By Jean Lukitsh | Published October 14, 2009

Love them or hate them, exploitation films have a long if not entirely respectable history. The bad ones are so poorly conceived and made as to be unwatchable. But the good ones – ah, the good ones are a movie fan’s guilty pleasure. And nobody turned out high quality, luridly mesmerizing, over-the-top operatic sex-and-violence epics like the Shaw Brothers studio director Sun Chung. Although his output was small – about 40 films over the course of his career – compared to Shaw stalwarts like Chang Cheh and Chu Yuan, a high percentage of Sun’s work hits the sweet spot of grindhouse perfection. Working in the genres of kung fu action, true crime, sexploitation, and horror, Sun brought amazingly fluid camera work and a sure hand in directing some of Hong Kong’s top screen talent to projects that might otherwise have been dismissed as crap. With Sun Chung at the helm, however, the results are, well, pretty splendid.

Sun Chung (Suen Chung, Sun Zhong) was born in Shandong in 1941 and grew up in Taiwan. After graduating from the National Institute of Arts there, he went to work in the local film industry as a production assistant. In 1968, he directed a musical titled WILD GIRL, and in 1970 the success of his second film, the comedy TOPS IN EVERY TRADE, brought him to the attention of the Shaw Brothers studio in Hong Kong. His Shaw debut was the wuxia film THE DEVIL’S MIRROR (1972). It’s a standard jianghu sword and sorcery tale, no different from hundreds of other films of the era, except for the vertiginous cinematography. Sun’s camera never stands still. It whirls, tracks, swoops, and follows the action, taking the viewer into the story as an unseen participant.

Poster for BIG BAD SIS.

Despite this early venture into martial arts filmmaking, Sun devoted his next few years at the Shaw studio to making a number of sexploitation films. Starting with THE SUGAR DADDIES (1973) and COHABITATION (1975), which he wrote as well as directed, Sun made his reputation as an intelligent if uninhibited purveyor of soft core sex films, Hong Kong style (meaning they often included kung fu set pieces and a subtext promoting righteousness despite the sleaze). He contributed segments to the popular omnibus series THE CRIMINALS (1976-1977), which re-enacted notorious recent local crimes, most of which seemed to involve prostitution or perversions of various kinds. (And let me insert a favorite memory here from one of THE CRIMINALS series, a throwaway detail incidental to the main story, but alleging that the Shaw studio hired Triad members and street gangs to work as extras on their action films, and sometimes when the director yelled “Cut” after a fight scene, the gangs went on battling until they were pulled apart by the crew!).

The high point of this part of Sun Chung’s career would have to be his collaborations with the fearless and feisty actress Chen Ping. Starting with THE DRUG CONNECTION (aka THE SEXY KILLER, 1976), a remake of Pam Grier’s COFFY, and continuing with BIG BAD SIS (1976) and THE LADY EXTERMINATOR (1977), Sun and Chen pretty much owned the subgenre of “ballsy chick avenger movie.” BIG BAD SIS made a huge impression on me when I first encountered it over thirty years ago. Despite the semi-pornographic interludes, Chen Ping essentially channelled actor Chen Kuan-tai’s persona in films like 1975’s BIG BROTHER CHENG ( the resemblance was deliberate, with Chen Kuan-tai making a cameo appearance in character), providing support and protection for her fellow factory workers against the men who try to exploit them.

The evil eagles of THE AVENGING EAGLE.

Starting in 1977, Sun went back to making classic action films and started working with Shaw studio’s A list talent. From JUDGEMENT OF AN ASSASSIN (1977) to THE PROUD YOUTH and THE AVENGING EAGLE (both 1978), THE KUNG FU INSTRUCTOR and THE DEADLY BREAKING SWORD (1979), and KID WITH A TATTOO (1980), Sun crafted some of the most entertaining martial arts films of the era. His action director was Tong Gaai (Tong Kai, Tang Chia), the former partner of Lau Kar-leung, and a specialist in weaponry. In these hyperkinetic films, both drama and action cohere to keep audiences on the edge of their seats throughout the narrative. THE AVENGING EAGLE, a dark story of betrayal and revenge, is generally considered one of star Ti Lung’s best films. He would work with Sun again in THE DEADLY BREAKING SWORD and THE KUNG FU INSTRUCTOR (as well as in the sequel, THE MASTER STRIKES BACK, in 1985). Wong Yue (aka Wong Yu), a young martial artist best known for his work with Lau Kar-leung in films like EXECUTIONERS FROM SHAOLIN (1977) and DIRTY HO (1979), really shines as the star of THE PROUD YOUTH and KID WITH A TATTOO. Alexander Fu Sheng, Chan Wai-man, Yuen Wah and Ku Feng are among the other kung fu actors who did some of their best work under Sun Chung’s direction.

Cult fave HUMAN LANTERNS.

Sun Chung next tried his hand at horror, first with REVENGE OF THE CORPSE in 1981 and then with HUMAN LANTERNS (1982), a cult favorite that features Lo Lieh as a deranged lantern maker who uses the skin of beautiful women to craft his creations. But the era of Shaw’s dominance of the Hong Kong movie scene was drawing to an end. Sun continued to work as a director for a number of smaller studios through the 1980s, making LADY IN BLACK (1987) with Brigitte Lin and CITY WAR (1988) with Chow Yun-fat. His last film as a director was ANGEL HUNTER (1992).

Watch a clip from BIG BAD SIS here.

Watch a trailer for THE AVENGING EAGLE here.

Related Topics:
Chen Ping  •  Shaw Brothers  •  Sun Chung