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27-504: The Harvard Film Archive described Hu a “one of the most influential and important Chinese directors in the history of cinema.” Hu Jinquan ( simplified Chinese : 胡金铨 ; traditional Chinese : 胡金銓 ) was born in Beijing to a well-established family originating from Handan , Hebei . His grandfather was the governor of Henan in the late Qing dynasty . His father had studied in Japan and

54-666: A film conservation center near Central Square, Cambridge . Harvard Film Archive won the 2020 Webby Award for Cultural Institution in the category Web. The archive was founded in 1979 by Robert Gardner , Vlada K. Petric and Stanley Cavell in Harvard's Department of Visual and Environmental Studies, with grants from the Henry Luce Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities . It opened on March 16, 1979, with

81-529: A screening of Ernst Lubitsch ’s silent film, Lady Windermere's Fan . Film programmer Amos Vogel 's extensive Cinema 16 film collection, originally sold to Barney Rosset and Grove Press circa 1966–1967, served as the founding collection for the Harvard Film Archive. The archive's first curator was Vlada K. Petric , who expanded the collection and established the year-round regular screenings. He retired in 1995 and in 1999 Bruce Jenkins assumed

108-573: A year and contains some rarities, such as some of the only prints in the United States of several films by Serbian director Dusan Makavejev . It also features a large collection of German cinema and the Bavarian Film Fund donates prints of any films that it finances. After the death of Karen Aqua , the archive was given more than 300 of her works, both completed and unfinished. The Archive's mission includes to conserve, restore, and exhibit

135-681: Is a film archive and cinema located in the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts . Dedicated to the collection, preservation and exhibition of film, the HFA houses a collection of over 25,000 films in addition to videos, photos, posters and other film ephemera from around the world and from almost every period in film history. The HFA cinematheque screens films weekly in its 188-seat theater. It also maintains

162-463: Is not simply the progenitor of the wuxia blockbuster: he goes beyond the escapist pleasures of the genre to take the audience on spiritual journeys that confound expectations." Hu is considered one of the most influential figures in the history of Chinese-language cinema. Directors that have cited his influence include Tsui Hark , John Woo , Ang Lee , Wong Kar-Wai , and Tsai Ming-liang . Harvard Film Archive The Harvard Film Archive (HFA)

189-575: The Beauty . Under the influence of Taiwanese director Li Han-Hsiang , Hu embarked on a directorial career, helping him on the phenomenally successful The Love Eterne (1963). Hu's first film as a full-fledged director was Sons of the Good Earth (1965), a film set in the Second Sino-Japanese War , but he is better remembered for his next film, Come Drink with Me (1966). Come Drink with Me

216-487: The Hollywood musical. While Kurosawa had a direct influence on Hu, the comparison with Minnelli is equally apt since both men were highly cultured aesthetes who paid special attention to the décor and art direction of their films and who reveled in the ability of mise-en-scène, movement and the spatial composition of the frame to express character and the relations between characters.” The British Film Institute wrote that "Hu

243-554: The Hong Kong box office. The Swordsman currently holds a 73% rating on Rotten Tomatoes . Andrew Saroch of Far East Films writes that " Swordsman is undoubtedly a film that improves with successive viewings. Initial impressions are that this is a convoluted and confusing swordplay film that attracts the eye with its visual flair, but is ultimately easier to admire than to warm to. However, on second and especially third viewing, Swordsman reveals more of its hidden depths and draws

270-555: The King's Men , he moved to California in the early 1980s. Late in his life, he made a brief return from semi-retirement in The Swordsman (1990) and Painted Skin (1992), but neither achieved the renown of his first two, financially successful wuxia films. Hu loved Peking Opera and was a trustee of a Peking Opera institution. He promoted many young Peking Opera pupils into the film industry, such as Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung . Hu

297-568: The Shaw Brothers Studio in 1966, Hu travelled to Taiwan, where he made another wuxia movie, Dragon Inn . Dragon Inn broke box office records and became a phenomenal hit and cult classic , especially in Southeast Asia . This tense tale of highly skilled martial artists hidden in an inn was said to be the inspiration for Ang Lee 's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) and Zhang Yimou 's House of Flying Daggers (2004). In 2003,

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324-743: The Sunflower Manual is hidden and are fighting over the manual. Linghu Chong shows up, kills Gu Jinfu, exposes Yue Buqun's treachery and defeats him. He decides to spend the rest of his life roaming the jianghu with his friends. The theme song of the film, "Chong Hoi Yat Sing Siu" (滄海一聲笑; "A Sound of Laughter in the Vast Sea"), was composed by James Wong , who also wrote its lyrics, performed in Cantonese by Samuel Hui and also in Mandarin by Lo Ta-Yu , James Wong and Hark Tsui . The film grossed HK$ 16,052,552 at

351-744: The award-winning Malaysian-born Taiwanese auteur Tsai Ming-liang made Goodbye, Dragon Inn , a tribute to Hu, in which all the action takes place during a closing cinema's last show of Dragon Inn . Chief among the films which exemplify Hu's blend of Chan (Zen) Buddhism and unique Chinese aesthetics is A Touch of Zen , which won the Grand Prix de la Commission Superieur Technique in 1975 Cannes Film Festival , and which many regard as his masterpiece. After releasing A Touch of Zen , Hu started his own production company and shot The Fate of Lee Khan (1973) and The Valiant Ones (1975) back to back on tight finances. The action choreography in both these films

