繁體中文
楚原，原名張寶堅，1934年10月8日在廣州出世（香港身分證上的出生年份為1933年），祖籍廣東梅縣。父親張活游是粵語片著名演員，與吳楚帆、張瑛、李清並稱粵語電影四大小生，也是中聯電影企業股東之一；姊姊張玉珍為粵劇花旦。楚原就讀中山大學化學系，1955年因胃潰瘍來港就醫，結果留在香港工作。他中學時看過桑弧導演的《哀樂中年》，深受觸動，加上父親影響，對電影產生興趣。
1954年他在吳回導演的《芸娘》中客串，1956年正式投身粵語電影界，隨吳回與光藝製片公司的秦劍任副導兼編劇，以筆名「秦雨」、別號「張寶仔」撰寫劇本，首部編劇作品為吳回執導的《一片飛花》（1956），同年又協助吳回執導《寶蓮燈》。1957年他協助秦劍拍《血染相思谷》，替陳文執導《唐山阿嫂》並任編劇，再協助秦劍拍《椰林月》，三片合稱「南洋三部曲」。1958年他協助秦劍完成《紫薇園的秋天》，同年自任導演開拍《湖畔草》（1959）。1960年他為父親與吳回、白燕合組的山聯影業公司編劇及拍片，同年因執導寫實的《可憐天下父母心》而成名。1962年他與妻子南紅合組玫瑰影業公司，創業作為《含淚的玫瑰》（1963）。
六十年代粵語片興旺，楚原成為其中一位重要導演，題材多樣：文藝片有《孽海遺恨》（上、下集，1962）、《瘋婦》（1964）、《冬戀》（1968），喜劇有《玉女添丁》（1968），現代女俠片則有《黑玫瑰》（1965）、《黑玫瑰與黑玫瑰》（1966）等，後者更是香港首齣彩色粵語片。粵語片式微時，他已執導七十多部粵語片。1968年他獲國泰公司負責人楊曼怡邀請加盟，1970年開始編導國語片，拍出首部國語片《火鳥第一號》及首部武俠片《龍沐香》，後者為其奇情武俠片定下基調；《玉樓春夢》（1970）奪第十六屆亞洲影展最佳美術指導獎。
1970年11月他轉投邵氏，首作《火併》（1971）獲邵逸夫賞識；1972年由邱剛健編劇的《愛奴》視覺流麗、風格奇詭，獲好評。1973年以廣東話拍攝、諷刺時弊的《七十二家房客》刷新香港票房紀錄，成為當年票房冠軍，促成粵語片復甦。1976年起他向古龍小說取經，以唯美浪漫手法拍出《流星．蝴蝶．劍》《天涯．明月．刀》《多情劍客無情劍》《三少爺的劍》等一系列武俠片，掀起港台改編古龍的熱潮，其中《三少爺的劍》捧紅新人爾冬陞。1979年他憑《孔雀王朝》獲第二十五屆亞洲影展最佳動作片導演獎。他與李翰祥、胡金銓、張徹同被稱為邵氏「四大帥」。
1984年楚原約滿邵氏（《替槍老豆》為告別作），同年與友人合組曆高製作有限公司，其後為不同公司拍片，最後一部作品為《血在風上》（1990）。1980年代起他亦在幕前演出，在《雪兒》（1984）、《警察故事》（1985）及《警察故事續集》（1988）中飾演反派朱滔，並憑《雪兒》入圍第四屆香港電影金像獎最佳男配角。1991年他加入無綫電視，演活《卡拉屋企》的「白頭佬」黃家景、《真情》的「拿督」歸齡高及《西遊記》的如來佛祖。楚原畢生執導一百二十多部電影，1998年及2018年先後獲香港電影金像獎專業精神獎與終身成就獎。2022年2月21日病逝於香港。
English
Chor Yuen, born Cheung Po-kin in Guangzhou on 8 October 1934, was the son of the Cantonese-film actor Cheung Wood-yau, one of the four leading men of Cantonese cinema and a shareholder in Union Film Enterprise. He studied chemistry at Sun Yat-sen University but came to Hong Kong in 1955 to be treated for a stomach ulcer and stayed to work. Moved by Sang Hu's 1949 film and by his father's example, he joined the Cantonese film industry in 1956, serving as assistant director and screenwriter under Ng Wui and Chun Kim of Kong Ngee and writing under the pen names Chun Yu and Cheung Po-jai. His first screenplay was Ng Wui's A Flake of Flying Flowers (1956), and he helped Ng Wui direct The Lotus Lamp (1956). In 1957 he assisted Chun Kim on Blood Stains the Valley of Love and The Moon of the Coconut Grove and Chan Man on The Sister-in-law from Nanyang, the three forming the 'Nanyang Trilogy'. In 1958 he assisted Chun Kim on Autumn at Violet Garden and then began directing for himself in 1959. In 1960 he wrote and directed for the Shantung Film Company formed by his father with Ng Wui and Pak Yin, and came to prominence with the realistic The Great Devotion. In 1962 he and his wife Nam Hung founded Rose Film Company, whose first production was The Rose of Tears (1963).
His 1960s output was prolific and varied: melodramas such as Sin Deep in the Sea of Love (1962), The Mad Woman (1964) and Winter Love (1968); comedies such as The Pregnancy (1968); and modern swordplay films including The Black Rose (1965) and The Black Rose and the Black Rose (1966), the latter Hong Kong's first colour Cantonese film. By the time Cantonese cinema declined in the late 1960s he had directed more than seventy Cantonese pictures. Invited by the executive Yang Manyee, he joined Cathay in 1968 and turned to Mandarin films in 1970 with Firebird No. 1 and his first martial-arts film, Dragon of the Fragrant Wood, whose style set the tone for his later romantic swordplay. Pavilion of Dreams (1970) won Best Art Direction at the 16th Asian Film Festival.
In November 1970 he moved to Shaw Brothers, where his first film, The Duel (1971), won the approval of Run Run Shaw. Intimate Confessions of a Chinese Courtesan (1972), written by Chiu Kang-chien, was visually beautiful and strange and was much admired; The House of 72 Tenants (1973), filmed in Cantonese and satirising social abuses, broke Hong Kong box-office records, became the year's top earner and helped revive Cantonese cinema. From 1976 he drew on Gu Long's novels for a string of romantic martial-arts films, among them Killer Clans, The Magic Blade, The Sentimental Swordsman and Death Duel (1977), which launched the newcomer Derek Yee, and the cycle sparked a craze for Gu Long adaptations in Hong Kong and Taiwan. In 1979 his historical swordplay film won Best Action-Film Director at the 25th Asian Film Festival. With Li Han-hsiang, King Hu and Chang Cheh he was counted among Shaw Brothers' 'Four Great Masters'.
In November 1984 his Shaw Brothers contract expired, and in December he and friends formed the Leko Production Company, thereafter filming for various companies; his last film as director was released in 1990. From the 1980s he also acted, notably as the villain Chu To in Jackie Chan's Police Story (1985) and Police Story Part II (1988), and was nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the 4th Hong Kong Film Awards. In 1991 he joined TVB to fulfil a wish to appear in long-running dramas, becoming well known as the 'White-haired' Wong in the sitcom Family Squad, as the Dato' in A Kindred Spirit, and as the Buddha in Journey to the West. He directed more than 120 films in all, received the Hong Kong Film Awards' Professional Spirit Award in 1998 and its Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018, and died in Hong Kong on 21 February 2022.
