Mou Tun-fei

In this Chinese name, the family name is Mou.

Mou Tun-fei
Born	(1941-05-03)3 May 1941 Shandong, China
Died	25 May 2019(2019-05-25) (aged 78) Philadelphia, USA
Other names	T. F. Mou Mou Tun Fei Tun Fei Mou Chi Chiang He
Occupation	Filmmaker
Years active	1966–1995
Known for	Men Behind the Sun

Mou Tun-fei (Chinese: 牟敦芾; pinyin: Móu Dūnfèi; Wade–Giles: Mou² Tun¹-fei⁴) (May 3, 1941 - May 25, 2019) was a Chinese filmmaker known for directing the infamous 1988 horror film Men Behind the Sun.

Biography

Born on May 3, 1941, in Shandong, China, Mou's family left China for Taiwan in 1949 due to Chinese Civil War. Mou graduated from National School of Arts (now National Taiwan University of Arts) that could not even afford equipment for the students. Mou thus was forced to learn filmmaking by theory alone, mainly by watching films numerous times in theaters and identifying how many cuts the films contained. After graduation, Mou was assistant director on an anti-communist propaganda film called Give Back My Country and then directed numerous Taiwanese films in a style akin to the Italian neorealist movement. His first and second feature I don't dare to tell you (1969) and At the runway's edge (1970) were both banned by Taiwanese government, especially the latter film contained homosexual overtones.

In 1977, Mou settled in Hong Kong and joined the Shaw Brothers, his first film there being Gun, a segment in the fifth film of the Shaw’s exploitation true crime series The Criminals. While at the Shaw Brothers, he would dabble in crime (Bank Busters), romance (Melody of Love), horror (Haunted Tales) and kung-fu (A Deadly Secret). However, his most notable work for the Shaw Brothers would be Lost Souls (1980); telling the story of a group of illegal immigrants taken captive and sexually and physically abused by a gang of human traffickers, Lost Souls has often been called a brazen, vicious and outrageous exploitation film and a film that brings Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom to mind.

Mou then left the Shaw Brothers to become the first director from Taiwan to work in the mainland. While working on a children’s kung fu film called Young Heroes, Mou began to hear stories about war atrocities committed by the Japanese Imperial Army during the Second Sino-Japanese War. One account, of how the Japanese military had performed every manner of horrific experiments on Chinese POWs and civilians while stationed at Unit 731 in Manchuria, particularly grabbed Mou. Thus, he decided to make a film about it. Originally, he wanted to make a documentary, but he then realized that the Japanese army had destroyed or classified most of the photographs and films so he set about making a staged recreation instead. The film that resulted, a collaboration between Hong Kong and the mainland, would be the horror film Men Behind the Sun. After co-directing the hardcore pornographic film Trilogy of Lust with Julie Lee Wa-Yuet, Mou set about making a fourth sequel to Men Behind the Sun, this time visiting the 1937 Nanjing Massacre (or Rape of Nanjing) called Black Sun: The Nanking Massacre which released in 1995.

Filmography

Year	Chinese title	English title	Director	Actor	Producer	Notes
1969	不敢跟你講	I Didn't Dare to Tell You	Yes
1970	跑道終點	End of the Track	Yes
1977	香港奇案之五: 奸魔	The Criminals Part 5: The Teenager's Nightmare	Yes			Credited as "Chi Chiang He"
1977	香港奇案之五: 奸魔	Dreams of Eroticism	Yes			Uncredited As part of the "Shaw's Scenario and Direction Group"
1977	包剪搥	Melody of Love	Yes
1978	撈過界	Bank Busters	Yes
1980	碟仙	Haunted Tales	Yes
1980	大大小小一家春	One Son Too Many	Yes
1980	打蛇	Lost Souls	Yes	Yes		Credited as "T. F. Mous"
1980	連城訣	A Deadly Secret	Yes
1983	自古英雄出少年	Little Heroes	Yes
1988	黑太陽731	Men Behind the Sun	Yes			Credited as "T. F. Mou"
1995	血戀	Trilogy of Lust	Yes			Pornographic film
1995	黑太陽─南京大屠殺	Black Sun: The Nanking Massacre	Yes	Yes		Credited as "T. F. Mou"

External links

• Mou Tun Fei at IMDb
• Interview
• The Exploitation Cinema of T.F. Mou