Ho Fan

Directing

Ho Fan

Born October 8, 1937 · Shanghai, China

Died June 19, 2016 · aged 78

A native of Guangdong born in Shanghai on 8 October 1931, Ho Fan came to Hong Kong at the age of 18 and studied in The Evening School of Higher Chinese Studies and New Asia College. Ho has dedicated much of his time to literature and photography since his school days. His photography was well-known for using light, shadow and composition to create a sense of drama, capturing the appearance of smal…

Known For

Yu Pui Tsuen IIYu Pui Tsuen II · 1987
Yu Pui Tsuen II
5.41987
MovieDramaFantasy
Before Michael Mak’s Sex And Zen became a cult favourite in the ’90s, there was Ho Fan’s Yu Pui Tsuen (The Carnal Prayer Mat, 1987). But without sex bomb Amy Yip, coarse humour or lesbian love affairs, Yu Pui Tsuen had to rely on the nudity and sex from his cast of relative unknowns to save the day. When a young man dreams that he drowns after a night of carnal passion, he asks a buddhist monk to translate the experience for him. The monk replies that the dream is a warning not to indulge the pleasures of the flesh to excess, but the man ignores his advice, marrying a virgin and making love to her constantly. However, after several torrid affairs, the man begins to realise the sagacity of the monk's warning.
Hidden DesireHidden Desire · 1991
Hidden Desire
5.31991
MovieRomanceDrama
David is sitting in a bar, musing over why he has bedded and left five or six of Asia's loveliest women in such a short time.
Madam Slender PlumMadam Slender Plum · 1967
Madam Slender Plum
10.01967
MovieMysteryDrama
Before director Lo Wei helped to discover Bruce Lee and the king of kung-fu comedy Jackie Chan, in Madam Slender Plum, Lo perpetuates the career of yet another Shaw's non-action, femme fatale starlet; the sleek and sexy, puppy-eyed Eurasian Jenny Hu. It's a melodrama with a touch of murder-mystery in the vein of an old Alfred Hitchcock movie where Diana Chang plays the mother with Jenny playing her oldest daughter.
The Cave of the Silken WebThe Cave of the Silken Web · 1967
The Cave of the Silken Web
5.71967
MovieFantasyAdventure
Monkey King, Pig and Friar Sand must rescue his master Buddhist monk from seven witches / spiders who believe themselves to be immortal if they eat the monk's flesh. The third part of the Shaw Brothers film series about Monkey King after the novel "Journey to the West."
The Carnal Sutra MatThe Carnal Sutra Mat · 1986
The Carnal Sutra Mat
5.31986
MovieComedy
Adapted from the same infamous ancient text as the popular 1992 opus Sex and Zen, this film. Mei Yeung-sun is a man of letters who is less than thrilled with his sex life with his comely young wife Ti Yuk-xiang. Yet when Mei uncovers the family sex manual, their physical relationship improves considerably. So successful is the transformation that the two spend all of their time in the sack, much to the consternation of the girl's father. Later, Mei leaves home supposedly to become an official in the big city. In fact, Mei really plans to troll around the countryside and have sex with as many women as possible. Thanks to the advice of master thief Tsoi Kwun-lung, Mei visits a noted doctor and leaves the place with a massive newly installed penis. Brimming with cocksure confidence, he soon seduces lonely housewife Yim-fong. Her thuggish husband Kuan Low-si soon gets his revenge.
Temptation SummaryTemptation Summary · 1990
Temptation Summary
3.01990
MovieComedy
Confirmed bachelor Man Suen, a university professor, must get married by the age of 35, otherwise he and his playboy brother, Ray Suen, won't inherit his father's fortune of 50 million dollars, which will then go to his uncle. He is unaware that his colleague, the prim Miss Cheung, is in love with him and that she dreams of being rescued by her hero. His brother has met a young heiress, but his uncle has hired a sexy siren to prevent the marriage.
The Joy of SpringThe Joy of Spring · 1966
The Joy of Spring
1966
MovieMusicComedy
The film tells the story of Xing Yonghui, a rich girl who has fun with her painter boyfriend Du Shaohua and her classmates. Chen Xiaoping and Guo Dawei fall in love and want to elope, but they are prevented from doing so; Du Shaohua and Li Zhongting fall in love with each other over a painting, causing Xing Yonghui's unhappiness, and Xing Yonghui crashes a car into a rock and wants to die together, causing serious injuries to Du Shaohua and Li Zhongting; Xing Yonghui's suicide is prevented by her shame, but Li Zhongting does not care about the past suspicion, and the two of them recover from the injuries and perform with their classmates on the same day as they had planned to do so.
Love Without EndLove Without End · 1961
Love Without End
7.11961
MovieRomanceDrama
Li Qingqing, an orphan, just arrives in Hong Kong and becomes a singer who sacrifices everything for her man.

