Chinese screen legend Cheng Pei Pei, Queen of Martial Arts, to visit UH Manoa

Cheng Pei Pei

"Come Drink with Me" poster (1966)

King Hu and Cheng Pei Pei on the set of "Come Drink With Me" in 1965.

Cheng Pei Pei, the 1960s Shaw Brothers era superstar who still enjoys a thriving international career spanning more than five decades, will give a master class to Academy for Creative Media students at UH Mānoa on Friday, November 4, 2016. 

On Monday, November 7, she will return to campus for a 3:30 p.m. public screening of Cooking for Two (2014), a Pan-Asian foodie musical comedy, at the Art Auditorium. Her children, Harry Yuan (director), Jennifer Yuan Martin (writer/producer) and Marsha Yuan (lead actress), and director of photography Carlo Silvo will join in a Q&A discussion immediately after the screening. This event is free and open to the public.

Cheng Pei Pei’s breakout performance as “Golden Swallow” in the 1966 King Hu wuxia classic Come Drink with Me immortalized her as the original “Queen of Martial Arts.” Millions of Stephen Chow fans recognize her as “Madam Wah” in Flirting Scholar (1993). As the villainous “Jade Fox” in Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), she received a Hong Kong Film Awards Best Supporting Actress nod. Most recently, she was a British Independent Film Award Best Actress nominee for her captivating performance in Lilting (2014) co-starring Ben Whishaw.

This year marks the 50^th anniversary of the release of Come Drink with Me, the pioneering martial arts masterpiece directed by one of the most influential Chinese-language filmmakers of all time, King Hu. Cheng Pei Pei will attend the 2016 Hawaiʻi International Film Festival as an honoree. Three King Hu classics: Come Drink with Me, Dragon Inn (1967) and A Touch of Zen (1971) will be featured in the HIFF Filmmaker in Focus: Cheng Pei Pei & King Hu Section, to celebrate the career of Cheng Pei Pei and the work of master auteur King Hu.

Academy for Creative Media Associate Professor George Chun Han Wang coordinated this invitation with the King Hu Foundation since 2013. The events are co-organized by the Asian Film Awards Academy and the University of Hawaiʻi Confucius Institute.  They are financially supported by Create Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Film Development fund of the Hong Kong SAR Government, Taiwan Academy and the Ministry of Culture, Republic of China (Taiwan).

List of Upcoming Cheng Pei Pei & King Hu events:

3:30 p.m., November 4 (Friday), University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, ACM382 Authors.
Master Class with Cheng Pei Pei

1 p.m., November 5 (Saturday), Doris Duke Theatre
Dragon Inn (Dir. King Hu, 1967, Taiwan, 111min, 4K DCP) & Post Screening Q+A with Cheng Pei Pei
- Also screens with short documentary film: King Hu in His Own Words: Reflections on an Extraordinary Career (Dir. George Chun Han Wang, 2013, USA, 5.5 min, HD)

3 p.m., November 6 (Sunday), Dole Cannery 
Come Drink with Me (Dir. King Hu, 1966, Hong Kong, 95min, 35mm) & Post-Screening Master Class: A Conversation with Cheng Pei Pei
Also screens with short documentary In Conversation with Cheng Pei Pei (Dir. George Chun Han Wang, 2015, Hong Kong, 6.5 min, HD)

7 p.m., November 6 (Sunday), Doris Duke Theatre
A Touch of Zen (Dir. King Hu, 1971, Taiwan, 180min, 4K DCP)
- Also screens with short documentary film: King Hu in His Own Words: A Touch of Zen (Dir. George Chun Han Wang, 2013, USA, 5.5 min, HD)

1:30 p.m., November 7 (Monday), University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, Architecture 101A
Master Class with Sarah Pillsbury (producer of King Hu’s unfinished film The Battle of Ono)

3:30 p.m., November 7 (Monday), University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, Art Auditorium
Cooking For Two  (Dir. Harry Yuan, 2014, Hong Kong, 72 min, HD)
Post-Screening Discussion with Cheng Pei Pei, Cast & Crew (Free and open to the public)

For information on the UHM Academy for Creative Media, see http://www.hawaii.edu/acm/.

For more information, visit: http://www.hiff.org/hiff-2016-honorees-cheng-pei-pei-simon-yam/