Li Pingqian (1902–18 November 1984), born Li Chunshou, was a native of Tongcheng, Anhui, born in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, and a key director of early Chinese cinema; he studied at the University of Shanghai. In 1920 he was admitted to the Star film school under Star Motion Picture Co., Ltd., later working as a camera assistant and translating and editing lecture notes for Wang Xuchang's Chang Ming film correspondence school. In 1924 he co-founded the Shenzhou Film Company with Wang Xuchang and others, its first production, Unbearable Memories (1925), starring Li himself; in 1926 he directed his first film, A Sad Little Sister. When Shenzhou closed for lack of funds in 1927 he moved to Tianyi Film Company as a director, making many pictures in six years, among them Song of the Stage (1931), one of China's earliest sound-on-disc talkies, and Two Girls of the Northeast (1932), which carried strong anti-Japanese feeling. In 1932 he moved to the Star Company, directing films such as The Good Harvest (1933), Children of the Times (1934), Human Relations (1935) and Peach and Plum in Bloom (1936). During the war, in Shanghai's isolated-island period, he directed for the Yihua, Xinhua and Cathay studios, including The Patriot (1939) and Lady Windermere's Fan (1939), adapted from Wilde. After the Japanese occupied the concession in 1941 he joined Zhang Shankun's United and Huaying companies, directing Spring in Peach and Plum (1943) and Laughter and Tears (1945), starring Yan Jun. At the end of 1947 he came to Hong Kong to join the Yung Hwa studio, completing Spring Thunder (1949), a remake of Spring in Peach and Plum; in 1949 he moved to Zhang Shankun's Great Wall Film Company, directing Bai Guang's signature film The Enchantress (1950) and The World of Lies (1950), a comedy mocking the moral frenzy of a collapsing economy. After Zhang Shankun left Great Wall, Li went on to direct for the restructured Great Wall Movie Enterprises for many years as one of its core figures; among his noted films are The Peerless Beauty (1953), written by Lin Huan (Jin Yong) and starring Hsia Moon, which won a Ministry of Culture fine-film award in 1957, Laugh, Clown, Laugh (1960), a remake of his earlier Laughter and Tears and a signature role for Bao Fang, the yueju film Third Sister Liu Jinding (1962), and Three Charming Smiles (1964), Great Wall's first colour widescreen picture and a song film built on Jiangnan melodies. He directed more than ninety films in all; after completing his last, Marriage in Flames (1965), he became Great Wall's artistic adviser, and he died in Hong Kong on 18 November 1984.
Li Pingqian came south from Shanghai and brought his experience of realist and opera films to Great Wall. His The World of Lies (1950) mocked a society turning reckless amid soaring prices, becoming a landmark of Hong Kong's Mandarin cinema, while The Peerless Beauty (1953), written by Jin Yong and starring Hsia Moon, won a Ministry of Culture award in 1957. Directing more than ninety films in all, he embodied the impact of the southward migration of Shanghai filmmakers on Hong Kong's film industry.
Achievements
- 1926 · Directed his first film, A Sad Little Sister.
- 1950 · Directed The World of Lies, a landmark of Hong Kong's Mandarin cinema.
- 1953 · Directed The Peerless Beauty, which won a Ministry of Culture fine-film award in 1957.
- 1965 · Completed his last film, Marriage in Flames, and became Great Wall's artistic adviser.