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		Doe Chin

Other names :	陶秦 Doe Ching Qin Fuji Tao Qin Tiu Chun To Kum

Birthdate :	1/1/1915
Date of death :	16/5/1969
Nationality :	Hong Kong
Workplace :	Hong Kong
Activities :	Director (48), Writer (44), Lyricist (1)

	Biography
Doe was a major filmmaker during the golden age of Hong Kong Mandarin cinema in the 1950s and 1960s. Both a specialist of "wenly" or "wen" melodrama (traditional Chinese drama) and comedy whether it is familial, romantic or musical, Doe Ching has filmed many classics for the Shaw And Sons, Ltd, the MP & GI Co Tth and the Shaw Brothers giving some of their best roles to the great stars of that time such as Lucilla Yu Ming, Linda Lin Dai, Peter Chen Ho, Betty Loh Ti and Kwan Shan. Doe Ching was born Qing Fugi in 1915 in Zhejiang, a coastal province south of Shanghai. His first steps in the world of cinema date back to the early 1940s when after having graduated in Chinese literature he finds a job as a translator of scenarios and dialogues for movies. He already uses the name of Doe Ching, a pseudonym worthy of a student in literature as it associates his family name (Ching) with a kind of precious brand of china ('doe qui'). His skill in adapting a script from a western film attracts the attention of a well-known director: Zhang Shankun and Doe Ching becomes the lead scriptwriter for the Shanghai-based company China United Film (Hua Ying). His first screenplay is for the film Guiding Vessel/Renhai Cihang in 1942. Doe Ching leaves the film industry at the end of WWII but it doesn't take him long to get back to it, as he writes six screenplays between 1945 and 1949, a period of turmoil for China with the fierce fighting between the nationalist and communist forces. In 1949 Zhang Shunkun invites Doe Ching to join him in Hong Kong and to work for the Great Wall Pictures Corporation. One of his first screenplays is The Awful Truth/ Shuohuang Shijie, a satirical comedy ctiticizing the ramping corruption and materialism in the last years of the nationalist regime by showing swindling speculators and crooks. Two years later Doe Ching make his directorial debut with Father Marries Again/Yi Jia Chun, for which he himself wrote the screenplay that deals with a topical subject. It's indeed the story of a family of Mandarin-speaking immigrants who have to adapt to a new life in their adoptive city, far from their native land; a narrative that evoked the situation of hundreds of thousands of HK refugees including Doe Ching himself. After directing a few films Doe Ching joins the Shaw and Sons in 1953 where he quickly become one of the most substantial and prolific filmmakers of the studio with 14 films in 3 years. His favourite film genres are the romantic comedy as well as the wenly, that is to say a form of melodrama, although he also directs in 1954 Beyond The Grave/ Ren Gui lian, a ghost story extracted from the classical book Liaozhai Zhiyi and filmed in an enchanting expressionist style. He also writes an early draft of the screenplay of Princess Yang Kwei Fei, a Shaw and Sons/Japanese studio co-production, directed in 1955 by the master film maker Kenji Mizoguchi. In 1956, Doe Ching leaves the Shaw studios to work for their newly establish MP & GI Co Ltd studios whose style, closer to the contemporary culture and society, better suits his themes. That's where he directs his first great classics such as Our Sister Hedy/Si Qianjin (1957), Little Darling and Calendar Girll/Longxiang Fengwu (1959), a musical shot in colour. In 1959, Doe Ching gets a tempting offer from Run Run Shaw who is turning the Shaw and Sons into a more prestigious studio The Shaw Brothers , with the most luxurious film sets in all Hong Kong, with modern equipments and shining stars. He cannot resist such an opportunity and joins the new studio, he then starts the last stage of his career during which he makes another 20 films in a decade. Now he has the means to direct Hollywood-style musicals as luxurious and lively as Belles/Qian Jiao Bai Mei (1961), Love Parade/ Hua Tuan Jin Cu (1962) and The Dancing MillionairessWan Hua Ying Chun (1964) starring the studio's great divas like Linda Lin Dai or Betty Loh Ti alongside actor Peter Chen Ho. Not only are those films shining popular hits but they're also regularly awarded in local film galas and pan-asian cinema festivals. For ten years, Doe Ching and his films won more accolades than any other Chinese film director except for Li Han Hsiang. Because he made a few thrillers and detective films, Doe Ching is at time described rather wrongly as the 'Chinese Hitchcock' by the Shaw publicity department. Actually, the wenly remains his favourite genre. In 1961 he directs two of the genre's best examples, Golden Trumpet /Jin Laba, the Hong Kong version of the great Italian classic Le Voleur de bicyclette, one of the rare dramas of that time centred on a male protagonist and not a female one, as well as Love Without End/Bu Liao Qing, a tearful drama starring Linda Lin Dai and Kwan Shan that many consider as one of the best wenly ever made. Once again, those films will get Doe Ching and his actors numerous awards. The tragic couple Linda Lin Dai and Kwan Shan is reunited for The Blue and The Black/Lan Yu Hei , the most ambitious film production ever made by Doe Ching as it was done in two parts, in colour and included many epic scale war set pieces . It will take him at least 3 years to complete the film (shown in 1966) whose production will be disturbed by the early death of his female lead in 1964. In 1967, Doe Ching directs My Dream Boat/Chuan, an adaptation of an eponymous best-seller by the Taiwanese novelist Qiong Yao which showcases the studio new rising young stars Lily Ho, Cheng Li, Yang Fan (1) and Essie Lin. The narrative takes the form of a romantic comedy in its first half then of a tearful melodrama in its second half. It is a huge success, both critical and popular. The film immediately launches Lily Ho among superstars. Alas, My Dream Boat represents the swan song of the Shaw's wenly as the genre then starts losing speed compared to the Wu Xia Pian. Doe Ching's last couple of years are darkened by illness and by the populare decline of his favourite genre. As the wuxia pian asserts its domination, Shaw Brother's directors are pressured to contribute to the genre. Doe Ching himself reluctantly conceids and starts filming Twin Blades of Doom/Yinyang Dao in 1969. But his health gets worse and the film is completed by the director Griffin Yueh Feng. Doe Ching dies of stomach cancer on May 16, 1969 at the age of 54. Doe Ching was a fine film craftsman with a refined visual style, an adept of numerous moviegenres who wrote most of his screenplays and who knew marvellously well how to direct actors. He created some of the most emotional comedies and wenly of his time. He is, with Li Han Hsiang, one of the most outstanding filmmakers not only of the Shaw Brothers but also of Hong Kong Mandarin cinema's heyday. Unfortunately, the decline of that cinema with the Shaw's sad policy of almost never reissuing their films have made Doe Ching name as well as his outstanding work fall little by little into limbo, occasionally remembred by only a few critics and film historians. With the recent DVD re-issue of the Shaw Bros and MP & GI Co Ltd films, many of Doe Ching's films are again within reach for the public and a new appreciation and assessment of his work is, at last, possible. Written by Yves Gendron. Sources: Hong Kong The Extra Dimension by Stephen Teo. The Shaw Screen a Preliminary Study
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Filmography

