Chu Hak (1919–2012), from Taishan, Guangdong, was a screenwriter, director and novelist who also wrote under the pen names Tam Chuen, Ding Ke and Siu Yeung. He graduated from the Taishan County Normal School in 1934, published his first play that year and joined the Blue-White Theatre Company in Guangzhou, becoming a driving force in the theatre movement of South China. During the Japanese invasion he staged patriotic and comfort-tour performances across Guangdong, Jiangxi, Hunan and Guangxi, and in 1944 led the Chinese Union Theatre Company at an eight-province festival in Guilin, directing two plays. He came to Hong Kong in 1947 and began film work in 1948 as an actor and assistant director, directing his first feature, a Cantonese film, in 1950. In the early 1950s, with leftist film circles short of talent after deportations by the colonial government, he wrote scripts for the Great Wall Film Company, including several acclaimed works, until he was dismissed in 1958. He then serialised novels under the name Tam Chuen for newspapers and continued writing screenplays. His 1973 stage production of The House of 72 Tenants ran for more than 120 performances, and Shaw Brothers' Cantonese film adaptation broke box-office records and helped revive Cantonese filmmaking. He joined Television Broadcasts as a director in 1973, later worked in Singapore, helped found a Hong Kong film and television theatre group in 1987, received a lifetime achievement award from the Hong Kong Federation of Drama Societies in 2008, and died in Hong Kong on 19 March 2012, aged 92.
Chu Hak worked across theatre, film and television. His 1973 stage production of The House of 72 Tenants ran for more than 120 performances, and the Cantonese film adaptation by Shaw Brothers broke box-office records and helped revive Cantonese filmmaking. He also wrote screenplays and, as Tam Chuen, serialised novels in Hong Kong newspapers.
Achievements
- 1950 · Directed his first feature, a Cantonese film.
- 1973 · Staged The House of 72 Tenants, which ran for over 120 performances.
- 2008 · Received a lifetime achievement award from the Hong Kong Federation of Drama Societies.