Neglected Directors of Shaw: Kuei Chi Hung

[venoms5]

This is an unfinished, (I just wanted to get some of it out there) and perhaps premature piece on Shaw's darkest director, Kuei Chi Hung...

NEGLECTED DIRECTORS OF SHAW: KUEI CHI HUNG

KUEI CHI HUNG: DELINQUENTS, DARK DREAMS & CURSES OF EVIL

Kuei Chi Hung was without doubt the most extreme director to come out of Shaw Brothers studio. Possessing a twisted and fascinating attitude towards filmmaking, his Shaw movies provided some of the darkest cinematic endurance tests to emerge from Hong Kong in the 1970s. Before directing, Kuei tried his hand as an assistant director on a number of dramas and love stories before directing a few of those himself. Kuei was then paired up with Ho Meng Hua as well as his mentor Chang Cheh. Kuei was labeled as ‘inhuman’ by the media due to his penchant for putting actors in dangerous situations in order to get a perfect shot. He instilled a nihilism both behind and in front of the camera that culminated in many of his films being the equivalent of a cinematic miscarriage.

The first film to instill the forthcoming brutal style synonymous of Kuei was Chang Cheh’s THE DELINQUENT (1973) Kuei co-directed the film and its seedy atmosphere seemed to have a major influence with the direction in which Kuei was headed that same year.

Beginning to one of the most striking and visceral opening credits sequences of any genre, depicting Wang Chung (in slow motion) bursting through painted backdrops of shanty homes and apartment complexes amidst blue and red tinted shots of him kicking and punching at the screen which erupts in green colored cracks as if he is breaking through a glass wall. Once the film begins proper, the next sequence depicts a rundown take out kitchen replete with close ups of customers voraciously downing bowls of noodles; The camera panning over what looks like a cauldron of slop. This repellent, but brief sequence recalls similar scenes that would become commonplace in the Italian cannibal sub-genre. Instead of a hot, sweltering jungle hell, you have the unclean squalor of an urban, concrete jungle inferno; instead of primitive savages feasting on the flesh of interlopers, you have grimy, inner city barbarians that “feed” off of society taking what they want and leaving the rest to rot and fade away into oblivion.

Wang Chung is John Sum. He works in the shabby restaurant seen during the opening of the film. John has a love/hate relationship with his father, the security guard of the Wing Kee Warehouse. The two take care of each other after John’s mother left them both for another man. This is one of the hold overs from Chang Cheh’s cinema in that women are either helpless or are not to be trusted. It also forms the nucleus by which John and his father’s relationship crumbles. Had she not left for a more comfortable life when the two needed her the most, than their family unit would have been stronger, more stable than it eventually becomes. They both refuse to forgive her for leaving. John’s constant troubles with the law results in his father refusing to bail him out. Only when he learns that his son feels the same about his mother, wishing instead to give his father a comfortable life, does Mr. Sum regret not bailing John out of jail. This is, of course, the turning point of the film. It is here that John’s determined, yet unbridled sense of justice brings about his destruction.

Another influence from Chang Cheh’s stable of character play is the rebellious hero who is either blind to the consequences of his actions, or is seduced by the wiles of a “better life” through which circumstances bring about a cruel and inevitable downfall. THE DELINQUENT (1973) is Kuei’s BOXER FROM SHANTUNG (1972). Even though the film has an air of the Godfather of Kung Fu Cinema permeating throughout the movie, the end result is Kuei’s production. After John’s plan to save his relationship with his father fails, ending in violence, John realizes the only way out of the hell hole his existence has encumbered is to destroy the negative forces around him; this includes himself. The film ends with one of the most brutal finales of any genre. The final scene is pure brilliance and a shocking denouement to an almost perfect photographic endurance test.

The fight scenes in THE DELINQUENT (1973) are incredibly brutal and this ferociousness would become a trait of Kuei’s directorial style. Whether it be forcing actors to eat rotten food or refusing to allow an injured man to be taken to the hospital before the desired shot was obtained, Kuei was a fascinatingly ruthless taskmaster. His classification as ‘inhuman’ is consequently justified in his selfish desire and lack of concern for the safety of others in order to make a movie. Cheng Kang was one such director in the pursuit of perfection. Although the resulting film was paramount, personal safety and reverence wasn’t sacrificed for perfection. One of the most disastrous instances of Kuei’s style of ‘realism’ entailed actor Austin Wai Tin-chi. He began his career as a stuntman but at the insistence of other directors Wai was then courted to be a new leading man. Lo Mar had cast him in THE MAGNIFICENT SPEARMEN (1979) when Kuei requested he perform a dangerous stunt (presumably either THE RECKLESS CRICKET or KILLER CONSTABLE) on a film he was working on. The stunt went wrong and Wai broke his back in a fall. He recuperated but his career as a leading man was ended before it even had a chance to begin.

The obscure PAYMENT IN BLOOD (1973) was Kuei’s first solo effort in his newfound cinematic realm of dark subject matter. His first bonafide hit came with the Shaw’s successful entry in the Women-In-Prison genre that began sporadically in the 1950s before hitting big box office with the release of Jack Hill‘s THE BIG DOLL HOUSE (1971). The Naziploitation subgenre soon followed. LOVE CAMP 7 (1969) planted the initial blueprint but didn’t really take off until the release of the controversial ILSA, SHE-WOLF OF THE SS (1974).

THE BAMBOO HOUSE OF DOLLS (1973) was a combination of the two. It was a violent WW2 prison action-sleaze flick that throws in numerous nods to both aforementioned styles of exploitation cinema. In addition to the Japanese villains, there are the inevitable mainstays such as ample nudity, lesbianism, torture, death and the inclusion of freedom fighters, an exciting prison break/car chase and a search for hidden gold.

CONTINUED...

[peringaten]

I think Lo Mar had already cast Wai and got a bunch of footage in the can, if I'm remembering the article and pics I saw correctly.

Anyhoo, Kuei, love this dude. Like it when he got depraved, he did it with style. Man was sick, in the right ways. One of Shaws most eclectically talented for sure.

[venoms5]

Yes, the film was never finished. I've seen the pics and magazine. According to Chang Cheh there apparently wasn't enough footage in the can to salvage the picture. I'll change the wording a bit.