Chung Chang-wha (born 1 November 1928) is a Korean director and screenwriter who graduated from the Music School of Seoul. After more than a year as an assistant director he began making independent films at twenty-two, his debut being The Final Temptation (1953); he completed three more the following year, drawing the attention of Korean studios that hired him to direct. Between 1953 and 1968 he made about thirty to forty films, among them A Horizon (1961), which won him a Korean best director award, Watching Home Town (1958), a Hong Kong-Korean co-production, and Lady Jang (1961). From the late 1950s he worked with the Hong Kong industry on features with mixed Hong Kong and Korean casts, such as Deep in My Heart (1967), produced by Wong Cheuk-hon's Lan Kwong Film Company. He travelled to Hong Kong in early 1968 to direct Temptress of a Thousand Faces (1969) and Valley of the Fangs (1970) for Shaw Brothers; the studio, rendering his Korean name Chung Chang-Hwa in Chinese, gave him the screen name Cheng Chang Ho. After both sides were pleased he renewed his contract for Heads for Sale (1970), Six Assassins (1971), The Swift Knight (1971) and King Boxer (1972), the kung fu film that broke into the international market. In 1973 he joined Golden Harvest, directing The Devil's Treasure (1973), The Skyhawk (1974), The Association (1975) and The Double Crossers (1976). He returned to Korea after completing Broken Oath (1977).
Chung Chang-wha was a key figure in Hong Kong-Korean film exchange during the 1960s and 1970s. His King Boxer, released widely in the United States in 1973, was one of the first Hong Kong films to win a mainstream North American audience, igniting the Western kung fu craze even before Bruce Lee's breakthroughs and opening international markets for Shaw Brothers.
Achievements
- 1953 · Made his directorial debut with The Final Temptation as an independent producer-director
- 1961 · Won a Korean best director award for A Horizon
- 1972 · Directed King Boxer for Shaw Brothers; its wide 1973 US release helped ignite the kung fu craze