Kuei Chih-Hung (桂治洪, aka Kwei Chi Hung, Gui Zhi-Hong, Gwai Chi-hung)[1] (20 December 1937 – 1 October 1999) was a filmmaker who worked for the Hong Kong-based Shaw Brothers Studios, directing more than 40 films throughout the late 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s.
Kuei's passion for cinema began as a high school student in Hong Kong, where he would cobble together makeshift shorts from a shoebox projector and discarded film stock.
Initially hired as an assistant director on two Taiwan-shot Shaw films, Lovers' Rock (1964) and Song of Orchid Island (1965), he then lead projects in Hong Kong and an apprenticeship in Japan, where Kuei continued to work.
Pleased with his work on this film, the studio quickly gave him a number of directorial projects, including the musical comedy, A Time for Love and The Lady Professional (1971), both starring Lily Ho.
[5] In 1973, he joined forces with the popular Shaw Brothers filmmaker, Chang Cheh, co-directing The Delinquent, an edgy action drama about a young dishwasher who falls into a life of crime.
Though a collaboration between the two men, it is Kuei who is credited with the film's distinctive visual style, including the then pioneering use of on-location shoots in Hong Kong's gritty streets and public housing complexes.
The film's success led to a string of early '70s hits with Kuei as the sole director, including the women-in prison exploitation flick, The Bamboo House of Dolls and the acclaimed vigilante drama, The Teahouse.
He proved a versatile, imaginative filmmaker with a distinctive style that carried through to a number of diverse genres including comedy (The Bod Squad, Rat Catcher) and horror (Ghost Eyes).
[2] The Teahouse, about an immigrant restaurant owner trying to protect his family from juvenile gangs, takes a scathing look at the criminal justice system in Hong Kong and is considered one of Kuei's landmark works.
The film is also a strong example of Kuei's penchant for eschewing studio sets for the realistic immediacy of urban locations, vividly depicting the harsh environment of lower-class immigrant life.
Kuei transcended the tired revenge tropes of many action sequels, making Big Brother Cheng a compelling and uncompromising examination of crime, juvenile delinquency and social injustice.
[8] During the late '70s, Kuei also expanded his filmography to include Cantonese-language comedies (Mr. Funnybone, Crazy Imposters, The Reckless Cricket) and kung fu (The Iron Dragon Strikes Back).
The latter contained Kuei's signature social satire, taking on such hot-button topics as real estate development and Hong Kong's looming reunification with China.
Reuniting with his Teahouse/Big Brother Cheng star, Kuan Tai Chen, Kuei's kung fu drama is set in ancient Beijing (a rare period piece for the director).
Kuan plays a loyal detective investigating a burglary at the royal palace, who slowly realizes that the corruption and betrayal he is assigned to vanquish lies at the highest levels of power.
[12] That same year, the 35th Hong Kong International Film Festival paid tribute to Kuei with a seven-film retrospective, including screenings of The Teahouse, Killer Constable and the Hex series.
The film retrospective allowed the son to view his father's notorious cult classic, The Killer Snakes for the first time, 37 years after its initial release.
[14] Kuei's maverick career was the subject of one of Film Comment writer Grady Hendrix's “Kaiju Shakedown” columns in 2015: “But while he was regarded as minor league during his time at Shaw Brothers, today he’s a giant, standing alongside Chang Cheh and Lau Kar-leung as one of the best directors the studio produced.
A pissed off perfectionist with proletarian sensibilities, he directed groundbreaking, realistic crime flicks and some of the filthiest horror movies ever to leave a slime trail across the silver screen.