Su Fung (19 March 1939 – 28 June 2007), born Li Shao-juan, was a Hong Kong actress with ancestral roots in Panyu, Guangdong. She was born in Shanghai, where her father ran a Western-medicine business, and as a schoolgirl at Xie Jin Middle School she performed with the school drama troupe. At the age of thirteen she moved south to Hong Kong with her family and studied at Pooi To Girls' Middle School. In 1956 she joined Motion Picture & General Investment, known as MP&GI, in the same intake of newcomers as Ding Hao, Kelly Lai Chen, Tien Ching and Lin Tsang. Her screen debut came in Yue Feng's Green Hills and Jade Valleys in 1956, after which she stayed with the studio. She herself recalled that at the time she had appeared in only three films, all in supporting parts; among them The Four Daughters (1957) was directed by Doe Ching, in which she played the youngest of four sisters alongside Mu Hong, Lin Cui and Julie Yeh, while Air Hostess (1959) was directed by Evan Yang and starred Grace Chang and Julie Yeh. MP&GI was then Hong Kong's second-largest studio after Shaw Brothers, and Soo Fung, cast for her fresh and demure looks as well-bred young ladies, usually played second leads or supporting roles and was remembered for her gentle presence. She appeared in more than a dozen films, among them The Four Daughters (1957), Lan Gui Feng Yun (1959), June Bride (1960), The Wild, Wild Rose (1960) and The Stars, the Moon and the Sun (1961), the last released in two parts. Some reviewers noted the limits of her range, particularly in emotionally charged scenes. Within the studio's Mandarin-film system she never became a top-line star but for years received steady parts, a typical contract player of the studio era. After marrying in 1962 she retired from acting at the age of twenty-three and never appeared on screen again. A private person who devoted herself to family and rarely gave interviews, she left relatively scattered records of her life. She died on 28 June 2007, aged 68.
Though often cast in supporting parts, Su Fung's gentle and demure presence made her a representative character actress of the MP&GI Mandarin era; her brief six-year screen career preserves a snapshot of late-1950s and early-1960s Hong Kong cinema and reflects the lot of supporting players under the studio system.
Achievements
- 1956 · Joined MP&GI and made her screen debut in Yue Feng's Green Hills and Jade Valleys
- 1957 · Appeared as the youngest of four sisters in Doe Ching's The Four Daughters
- 1960 · Appeared in June Bride and in The Wild, Wild Rose starring Grace Chang