Ling Wan (11 November 1925 – 5 January 2007), born Ling Kwok-so in Panyu, Guangdong, was a Hong Kong director and screenwriter of Cantonese films. He finished primary school in Guangzhou and fled the war to Hong Kong alone at sixteen, where he co-founded a small news agency and sold stories to newspapers. In 1947 he entered the film industry as an extra in the first Cantonese film made after the war, then moved behind the camera, rising from production assistant to continuity, assistant director and screenwriter and serving for years as a senior director's right-hand man. He made his directorial debut in 1952 with The Heroine with Invincible Legs and later studied under and co-directed with the directors Yeung Kung-leong and Wong Tin-lam. Through the 1960s he directed many wuxia films, most famously the Buddhist Spiritual Palm tetralogy made between 1964 and 1965, with action choreographed by Simon Yuen, Tong Kai and Lau Kar-leung; he also used explosives and photographic effects. His colour widescreen films The One-Eyed Jack and The Dragon Fortress were both released in 1968. After his last Cantonese film in 1970 he moved into Mandarin productions, co-directing The Ghost (1972), and in the mid-1980s he was planning director on Tong Kai's Shaolin Prince (1983) and Opium and the Kung-fu Master (1984). He directed more than 110 titles and ran his own film company; his wife Yam Man-lei was a Cantonese opera and film actress. He died in Hong Kong on 5 January 2007.
Ling Wan directed a great many Cantonese wuxia films in the 1950s and 1960s, the Buddhist Spiritual Palm series above all bringing supernatural martial arts and special effects into Cantonese cinema; his long collaborations with the action directors Simon Yuen, Tong Kai and Lau Kar-leung left a large body of concrete action and visual design.
Achievements
- 1952 · Made his directorial debut with The Heroine with Invincible Legs, beginning his career as a film director.
- 1964 · Directed the Buddhist Spiritual Palm series, his most popular wuxia productions.
- 1968 · Directed the colour widescreen wuxia films The One-Eyed Jack and The Dragon Fortress.