Lee Sun-fung (1 June 1909 – 21 May 1985), originally named Lee Ping-kuen and nicknamed 'Uncle Cha', was born in Guangzhou to a family from Xinhui, Guangdong. After graduating from a Guangzhou primary school in 1925 he attended Guangdong Provincial First Middle School, worked as a cinema ticket seller and took part in spoken drama, studying under the theatrical reformer Ouyang Yuqian. He entered the film industry in 1935 and began directing in the 1940s, his career spanning the wartime and postwar years and the golden age of Cantonese cinema. In 1952 he joined Cheung Ying, Cheung Wood-yau, Pak Yin, Ng Wui and others to found the Zhonglian Film Company, set up to raise the standard of Cantonese films, and became a mainstay of the company and of 1950s Cantonese cinema. In 1953 he adapted and directed 'Spring' for Zhonglian, which in 1957 received a Ministry of Culture award for outstanding films of 1949–1955. Over his career he wrote and directed more than eighty Cantonese films, eight Mandarin films and ten Chaozhou-dialect films, and scripted many others, being especially known for adapting literary classics by writers such as Ba Jin, Mao Dun and Zhang Henshui. In 1960 he directed 'The Orphan', starring Bruce Lee and based on a novel by Au-yeung Tin, a story of a boy's upbringing that was Bruce Lee's last Hong Kong film and remains one of Lee Sun-fung's best-known works; both 'Spring' and 'The Orphan' are now regarded as Cantonese classics. With his wife, the actress Lee Yuet-ching, he formed an acting family; their son Lee Siu-hung became a screenwriter and television producer, working with his father on adaptations such as 'The Family', 'Su Xiaoxiao' and 'The Last Emperor'. He retired after shooting 'The Devil Husband' in 1978 and died of illness in Hong Kong on 21 May 1985, aged 75.
Lee Sun-fung was known for adapting literary classics and was a leading director at the Zhonglian Film Company, bringing works by Ba Jin, Mao Dun and Zhang Henshui to Cantonese cinema and deepening its literary content and plotting. His 'The Orphan' was Bruce Lee's last Hong Kong film and became a Cantonese classic.
Achievements
- 1935 · Entered the film industry after studying drama under Ouyang Yuqian
- 1952 · Co-founded the Zhonglian Film Company with Cheung Ying, Cheung Wood-yau and others
- 1960 · Directed The Orphan, starring Bruce Lee