Li Han-hsiang (1926–1996) was a Hong Kong film director, screenwriter and producer. Born in Jinxi county in Fengtian province (now Huludao, Liaoning), he moved with his family to Chengde as a boy and then to Beiping in 1932 to escape the Japanese invasion of Rehe. He studied Western painting at the National Beiping Art College under Xu Beihong and also attended the Shanghai Experimental Theatre School, and this grounding in art and set design shaped his films. He came to Hong Kong in 1947 and worked at the Great China, Great Wall, Daguan and Yonghua studios as a contract actor, art designer, dubber and assistant director, starting out in set design and art, which later made his films especially attentive to sets and costumes. In the mid-1950s he began directing independently, making Red Bloom in the Snow in 1956. His 1958 Huangmei opera film Diao Chan, starring Lin Dai, won him the Best Director award at the 5th Asian Film Festival; The Kingdom and the Beauty (1959) took Best Picture at the 6th Asian Film Festival and The Rear Door (1960) Best Picture at the 7th, establishing his standing in period and Huangmei cinema. In 1962 his The Magnificent Concubine won the technical grand prize for colour interior cinematography at the 15th Cannes Film Festival. In 1963 his Huangmei opera film The Love Eterne, made for Shaw Brothers with Ivy Ling Po cross-dressing as Liang Shanbo, caused a sensation in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Southeast Asia, with some viewers watching it dozens of times; it broke box-office records and won Best Feature Film and Best Director at the 2nd Golden Horse Awards. That year, backed by the Cathay organisation, he founded Grand Motion Picture in Taiwan, making large-scale period films such as The Seven Fairies (1964) and the two-part The Beauty of Xi Shi, the latter winning Best Feature Film at the 4th Golden Horse Awards in 1966; Grand trained actors including Chen Chen, Jiang Qing and Niu Fang-yu and released more than twenty films before closing in 1969. He then turned to quieter drama, producing his late masterwork The Winter (1969). In the 1970s he returned to Hong Kong to direct The Warlord and The Wiles of Men, and launched the Emperor Chien Lung series, blending historical research with entertainment; The Last Tempest won Best Feature Film and Best Actress at the 12th Golden Horse Awards in 1975, and Emperor Chien Lung in Yangzhou took the 16th Golden Horse Award for best adapted screenplay in 1978. In 1983 he was among the first to return to the mainland, co-producing Burning of the Imperial Palace and Reign Behind a Curtain with the Beijing Film Studio and shooting in real palace locations; the films received a special award from China's Ministry of Culture, and in 1986 he shot the Qing court film The Last Emperor of China. He directed some eighty films and died in Beijing on 17 December 1996 while filming the television drama The Burning of the Epang Palace, aged 70; in 1997 he was given a posthumous Lifetime Achievement Award at the 34th Golden Horse Awards.
Coming from an art-design background, Li Han-hsiang brought meticulous historical detail and lavish sets to Chinese-language period cinema, raising the scale and visual standards of Hong Kong film production. The Huangmei opera and imperial-court cycles he pioneered became mainstream genres in 1960s Chinese cinema, and The Love Eterne turned Ivy Ling Po into a household name for her cross-dressing role. His Grand Motion Picture studio trained a generation of screen and behind-the-scenes talent in Taiwan and Hong Kong, and by being among the first to shoot Qing court films on location on the mainland he helped open the way for later cross-strait co-productions.
Achievements
- 1963 · His Huangmei opera film The Love Eterne won Best Feature Film and Best Director at the 2nd Golden Horse Awards
- 1966 · The Beauty of Xi Shi won Best Feature Film at the 4th Golden Horse Awards
- 1983 · Shot Burning of the Imperial Palace with the Beijing Film Studio on the mainland and received a special award from China's Ministry of Culture