| | One of Shaw Brothers' most prolific directors, Ho Meng-hua was a Cantonese born in Shanghai in 1923. He studied at a Shanghai theatrical academy and moved to Hong Kong in 1949, joined Shaw Brothers in 1955. By 1957 he had worked his way up to director, his directorial debut being An Appointment After Dark released in 1958. He moved on to direct approximately fifty films for Shaw Brothers, ranging to all genres and reflecting the changes in Hong Kong audience tastes from female-oriented romances of the 1960s to the male-dominated action pictures of the 1970s. His most memorable pictures was the quartet of fantastic comedies based on the classic novel Journey to the West: The Monkey Goes West, Princess Iron Fan, The Cave of Silken Web, and The Land of Many Perfumes. Ho's last film for Shaw Brothers was Swift Sword, released in 1980, soon after which he retired from the motion picture business.
- from the Celestial Pictures release of The Lady Hermit
Passed away in Hong Kong on May 19th 2009. |
