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Richard James Havis

Tony Ching Siu-tung is best known for modernising martial arts choreography in the 1990s, and for directing the A Chinese Ghost Story films alongside his powerful producer and friend Tsui Hark.
But Ching also forged a directorial career in his own right, beginning with the wuxia Duel to the Death, the film which got him noticed by Tsui.
Ching has never been regarded as an auteur, but it is easy to spot his unique choreographic style. His wirework, for instance, is fluid but filmed – by himself – with quick edits in mind, and he loves marrying kung fu with explosions.
Here we look at some of the less well known films Ching directed.
1. Witch from Nepal (1986)


Ching’s second film as director, Witch from Nepal, sometimes called Nepal Affair, is a surprisingly adept spooker with solid direction, a good enough script and some excellent ghostly martial arts sequences courtesy of the director and former Venom Mob member Phillip Kwok Chun-fung.
“Witch from Nepal is very entertaining and full of good stuff like the dead rising from their graves, a sacred amulet, a wild-haired devil who uses a skull as a club and a wronged sweetheart,” said the Post in 1986.
The story features Chow Yun-fat, a few months before he became a superstar in A Better Tomorrow, as a tourist who becomes involved with a witch – played by Emily Chu Bo-yee, later noted for her role in the ghostly classic Rouge – while visiting Nepal.

She follows him back to Hong Kong, an affair ensues and he begins to learn some of her supernatural powers. What could possibly go wrong?
The martial arts scenes, which feature leaps, somersaults and swoops via elegant wirework, foreshadow Ching’s work with Tsui, as do the dramatic explosions at the end.
The make-up effects and models, which show up in a scene featuring a bunch of mud-encrusted zombies, could be straight out of A Chinese Ghost Story.
2. A Terra-Cotta Warrior (1989)


This action romance features an unlikely confluence of talent: famed Chinese director Zhang Yimou in an acting role, mainland Chinese star Gong Li, Ching as director and Tsui as producer.
The film garnered attention back in 1989 because the romance between Gong and Zhang, who had left his wife for the actress, was at its height.
China was not fully open to Hong Kong filmmakers in the late 1980s, but producers like Tsui had begun to shoot films there. For A Terra-Cotta Warrior, Tsui and Ching decided to take advantage of the low production costs to co-produce with Xian Film Studios and shoot in Shaanxi province.
A Terra-Cotta Warrior, which was largely shot with a mainland Chinese crew, consequently has a very mainland feel, with much slower action scenes and less frantic camera movements. It is smooth and classy compared to Hong Kong films of the time, although also less exciting.

In spite of its art-house talent – Zhang was one of the directors who brought China’s Fifth Generation filmmakers to international attention – it is a thoroughly commercial work, based on a book by Hong Kong novelist Lilian Lee Pik-wah.
The story features Zhang and Gong having a love affair in two time zones and places: Qin dynasty (221BC-207BC) Xian and 1930s Shanghai.
Zhang told the Post that working for Ching was a novel experience. “Hong Kong directors don’t give actors too much time for preparation. That’s understandable due to the fast pace of life in Hong Kong,” he said.
The Post said: “The fact that the film doesn’t have an ounce of originality from beginning to end doesn’t matter one little bit, because it succeeds admirably in fulfilling the cardinal rule of commercial cinema – which is to keep the audience entertained.”
3. Dr Wai in the Scripture with No Words (1996)


This unabashed Indiana Jones rip-off – it contains elements of both Raiders of the Lost Ark and Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade – does manage some exciting moments of high entertainment. That is largely because Jet Li Lianjie, then at the zenith of his success in Hong Kong cinema, performs splendidly.
But outside Li’s kung fu and some nicely designed sets, the film disappoints.
“Dr Wai In The Scripture With No Words is visually scrumptious but textually as inept as its English name,” wrote Paul Fonoroff in the Post. “Known in Chinese simply as The King of Adventure, this Indiana Jones-style blockbuster has everything going for it but lacks a credible plot.”
The story features Li as Doctor Wai, an archaeologist with martial arts skills, who is trying to track down a magic scroll in wartime China before the Japanese army get their evil hands on it.

Nervous around women, he falls in love with his Once Upon in a Time in China paramour Rosamund Kwan Chi-lam, who is actually a Japanese spy.
Ching encountered many problems, including a destructive fire, while shooting the film. The studio behind it, Golden Harvest, was dissatisfied with the first version and took the unusual – for 1990s Hong Kong – step of hiring another director, reportedly Tsui, to reshoot some scenes.
The new version, which screened in Hong Kong cinemas, was very different, and featured Li as a modern-day novelist who imagined he was the hero of the adventure story he was writing. But Ching’s first cut is usually the one that is shown internationally.
4. An Empress and the Warriors (2008)


Ching’s historical war movie, made in the style of the epics that were popular as co-productions with mainland China in the early 2000s, is straightforward but nicely executed. It contains all the usual stuff – romance, betrayal and courtly intrigue – but is elevated by some terrific action scenes.
Ching composes the big battle scenes with clarity, and they do not suffer from the whizzing camerawork that often spoiled such scenes in the early 2000s. Ching is confident in his style and does it his way – sometimes in the style of the Hollywood epics of the 1950s.
The story features Kelly Chen Wai-lam – excellent in her first period drama – as an emperor’s daughter who is unexpectedly thrust into the position of ruler and general. When some at court dispute her authority, Donnie Yen Ji-dan’s character comes to her aid.
Much of the film follows Chen’s protagonist as she proves she can lead her army into battle.

