Tony Ching

Also known by the names of Xiaodong Cheng and Tony Ching, Ching Siu-tung was born in Hong Kong in 1953, and trained to be an acrobat in the Opera of Peking, where he also studied Wushu (Kung fu). He began his career in cinema as an actor and martial arts instructor in the early seventies at the Golden Harvest production company, and following a long career as an action movie choreographer, he debuted as a director in 1983 with Xian si jue [Duel to the Death], an innovative wuxia or swordsmen film. But his international recognition would arrive along with filmmaker and producer Tsui Hark, with A Chinese Ghost Story (1987). With more than twenty feature-length and TV films behind him, Ching Siu-tung has been able to combine his career as a filmmaker – we would highlight Swordman I, II, III (1990, 1992 and 1993) – and his work as an action sequence creator in movies like Hero (Zhang Yimou, 2002).

Sitges Film Festival