[ 1970 - 1960 - 1950 - 1940 ]

Alternate lists by alpha / genre / year

Title ( HK - All )		Year	Activity

	Cause To Kill, A	1970	Writer
	Twin Blades Of Doom	1969	Director
	When The Clouds Roll By	1968	Director, Writer
	My Dream Boat	1967	Director, Writer
	Song Of Tomorrow	1967	Director, Writer
	That Tender Age	1967	Director
	Blue And The Black 2, The	1966	Director, Writer
	Blue And The Black, The	1966	Director, Writer
	Hong Kong, Manila, Singapore	1965	Director, Writer
	Between Tears And Laughter	1964	Director
	Dancing Millionairess, The	1964	Director, Writer
	Lady And The Thief, The	1963	Director
	Love Parade	1963	Director, Writer
	All the Best	1961	Director, Writer
	Belles, Les	1961	Director, Writer
	Golden Trumpet, The	1961	Director, Writer
	Love Without End	1961	Director, Writer
	Oh Boys ! Oh Girls !	1961	Director, Writer
	How To Marry A Millionaire	1960	Director, Writer
	Torrents of Spring	1960	Director, Writer
	Twilight Hours	1960	Director, Writer
	Calendar Girl	1959	Director, Writer
	Darling Daughter	1959	Director, Writer
	Desire	1959	Director, Writer
	Tragedy of Love	1959	Director, Writer
	Wedding Bells For Hedy	1959	Director, Writer
	Beware of Pickpockets	1958	Director
	Little Darling	1958	Director
	Murder in the Night	1957	Director, Writer
	Our Sister Hedy	1957	Director, Writer
	Error, The	1956	Director
	Fruit Of Marriage	1956	Director, Writer
	Lonely Heart, A	1956	Director
	Married Woman's Secret, A	1956	Director, Writer
	Our Good Daughter	1956	Director, Writer
	Surprise	1956	Director, Writer
	Till We Meet Again	1956	Director, Writer
	Heart Break Well	1955	Director
	Princess Yang Kwei Fei	1955	Writer
	Tragedy Of Vendetta	1955	Director
	Beyond The Grave	1954	Director, Writer
	Girl In Transformation, A	1954	Director, Writer
	Shadow In Her Heart	1954	Director, Writer
	Third Life, The	1954	Director, Writer
	Aren't The Kids Lovely ?	1953	Director
	Bright Day	1953	Director, Writer
	Song To Remember, A	1953	Director, Writer
	Destroy !	1952	Writer
	Father Marries Again	1952	Director, Writer
	Modern Red Chamber Dream	1952	Lyricist
	Respectable Family, A	1952	Director
	Tomorrow	1952	Director, Writer
	Night-Time Wife, A	1951	Writer
	Awful Truth, The	1950	Writer
	Flower Street, The	1950	Writer
	Unfaithful Woman, An	1949	Writer
	In the Sea Of Life En'isled	1948	Writer

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