Ching does a very neat job with the story, showing he had learned to direct the genre from working as choreographer for Zhang Yimou on Hero and Peter Chan Ho-sun on The Warlords. The latter involved such a fractious and gruelling shoot, one presumes he discovered what not to do from the experience.
In this regular feature series on the best of Hong Kong cinema, we examine the legacy of classic films, re-evaluate the careers of its greatest stars, and revisit some of the lesser-known aspects of the beloved industry.
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A still from Dr Wai in the Scripture with No Words, starring Jet Li (centre).

Film director Tony Ching Siu-tung, pictured in 1999. From a film starring Kelly Chen and Donnie Yen to an Indiana Jones rip-off with Jet Li, we look at four less well known films he directed. Photo: SCMP

Emily Chu (left) and Chow Yun-fat in a still from Witch from Nepal. Photo: Fortune Star Media Limited

Zhang Yimou (left) and Gong Li in a still from A Terra-Cotta Warrior.

(From left) Takeshi Kaneshiro, Charlie Yeung and Jet Li in a still from Dr Wai in the Scripture with No Words.

Donnie Yen and Kelly Chen in a still from An Empress and the Warriors.

Hong Kong director Riley Ip’s 3 best films, with Shu Qi, Kelly Chen, Eric Tsang and Twins

Eric Tsang (centre) and Nicholas Tse in a still from Riley Ip’s 1999 film Metade Fumaca, one of five he made around the turn of the century.

Riley Ip Kam-hung at an interview with the Post in 1999. Photo: SCMP

Takeshi Kaneshiro in a still from Lavender (2000).

Ip (left) talks to his stars Kaneshiro and Kelly Chen on the set of Lavender.

Wong You-nam (left) and Shawn Yue Man-lok in a still from Just One Look (2002).

Charlene Choi Cheuk-yin in a still from Just One Look (2002).

Kung fu queen Angela Mao’s unusual turn in Broken Oath, a remake of Japan’s Lady Snowblood

Angela Mao in a still from Broken Oath. Photo: Eureka Entertainment

Angela Mao in a still from Broken Oath, in which she plays a Qing dynasty assassin, one of her greatest performances. Photo: Eureka Entertainment

A still from Broken Oath. Photo: Eureka Entertainment

Naomi Oka in a still from Broken Oath. Photo: Eureka Entertainment

Bruce Leung Siu-lung (left) and Michael Chan Wai-man in a still from Broken Oath. Photo: Eureka Entertainment

Why Hong Kong cinema had a bad early 2000s save for films like Infernal Affairs and Ip Man

Louis Koo Tin-lok (left) and Jackie Chan in a still from Rob-B-Hood (2006).

Andy Lau (left) and Tony Leung Chiu-wai in an iconic scene from Infernal Affairs (2002), one of the best and most popular films from 2000s Hong Kong cinema. Photo: SCMP

People walk past posters for The Storm Riders outside a cinema in Tsim Sha Tsui in 1998. Photo: SCMP

Louis Koo (left) and Jackie Chan in a still from Rob-B-Hood (2006).

Stephen Chow in a still from Kung Fu Hustle (2004).

(From left) Andy Lau, Tony Leung, Kelly Chen Wai-lam, Leon Lai Ming and Chapman To attend a press conference for the launch of Infernal Affairs III in Beijing in 2003. Photo: SCMP

Donnie Yen in a still from Ip Man (2008).

Daniel Wu (right) in a still from The Heavenly Kings (2006), a mockumentary film he also directed.

Election (2005) director Johnnie To (centre) and actors Tony Leung Ka-fai (left) and Simon Yam attend a screening of the film at the Cannes Film Festival on May 14, 2005. Photo: AFP

How the Erotic Ghost Story films shocked and seduced Hong Kong

(From left) Amy Yip, Man Siu and Kudo Hitomi in a still from Erotic Ghost Story.

Pal Sinn (left) and Amy Yip in a still from Erotic Ghost Story (1990). Yip made the first Erotic Ghost Story a success, mainly because of her buxom physique.

Joey Wong and Leslie Cheung in a still from A Chinese Ghost Story (1987). Photo: Film Workshop

A promotional image for Erotic Ghost Story (1990).

Charine Chan (bottom right) in a promotional image for Erotic Ghost Story 2 (1991).

A promotional image for Erotic Ghost Story 3 (1992).

(From left) Pauline Chan, Kenny Wong and Chik King-man in a still from Erotic Ghost Story 3 (1992).

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From a film starring Kelly Chen and Donnie Yen to an Indiana Jones rip-off with Jet Li, 4 of Tony Ching’s lesser-known productions


From a film starring Kelly Chen and Donnie Yen to an Indiana Jones rip-off with Jet Li, 4 of Tony Ching’s lesser-known productions.