378-427: The collection's prints. It prioritizes film-to-film preservation for archival stability, authenticity, and aesthetics. It may also perform film-to-digital transfers. 42°22′25.15″N 71°06′53.06″W  /  42.3736528°N 71.1147389°W  / 42.3736528; -71.1147389 The Swordsman (1990 film) The Swordsman , also known as Swordsman , is a 1990 Hong Kong wuxia film. King Hu

405-583: The dead Lin Pingzhi and infiltrates the Mount Hua School. He tricks Linghu Chong into revealing the whereabouts of the Sunflower Manual and then poisons him. Linghu Chong is saved by Ren Yingying and Lan Fenghuang of the Sun Moon Holy Cult. They combine forces to defeat and kill Zuo Lengshan and his men. Around the same time, Yue Buqun, Ouyang Quan, Gu Jinfu and the others have arrived at the location where

432-637: The last decade of his life in Los Angeles . He died in Taipei of complications from angioplasty . At the time of his death, Hu was attached to direct The Battle of Ono , a project he had spent decades working on. He is buried in Whittier , California. In a 2013 retrospective, the Harvard Film Archive Hu's influence on the wuxia genre as “[what] Kurosawa would do with the samurai film and Minnelli with

459-468: The local Voice of America in Hong Kong. After moving to Hong Kong, Hu worked in a variety of occupations, such as advertising consultant, artistic designer and producer for a number of media companies, as well as a part-time English tutor. In 1958, he joined the Shaw Brothers Studio as a set decorator, actor, scriptwriter and assistant director. He acted in the classic 1959 film The Kingdom and

486-458: The manual. While making their way to rendezvous with their Mount Hua School fellows, Linghu Chong and Yue Lingshan chance upon Liu Zhengfeng and Qu Yang, who are planning to retire from the jianghu (martial artists' community). Just then, Zuo Lengshan, who works for Eastern Depot, shows up with his men and tries to arrest Liu Zhengfeng and Qu Yang. Linghu Chong and the others manage to escape, but Liu Zhengfeng and Qu Yang are seriously wounded in

513-576: The new director of the archive. He addressed worries that the archives' absorption in the Library would affect its public film screenings. The collection spans the history of film-making from the silent film era to today, and includes Hollywood films , documentaries , animation , short films , B-movies and feature films from all over the world . It is the largest collection of 35mm film in New England. The collection grows by an average of 15 to 20 films

540-484: The post. In January 2005, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences dean William C. Kirby announced that the archive would be absorbed by the Harvard College Library and managed by the Library of Fine Arts. This caused some concern within the Harvard community about the future of the archive and its programming. Jenkins resigned soon after the announcement. In September 2006 film scholar Haden Guest became

567-450: The process. Before committing suicide, the duo perform "Xiaoao Jianghu", a musical piece they composed together, and pass their instruments and the score to Linghu Chong. Linghu Chong encounters the reclusive swordsman Feng Qingyang and learns the skill Nine Swords of Dugu from him. He also finds out that his gentlemanly master , Yue Buqun, is actually a power-hungry hypocrite. In the meantime, Gu Jinfu's henchman, Ouyang Quan, impersonates

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594-520: The spy agency Eastern Depot , leads a team to retrieve the Sunflower Manual, a martial arts manual stolen from the imperial palace . They track down and attack the thief, Lin Zhennan. Around this time, Linghu Chong and Yue Lingshan, members of the Mount Hua School , encounter Lin Zhennan and save him. Before succumbing to his wounds, Lin Zhennan tells them to tell his son, Lin Pingzhi, where he had hidden

621-603: Was multilingual , and was known to be fluent in Mandarin , Cantonese , and English, and adept in Korean and Japanese . In 1981, Hu reunited with his nephew in the United States . He asked his nephew where his mother and father were and was told that his mother has not been heard from and his father was in a labor camp in Shanxi , but had since been in a car accident and died. Hu spent

648-453: Was credited as the director but allegedly left the project midway, and the film was completed by a team led by producer Tsui Hark . The film is loosely adapted from Louis Cha 's novel The Smiling, Proud Wanderer . The film was followed by two sequels: Swordsman II (1992) and The East Is Red (1993). The story is set in 16th-century China during the Ming dynasty . Gu Jinfu, a eunuch from

675-400: Was his first success and remains a classic of the wuxia genre, catapulting the then 20-year-old starlet Cheng Pei-pei to fame. Blending Japanese samurai film traditions with Western editing techniques and Chinese aesthetic philosophy borrowed from Chinese music and operatics , Hu began the trend of a new school of wuxia films and his perpetual use of strong, valiant heroines. Leaving

702-560: Was the owner of the local coal mine, and his mother was a concubine. His uncle was a high-ranking official in the Republican government. Several of his brothers held high positions in the Communist government. Hu grew up in Beijing as a child, and emigrated to British Hong Kong in 1949. at first he wanted to study in the United States, but could not raise the money for tuition. He then worked for

729-683: Was the work of a young Sammo Hung . Other films include Raining in the Mountain and Legend of the Mountain (both dating from 1979, and shot in South Korea ), which were loosely based on stories from Pu Songling 's Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio . The reason was that the government of South Korea would help sponsor the budgeting should he produce at least two films in the area. Both are now considered classics. Though critically hailed, Hu's later films were less commercially successful than his first two films. After his late comedy masterpiece All

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