Sung Tsun-shou


Sung Tsun-Shou or Song Chun-So, was a Mainland Chinese-born Taiwanese film director. He began his film career as screenwriter and assistant director. He came to Taiwan with Li Han-hsiang in 1963 to join Grand Motion Pictures Co., Ltd. Li founded. He began his directorial career in 1966 and made altogether close to thirty films between 1966 and 1978. He was known as “literary director”.

Life and career

Sung Tsun-Shou was born in Jiangdu, Jiangsu in 1930. He was the youngest child in his family and had six brothers and sisters. His father ran a little department store. The first movie he watched at nine was Maiden in Armour starring Chen Yunshang.
Sung arrived in Hong Kong and studied at the Hong Kong Cultural Vocational school in 1949. While he was a student, he also worked part-time in First National Printing Co, where he met King Hu, who worked there as an accountant and proofreader. They shared similar interests and often watched movies together.
Sung and King Hu later moved into an apartment, No.170 Boundary Street in Kowloon, and shared one big room with Li Han-hsiang and four other residents, Feng Yi, Jiang Guang Chao, Ma Li, and Shen Chong. All talented but poor, they decided to become sworn brothers and called themselves "the Idle Seven" in 1953.
Thanks to King Hu, Sung was introduced to Lo Wei and worked for his company the SWANK MOTION PICTURE LIMITED as a screenwriter. Sung wrote the screenplay of Duo Cíng Hé directed by Lo Wei. In the following year he began to work for Shaw Brothers Pictures International Limited as a screenwriter and assistant director.
When Li Han-hsiang moved from Hong Kong to Taiwan to form the Grand Motion Pictures Co., Ltd. Sung came with him to work as his assistant director. Among other films, he participated in the production of Hsi Shih: Beauty of Beauties directed by Li Han-hsiang. Sung made his directorial debut film, A Perturbed Girl at Grand Motion Picture in 1966.
His next film At Dawn, set in the late Qing dynasty and based on a short story by Chu Hsi-ning, received critical acclaim and he was praised to be a "literati director".
In 1971, he directed his first film based on the novel by Chiung Yao, You Can't Tell Him, which won the runner-up award for best picture and best supporting actor in the 9th Golden Horse Awards. In the same year he formed the Eighties Film Company with Yu Ching-chun and Yang Wei-hsiung.
Sung married Chao Ying Ying in 1972 and had two daughters with her. The film Outside the Window, produced by the company and directed by Sung in 1973, was Brigitte Lin’s debut film. Lin was made an instant star by this film, which is based on the namesake autobiographical novel by Chiung Yao, who banned the film from theatrical release in Taiwan.
Sung also directed Story of a Mother in 1973, which is based on the namesake short story by Yu Lihua. The film is highly praised by critics for its realistic depiction of a mother’s sexual desire and its courage to challenge traditional concepts about the role of mother.
Between 1966 and 1982, Sung made altogether twenty-six feature films. The great majority of them are literary romantic films. The four most popular actors and actresses of the genre, namely Brigitte Lin, Joan Lin, Charlie Chin and Chin Han starred in quite a few of his films, such as Outside the Window, News Hen '', Love In The Green Village , He Loved Once Too Many, Love is Smoke, Fallen Flowers, Flowing Water, the Spring Is Gone, and Ask My Love from God. He tried martial arts films once and directed Iron Petticoat in 1969, which led him to believe that he was not good at this popular action genre at all.
A Lily in the Valley'' is the last film Sung directed in 1982, the year when the New Taiwan Cinema movement started.

Filmography

YearEnglish titleOriginal titleNotes
1958The Unforgettable Night《一夜風流》
1959Miss Songbird《歌迷小姐》
1960Let the Young Decide《自由戀愛》
1960Love Ditties on the Tea Hill《茶山情歌》
1963The Honest Hero and the Faithful Dog《義犬遊俠》
1964Trouble on the Wedding Night《狀元及第》