Kevin Chu or Chu Yen-ping is a Taiwanese film director. Chu once said in an interview that he is "not an artist," but rather "a movie factory that puts out products to match the season", and is compared to Hong Kong director Wong Jing.
Career
Chu studied in Soochow University, and began to work in a studio of Central Motion Picture Company next to the school. In 1980 Chu directed his first film, The Clown. The film is a successful comedy, which boosted the career of Taiwanese comedian Hsu Pu-liao, and began a series of successful and formulaic collaboration between Chu and Hsu. Hsu became known as "Taiwanese Chaplin", and Chu's The Funny Couple in 1984 with Hsu and child talent "Little Bing-bing" pays heavy homage to Chaplin's City Lights. Though the collaboration was a big success, Hsu and Little Bing-bing suffered from exploitation and Hsu died in 1985 due to stress and alcoholism. Chu met difficulties until he established his own company and came back in 1987 with Bighead Brigade, a farce-comedy series about military drill. Chu also began another series, The Kung-fu Kids, featuring child talents Yen Cheng-kuo, Tsuo Hsiao-hu and Chen Tsung-jung. Both series were successful until the formula got worn out. In 1985 Chu also made Seven Foxes starring Taiwanese pop singersDave Wong, Tom Chang, and Samuel Tai, and actress Yip Chuen Chun. The film was shot when these young Taiwanese talents became famous in Hong Kong. In 1990 Chu directed A Home Too Far and its sequel in 1993, based on Bo Yang's novel about the Chinese troop taking refuge in Santikhiri. The two films were a commercial success and were nominated for Golden Horse Award. The controversial issues it featured stirred wide discussion. Chu considered this to be his best film. Throughout the 1990s Chu made a variety of films ranging from physical comedy, action, wuxia, drama to erotic films. Slapsticks and body part jokes were staple. Collaboration with Cantonese speaking talents was common and their lines were dubbed with Mandarin. Most notably, Chu worked with the child talents Hao Shao-wen and Shaolin-trained Shi Xiaolong in many comedy-kungfu-flicks. Chu's Shaolin Popey II: Messy Temple in 1994 starring the two was a local success in the face of strong competition from Hong Kong and Hollywood, and Chu was considered as an alternative to art films of "Taiwanese New Wave". In the 2000s Chu again met difficulties in Taiwanese market, with two of his film breaking the record of lowest ticket sale. Some of his films earned well in China. In 2009 Chu ambitiously made The Treasure Hunter, an action film shot on location in Gobi Desert, starring Jay Chou and Lin Chi-ling. The film was screened in China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong but met serious box office failure.
