a year. I own a lot of movies to Shaw. That’s why I had to rush and do “The Kiss of Death” in three months” said Ho Meng-hua.
  

  
  

  

  Original trailer of "The Kiss of Death" (1973)
  
  

  The actor who worked the most with Ho Meng-hua that I interviewed was Ku Feng. He work with him between 1966 and 1979 on “Monkey Goes West 西遊記”  “Princess Iron Fan”, The Midnight Murder三更冤, “The Master of Kung-Fu”...

  
  

  

  Ku Feng is Wong Fei-hung in "Master of Kung-Fu" (1974)

  
  

  ...“Black Magic”, “Killer Dart”, “The Jade Raska”, “All Mixed Up 搭錯線”, “Night of the Devil's Bride 攝青鬼”, “The Flying Guillotine 血滴子”, “Oily Maniac 油鬼子”, “The Dragon Missile 飛龍斬”, “The Criminals香港奇案”, “The Mighty Peking Man”, “The Vengeful Beauty 血芙蓉” and “The Psychopath  色慾殺人王”.

  
  
  Ku Feng (Hong Kong - 2004)
  
  

  Ku Feng describe Ho Meng-hua as “Mister Nice”: “He was never upset. He was always smiling. Even if our acting was not good, he was saying to us that it was not a big deal, and give use instrucation to ameliorate it. He was a really nice person.”

  
  
  

  
  

  Concerning “Black Magic” he said: “I played the wizard in “Black Magic”. I didn’t found the movie that scary. At that time, There wasn’t CGI effects. We were improvising during the shooting, to make our scenes scarier. It wasn’t so difficult. OK, except one disgusting scene with snakes and rats...”

  
  
  Tanny Tien Ni and Ku Feng in "Black Magic" (1975)
  
  

  Concerning his career at Shaw Brothers, Ho Meng-hua said: ”During my 20 years at Shaws, my best memories are the shooting of “The Monkey Goes West” and “The Lady Hermit”...
  

  
  

  

  Ho Meng-hua and Run Run Shaw (1973)

  
  

  ...After so many years of directing, all kind of stories were told, more or less. I was fed up, and old already, so I retired..." .
  

  
  

    

  HO MENG-HUA ON DVD

   

  The following Ho Meng-hua’s movies are available in Hong Kong DVD (region 3 distributed by IVL) in original language – Mandarin or/and Cantonese - with optional English and Chinese subtitles.

   

  “A Maid from Heaven” (1963) – “The Adulteress” (1963) – “The Warlord and the Actress” (1964) – “The Monkey Goes West” (1966) – “Princess Iron Fan” (1966)...

  
  

  

  Pang Pang, Lily Ho and Cheng Pei-pi in "Princess Iron Fan" (1966)

  
  

  ...“The Cave of Silken Web” (1967) – “Susanna” (1967) – “The King with My Face” (1967) – “The Jade Raksha” (1968) – “Killer Darts” (1968)...

  
  

  

  Ho Meng-hua, Chin Ping and Yueh Hua on the set of "Killer Darts"
  

  
  

  ...“The Land of Many Perfumes” (1968) – “Vengeance Is a Golden Blade” (1969) – “Lady of Steel” (1970) – “The Long Chase” (1971) – “The Lady Hermit” (1971) – “The Human Goddess” (1972)...

  
  

  

  "The Lady Hermit" and "The Human Goddess" original posters
  
  

  ...“The Kiss of Death” (1973) – “The Master of Kung Fu” (1973) – “Ambush” (1973) – “The Sinful Adulteress” (1974) – “The Golden Lion” (1975) – “Black Magic” (1975) – “The Flying Guillotine” (1975) - “Oily Maniac” (1976)...
  

  
  

  

  Danny Lee in "Oily Maniac" (1976)

  
  

  ...“The Dragon Missile” (1976) – “The Criminals” (1976) – “The Mighty Peking Man” (1977) – “The Vengeful Beauty” (1978) – “Shaolin Hand Lock” (1978) – “Abbot of Shaolin” (1979) – “Swift Sword” (1980)

  
  

  
  

  Chen Ping in "Vengeful Beauty" (1978)
  

  
  

  "Oily Maniac” and “The Flying Guillotine” are also available in Japan. Here are the covers...

  
  

  

  
  

  In the west, two Ho Men-hua’s movies are available in France: “The Lady Hermit (Les Griffes de Jade)” released by Wild Side (with my Ho Meng-hua documentary on it) and “The Mighty Peking Man (Le Collosse de Hong Kong)” released by CTV international (with my interview of film critic Christophe Lemaire).
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  In the US, “Black Magic” is available through Image Entertainment, and the sequel will be released on June 16^th, 2009 by Tokyo Shock.

  
  

  
  

  
  

  Image Entertainment also distributed “Vengeance is a Golden Blade”, “The Cave of Silken Web” and “The Kiss of Death”.
  

  
  

  

  
  

  The “Mighty Peking Man” released in 2000 by Rolling Thunder Pictures is English dubbed only, and can still be found. The other titles available on Amazon, like “Death Kick” (retitle of “Master of Kung-Fu”) by Digital Multimedia, or “Flying Guillotine” by Beverly Wilshire, are crappy bootlegs, so don’t buy them.

  
  

  

  
   

  And I'm finishing with a photo of Ho Meng-hua and his wife that I took in 2006, at the Hong Kong Film Awards. May he rest in peace.

  
  
  

  

  
  

  Frédéric Ambroisine (June 6th, 2009)