Wu Pang (1909–2000) was born and raised in Shanghai to a family from Shunde, Guangdong, and became one of the most prolific directors in Hong Kong film history. After secondary school he worked as a clerk at a Shanghai cinema, translating the Chinese subtitles of foreign films, and taught himself film direction before entering the industry in 1931. He came to Hong Kong in the mid-to-late 1930s and worked at the National Studio and other companies; his early films were mostly dramas, some written by the Cantonese opera playwright Tong Tik-sang, and his first directing credit was Night Delivery of Winter Clothes (1938). In 1949 he brought the Cantonese opera star Kwan Tak-hing back from Singapore to make The Story of Wong Fei-hung (Part One): Whip Against the Candle and its companion Part Two: Burning the Tyrant's Manor, with Kwan as the hero and Shek Kin as the villain; their grounded southern-style duels replaced the stage-like northern swordplay of earlier films and became the series trademark, setting off a kung fu craze that lasted decades. He directed nearly two hundred films, more than fifty of them Wong Fei-hung instalments — more than any other director — including such well-known titles as How Wong Fei-hung Seized the Cannon at Fa Tei and How Wong Fei-hung Righted the Rainbow Bridge, turning the folk hero into a household name on screen. Besides kung fu films he made many dramas and contemporary pictures, and in 1958 he worked with the Emei Film Company to bring Jin Yong's then-serialised The Legend of the Condor Heroes to the screen, while also filming subjects such as Burning of Shaolin and the Drunken Hero Su Qi-er. In the high-output years of the 1940s and 1950s he directed several films a year, ranging from folk legends to modern realism, and organised his own stunt team, the Wu Clan, working for years with actors such as Kwan Tak-hing and Shek Kin. His Wong Fei-hung series was later entered in the Guinness World Records as the longest-running film series. From 1983 he chaired the Hong Kong Motion Picture Producers Association. His 1993 memoir I and Wong Fei-hung recounted five decades of the series, and in 1999 he received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 4th Hong Kong Golden Bauhinia Awards. He died in Hong Kong on 26 March 2000.
Wu Pang turned Wong Fei-hung from a stage and folk figure into a screen hero; his fifty-odd instalments shaped the narrative and genre template of Hong Kong kung fu cinema and influenced several later generations of martial arts films, while he also long chaired the Hong Kong Motion Picture Producers Association from 1983.
Achievements
- 1938 · Came to Hong Kong and directed his first feature, Night Delivery of Winter Clothes.
- 1949 · Directed the first Wong Fei-hung film, launching the long-running series.
- 1999 · Received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 4th Hong Kong Golden Bauhinia Awards.