Kuei Chih-Hung (桂治洪, aka Kwei Chi Hung, Gui Zhi-Hong, Gwai Chi-hung) (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 found critical and commercial success working in a variety of genres, including the hard-boiled crime drama of The Teahouse (1974) and its sequel, Big Brother Cheng (1975), wuxia film Killer Constable (1981), The Killer Snakes (1975) and Hex (1980). Kuei often depicted the poverty of the public housing system, police corruption and colonial government rule.
Early life
Kuei was born in Guangzhou (in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong) on 20 December 1937. 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. After graduating from high school, he studied stage production and filmmaking at Taiwan's National School of the Arts, experimenting on several 8 mm films. After writing a few film scripts for the Taiwan film industry, Kuei joined the Shaw Brothers Studio in the early 1960s. 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.
Shaw Brothers career
At the large Shaw Brothers Studio, Kuei gained a reputation as one of the most promising assistant film directors on numerous Hong Kong productions. In 1970, at the age of 34, he finally got the opportunity to direct a feature, Love Song Over the Sea. Shot in Singapore and Malaysia, the troubled production was initially suspended after the film's star Peter Chen Ho, fell ill. The original director, Shi Mashan, left due to contractual reasons, allowing Kuei to step in. 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.
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).
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. It was followed by a hit sequel in 1975, Big Brother Cheng, with kung fu star Kuan Tai Chen reprising the eponymous role. 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.
Though Kuei's contributions to Hong Kong cinema have often been neglected in recent decades, one film in particular ensured that he would enjoy a devoted cult audience for many years to come. Reaching new extremes in graphic sex and violence, the horror movie The Killer Snakes, is still considered one of Kuei's most notorious and controversial pictures. The plot centers on a young man's special powers with venomous snakes, which allow him to take revenge on those who have wronged him. Several over-the-top scenes of S&M sex and of course lethal snake attacks earned The Killer Snakes its following as a midnight movie classic and to some degree, cemented Kuei's reputation as a maverick filmmaker. The movie is also noteworthy for actor Kam Kwok-Leung's crazily committed performance and the use of hundreds of live poisonous snakes.