Pan Lei was born in Haiphong, Vietnam in 1927. After joining the army to fight the Japanese on the border of China and India, he arrived in Taiwan in 1949 and became a well-known writer and newspaper editor. He began his film career as a screenwriter and directed his first film On Mount Hehuan in 1959. After Typhoon, his third feature film, he worked for Show Brothers then in 1963 founded his own company, Hsien Dai Motion Pictures. He makes around thirty films of different genres. Besides contemporary drama films, he also directs action films and sword fighting films (Wu Xia Pian). He died in 2017.
