King Hu Jinquan (Chinese:胡金銓, 29 April 1932 – 14 January 1997) was a Chinese filmmaker and actor, based inHong Kong andTaiwan.^[1] He is known for directing variouswuxia films in the 1960s and 1970s, which broughtHong Kong andTaiwanese cinema to new technical and artistic heights. His filmsCome Drink with Me (1966),Dragon Inn (1967), andA Touch of Zen (1970–1971) inaugurated a new generation ofwuxia films in the late 1960s.

TheHarvard Film Archive described Hu as "one of the most influential and important Chinese directors in the history of cinema".^[2]

Hu Jinquan (simplified Chinese:胡金铨;traditional Chinese:胡金銓) was born inBeijing to a well-established family originating fromHandan,Hebei. His grandfather was the governor ofHenan in the lateQing dynasty. His father had studied in Japan and was the owner of the local coal mine, and his mother was a concubine.^[3] His uncle was a high-ranking official in the Republican government. Several of his brothers held high positions in the Communist government.

Hu grew up in Beijing as a child, and emigrated toBritish Hong Kong in 1949. at first he wanted to study in the United States, but could not raise the money for tuition. He then worked for the local Voice of America in Hong Kong.^[4]

After moving to Hong Kong, Hu worked in a variety of occupations, such as advertising consultant, artistic designer and producer for a number of media companies, as well as a part-time English tutor.

In 1958, he joined theShaw Brothers Studio as a set decorator, actor, scriptwriter and assistant director. He acted in the classic 1959 filmThe Kingdom and the Beauty. Under the influence of Taiwanese directorLi Han-Hsiang, Hu embarked on a directorial career, helping him on the phenomenally successfulThe Love Eterne (1963).

Hu's first film as a full-fledged director wasSons of the Good Earth (1965), a film set in theSecond Sino-Japanese War, but he is better remembered for his next film,Come Drink with Me (1966).Come Drink with Me was his first success and remains a classic of thewuxia genre, catapulting the then 20-year-old starletCheng Pei-pei to fame. Blending Japanesesamurai film traditions with Western editing techniques and Chinese aesthetic philosophy borrowed fromChinese music andoperatics, Hu began the trend of a new school ofwuxia films and his perpetual use of strong, valiant heroines.

Leaving the Shaw Brothers Studio in 1966, Hu travelled to Taiwan, where he made anotherwuxia movie,Dragon Inn.Dragon Inn broke box office records and became a phenomenal hit andcult classic, especially inSoutheast Asia. This tense tale of highly skilled martial artists hidden in an inn was said to be the inspiration forAng Lee'sCrouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) andZhang Yimou'sHouse of Flying Daggers (2004). In 2003, the award-winning Malaysian-born Taiwanese auteurTsai Ming-liang madeGoodbye, Dragon Inn, a tribute to Hu, in which all the action takes place during a closing cinema's last show ofDragon Inn.

Chief among the films which exemplify Hu's blend ofChan (Zen) Buddhism and uniqueChinese aesthetics isA Touch of Zen, which won the Grand Prix de la Commission Superieur Technique in 1975Cannes Film Festival,^[5] and which many regard as his masterpiece. After releasingA Touch of Zen, Hu started his own production company and shotThe Fate of Lee Khan (1973) andThe Valiant Ones (1975) back to back on tight finances. The action choreography in both these films was the work of a youngSammo Hung. Other films includeRaining in the Mountain andLegend of the Mountain (both dating from 1979, and shot inSouth Korea), which were loosely based on stories fromPu Songling'sStrange Stories from a Chinese Studio. The reason was that the government of South Korea would help sponsor the budgeting should he produce at least two films in the area. Both are now considered classics.

Though critically hailed, Hu's later films were less commercially successful than his first two films. After his late comedy masterpieceAll the King's Men, he moved to California in the early 1980s. Late in his life, he made a brief return from semi-retirement inThe Swordsman (1990) andPainted Skin (1992), but neither achieved the renown of his first two, financially successfulwuxia films.

Hu lovedPeking opera and was a trustee of a Peking opera institution. He promoted many young Peking opera pupils into the film industry, such asJackie Chan andSammo Hung.^[6]

Hu wasmultilingual and was known to be fluent inMandarin,Cantonese and English, and adept inKorean andJapanese.

Hu spent the last decade of his life inLos Angeles. He died inTaipei of complications fromangioplasty.^[7] At the time of his death, Hu was attached to directThe Battle of Ono, a project he had spent decades working on.^[8][9] He is buried inWhittier, California.

In a 2013 retrospective, theHarvard Film Archive Hu's influence on thewuxia genre as "[what]Kurosawa would do with the samurai film andMinnelli with the Hollywood musical. While Kurosawa had a direct influence on Hu, the comparison with Minnelli is equally apt since both men were highly cultured aesthetes who paid special attention to the décor and art direction of their films and who reveled in the ability of mise-en-scène, movement and the spatial composition of the frame to express character and the relations between characters".^[2]

TheBritish Film Institute wrote that "Hu is not simply the progenitor of thewuxia blockbuster: he goes beyond the escapist pleasures of the genre to take the audience on spiritual journeys that confound expectations".^[10]

Hu is considered one of the most influential figures in the history of Chinese-language cinema.^[2] Directors that have cited his influence includeTsui Hark,John Woo,Ang Lee,Wong Kar-Wai, andTsai Ming-liang.^[11][12]

• King Hu atIMDb
• King HuArchived 2018-06-27 at theWayback Machine at Hong Kong Cinemagic
• Senses of Cinema - King Hu
• King Hu at theHong Kong Movie Database

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