Filmography

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Yu Pui Tsuen IIYu Pui Tsuen II · 1987
Yu Pui Tsuen II
5.41987
MovieDramaFantasy
Before Michael Mak’s Sex And Zen became a cult favourite in the ’90s, there was Ho Fan’s Yu Pui Tsuen (The Carnal Prayer Mat, 1987). But without sex bomb Amy Yip, coarse humour or lesbian love affairs, Yu Pui Tsuen had to rely on the nudity and sex from his cast of relative unknowns to save the day. When a young man dreams that he drowns after a night of carnal passion, he asks a buddhist monk to translate the experience for him. The monk replies that the dream is a warning not to indulge the pleasures of the flesh to excess, but the man ignores his advice, marrying a virgin and making love to her constantly. However, after several torrid affairs, the man begins to realise the sagacity of the monk's warning.

Director

The Carnal Sutra MatThe Carnal Sutra Mat · 1986
The Carnal Sutra Mat
5.31986
MovieComedy
Adapted from the same infamous ancient text as the popular 1992 opus Sex and Zen, this film. Mei Yeung-sun is a man of letters who is less than thrilled with his sex life with his comely young wife Ti Yuk-xiang. Yet when Mei uncovers the family sex manual, their physical relationship improves considerably. So successful is the transformation that the two spend all of their time in the sack, much to the consternation of the girl's father. Later, Mei leaves home supposedly to become an official in the big city. In fact, Mei really plans to troll around the countryside and have sex with as many women as possible. Thanks to the advice of master thief Tsoi Kwun-lung, Mei visits a noted doctor and leaves the place with a massive newly installed penis. Brimming with cocksure confidence, he soon seduces lonely housewife Yim-fong. Her thuggish husband Kuan Low-si soon gets his revenge.

Director

The Miserable GirlThe Miserable Girl · 1975
The Miserable Girl
1975
Movie
Haunted by her past, an ailing young woman who recently lost her mother and the roof over her head is reluctant to accept the generosity of an older man who fell out with his own daughter whose affair with his boss's son cost him his job; her reasons are revealed only after her death and when the past is dredged up. Based on Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s Humiliated and Insulted, the film was filmed and distributed in Taiwan however was not released in Hong Kong. It is Ho Fan’s first attempt to fulfil his vision for an art house production in mainstream cinema which breaks the mould by mixing the nuance of art films with popular culture in a confrontation between the old and the new. It was selected in the 1980s by Hsu Li-Kong, director of then Film Library of the Motion Picture Development Foundation (now Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute), as part of its permanent collection. (By Reel to Reel Institute)

Director

Inside the Forbidden CityInside the Forbidden City · 1965
Inside the Forbidden City
9.01965
MovieDramaHistory
It seems that Li Zhenfei was once an imperial concubine, who often found herself competing with her rival Madame Liu for the emperor's sole, undivided attention. When Li gives birth to the Emperor's child, the jealous Liu switches the boy with a cat and commands a servant named Kou Zhu to kill the baby. However, Kou Zhu ignores the order and gives the prince-to-be to the emperor's brother, a decision which eventually leads to the boy being adopted by the emperor himself! But as fate would have it, to go along with his new son, the emperor has a new wife as well - Madame Liu! As this strange new family unit is being constructed, poor Li Zhenfei has been confined to the forbidden palace, condemned to never see or speak to her son, the prince. But destiny reunites her with her son, but will this family reunion be a happy one? And will Madame Liu finally be punished for her treachery?

Empress Di's Son

Innocent LustInnocent Lust · 1977
Innocent Lust
3.61977
MovieDramaRomance
Ho Fan started his career as a Shaw Brothers actor, best known for his role as the monk Tang Seng in the classic Monkey Goes West film series. As a director, however, his forte was erotica. Like Li Han Hsiang, Ho Fan was a pioneer of the aesthetic school of erotica, known for his luscious cinematography and seductive lens. He is certainly one of the few Hong Kong erotica filmmakers to have made a respectable name for himself with Category III offerings like Adventure in Denmark, Yu Pu Tuan, and 1977's Innocent Lust. One of Ho Fan's representative works, Innocent Lust stars Ai Fei, Chan Chun Ho, and Lam Choi as college friends who are unlucky in love. They decide to go to a night club, and are surprised to discover that their innocent-looking classmate (Chan Wai Ying) works as a hostess there. When they step up to defend her from a lecherous old man, the encounter sparks off an unexpected journey of love and lust.

Director

The Sichuan ConcubinesThe Sichuan Concubines · 1994
The Sichuan Concubines
4.21994
MovieDramaHistory
The setting of the Black Brick Castle that harvests poppy seed. But times are tough as the wait for a ship that is picking up the latest batches has either been intercepted by robbers or won't come at all and the boss of the castle, Chen Tsao, once was part of the robbing gang before inheriting the family business slowly loses his mind. Despite the copious amount of concubines around him, he is not able to impregnate a woman. and he made Chen Mao, a worker impregnate a concubine to have a heir. His father's outgoing ways with several concubines and opium smoking, seems to somewhat stop at him. But worldly circumstances possibly having to do with poverty and famine outside of the castle walls doesn't make matters stop at him to turn around in a positive way. On the other hand Chen Mao, has an eye for one of the female workers who is married to abusive Kui Kong who thinks she brings bad luck to him, although she struggles to raise her two children with this curse she's said to carry.

Director