Ching Siu-tung, born in Hong Kong in 1952, whose real name is Ching Tung-yi and whose family came from Shouxian, Anhui, is the son of the director Cheng Kang and the brother of the action director Ching Siu-lung, and grew up on Shaw Brothers sets. As a youth he studied Peking opera and northern-style martial arts at the Oriental Drama School in Hong Kong, then joined the film industry as a stuntman and double, his first credit being his father's film The 14 Amazons; by about twenty he was working as an action director in television. He made his solo directorial debut with the martial-arts film Duel to the Death in 1983, earning a Best Action Choreography nomination at the 3rd Hong Kong Film Awards. He won that prize at the 6th awards for Witch from Nepal (1986). His 1987 A Chinese Ghost Story retold a ghost romance with lyrical beauty, making its lovers classics of Chinese-language cinema and bringing him Best Director and Best Action Choreography nominations. He took the Best Action Choreography award again at the 10th awards for The Swordsman (1990), and in his Swordsman II (1992) Brigitte Lin's cross-dressing Asia the Invincible became an iconic screen image. A long-time collaborator of Tsui Hark, who produced or directed the Chinese Ghost Story and Swordsman series for which Ching designed the action, he made flying wire-work a signature of 1990s Hong Kong wuxia. He also won Golden Horse awards for action design on New Dragon Gate Inn and a later teen picture, and later designed action for blockbusters including Hero (2002), winning a third Best Action Choreography award at the 22nd Hong Kong Film Awards, and Curse of the Golden Flower (2006).
Ching Siu-tung pushed wuxia choreography from grounded combat toward weightless flight; his wire-work aesthetic shaped classic scenes in A Chinese Ghost Story and Swordsman II and won Hong Kong action directors roles in international blockbusters, making him a key figure in exporting Chinese-language action aesthetics.
Achievements
- 1986 · Won Best Action Choreography at the 6th Hong Kong Film Awards for 'Witch from Nepal'.
- 1990 · Won Best Action Choreography at the 10th Hong Kong Film Awards for 'The Swordsman'.
- 2002 · Won Best Action Choreography at the 22nd Hong Kong Film Awards for 'Hero'.