Legendary Hong Kong director Chung Chang-Hwa (also known as Jeong Chang-Wha) was born in Korea in 1928 and began his career in the Korean film industry after the war, working his way up through the ranks to become one of the country’s top action directors. In the late sixties, Chung was recruited by producer and media mogul Run Run Shaw to join the Hong Kong-based Shaw Brothers Studios, where he worked for years creating action, kung fu, and wu xia films like The Swift Knight.

Chung cemented his place in film history when he directed Five Fingers of Death (aka King Boxer, 1972), a brutal piece of kung fu cinema starring everyone’s favorite ruffian Lo Lieh. With its dramatic repurposing of the theme from Ironsides, innovative use of trampolines, and iconic shots of Lo Lieh’s red, glowing Iron Palm technique, Five Fingers was always destined to be a hit, but surprised everyone when it made the charts in the United States, an immediate precursor to the arrival of Bruce Lee fever and many Westerners’ first exposure to Hong Kong cinema.

After falling out with the Shaw Brothers after the release of Five Fingers, Chung then moved to Raymond Chow’s Golden Harvest studio, which soon supplanted Shaw Brothers as the preeminent purveyor of martial arts films. There, Chung worked with some of the most important kung fu actors, actresses and choreographers of the era, including Angela Mao, Sammo Hung, Bruce Leung, Kwan Tak Hing, and Yuen Woo Ping, and filming classics like Broken Oath, an action-packed reworking of Lady Snowblood. Chung stayed with Golden Harvest for a number of years, before he was lured back to Korea in the late seventies by an offer to work as a producer. Unfortunately, the Korean film industry was going through a very difficult time and Chung’s career was cut prematurely short.

Cinema Strikes Back’s David Austin had an opportunity to speak with Chung about his wide-ranging career when he visited New York to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2012 New York Asian Film Festival (which also featured two of his best works – The Swift Knight and Five Fingers of Death).

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On Kung Fu, Wu Xia and Action Choreography

CSB: You’ve directed a number of kung fu movies and a number of wu xia swordplay movies. Which do you prefer and why?

Chung Chang-Hwa: Actually, I like both kung fu and wu xia films. But if I really have to choose just one, I would say kung fu.

CSB: Do you have any background in martial arts yourself?

Chung Chang-Hwa: When I am asked this question, I always like to say, does a director have to be able to dance a ballet to direct a film about it. I have never trained in martial arts. But even though I’ve never trained, I love kung fu and I have done a lot of research. And I’m pretty sure that I have done more research than a lot of the actual actors.

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