Ivy Ling Po

Acting

Ivy Ling Po

Born 1939-11-16 · Shantou, China

Huang Yu-chun (born 16 November 1939 in Shantou, Republic of China), known by her final stage name Ivy Ling Po (Chinese: 凌波), is a retired Hong Kong actress and Chinese opera singer. She is best known for a number of mega-hit Huangmei opera films in the 1960s, especially The Love Eterne (1963) which made her an Asian superstar overnight. She played an important role in the entertainment industry for preserving the Huangmei opera art form.

Acting credits

Golden Swallow poster
5.0

A poor scholar named Lo Chih-Chiu, played by Anthony Wong Yiu-Ming, rescues a swallow from three mischievous boys, and frees the bird afterward. The bird then magically takes the form of a beautiful lady named Hsiao-Hseuh, played by Cherie Chung, who falls in love with the scholar because he had saved her life. She returns the deed by rescuing him from a ruthless band of warlords. She and her sister, Hsiao-Shang, are both originally swallows, but can change into human forms due to witchcraft and wizardry. Hsiao-Hseuh later confronts Chih-Chiu, and later reveals she is a servant of an evil witch queen, who feeds on human blood. When the witch discovers their friendship and bond, she was on the verge of destroying him, but Hsiao-Hseuh pleads for his life in exchange for their separation. After being back in the custody of the witch queen, Hsiao-Hseuh sneaks out and reunites with Chih-Chiu, but posing as a different person to hide her identity.

Golden Swallow

1987

The 14 Amazons poster
6.6

The Yang family, men and women, have served their country loyally for generations. During the war General Yang is ambushed and killed. His widow and the entire family set out to avenge his death and defend the country.

The 14 Amazons

1972

The Crimson Palm poster
8.0

Ling Bo is Lin, a young man engaged to the daughter of a rich man, who now despises Lin because of his family's declining status. Lin visits his beloved fiancee before he heads towards the imperial city to participate in the civil service examination, only to find her maid lying dead in blood. Lin is then accused of murder. How can Judge Bao prove his innocence?

The Crimson Palm

1964

The Eight Immortals in Jiangnan poster
NR

Hong Kong fantasy film directed by Chiu Shu-San.

The Eight Immortals in Jiangnan

1957

Butterfly Lovers 40 poster
5.0

Ivy Ling Po reprising her role as Liang Shanbo to celebrate the 40th anniversary of The Love Eterne (1963).

Butterfly Lovers 40

2003

The Twin Swords poster
5.6

Gui Wu happens upon a kidnapping with his wife Gan Lian-zhu at the Red Lotus Temple. Lian-zhu sends Wu to go for reinforcements while she stays to fight the kidnappers. Fortunately, the mysterious Scarlet Maid is surreptitiously helping her.

The Twin Swords

1965

The Chinese Amazons poster
10.0

Taiwanese war film directed by Li Chia.

The Chinese Amazons

1975

Crossroad poster
NR

Taiwanese drama film starring Ivy Ling Po.

Crossroad

1976

A Cause to Kill poster
7.0

Ivy Ling Po, star of The Temple of the Red Lotus, tears up the screen as a jealous, murderous movie star, who, like seemingly all "film noir" vixens, wants to kill off her husband. While she's infuriated that the hitman she hires bungles the job, she's delighted that her husband is found guilty for the killer's "murder".

A Cause to Kill

1970

No artwork available
10.0

Taiwanese huangmei opera starring Ivy Ling Po.

The Imperious Princess

1980

My Father, My Husband, My Son poster
NR

Taiwanese drama film directed by Pai Ching-jui.

My Father, My Husband, My Son

1974

Lady General Hua Mulan poster
6.1

About a woman who disguises herself as a man to take her father's place in the army.

Lady General Hua Mulan

1964

Temple of the Red Lotus poster
5.0

Jimmy Wang Yu plays a young kid who heads off to Dragon Valley to meet the childhood friend who was promised as his bride. When he gets there, he finds that the family of the bride might not be an entirely honest bunch of people though. What is the story behind their feud with the monks at the Temple Of The Red Lotus, for a start?

Temple of the Red Lotus

1965

The Joy of Spring poster
NR

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.

The Joy of Spring

1966

The Crimson Charm poster
6.5

A noble swordsman and a one-armed swordswoman go up against the vicious Crimson Charm gang of thieves and cutthroats. The lovely and lethal Ivy Ling Po teams with the amazing Chang I for a classic tale of good versus evil in which the best man and one-armed woman wins.

The Crimson Charm

1971

Too Late for Love poster
9.0

Su Fen, a young and frail girl, looked forward to her wedding with her fiancé, Li Kuo-liang. The happy couple's bliss was cut short when war broke out. Kuo-liang was summoned to fight at the front lines. In his absence, Su Fen discovered she had tuberculosis.

Too Late for Love

1967

Return of the Phoenix poster
7.5

Return Of The Phoenix is yet another masterpiece from prolific director Li Han-hsiang. An imperial minister Cheng Pu (Ching Miao) is faced with a quandary. He's getting old and his daughters are still not married. Elder daughter Shueh-yeh (Elizabeth Chuang) is so ugly no one wants her. Younger daughter Shueh-wu (Li Hsiang-chun) is beautiful but Mrs Cheng refuses to let her marry before her elder sister. The drama unfolds when Cheng decides to marry Shueh-wu off.

Return of the Phoenix

1963

The Love Eterne poster
7.0

In this dreamy romance set in China during the fourth-century, a young woman convinces her parents to allow her to dress as a boy and attend university.

The Love Eterne

1963

A Fairy to the World poster
NR

The heavenly maiden comes to earth in the form of a mortal and with her kung fu skills stamps out some evil doers.

A Fairy to the World

1982

The Lotus Lamp poster
7.3

The Goddess of Hua Mountain is imprisoned for falling in love with a mortal, meanwhile her son is raised in secret until he can attempt to free her.

The Lotus Lamp

1965

The Empress Dowager poster
8.0

This dragon lady of the Ching Dynasty was the power behind the throne for 50 years, and hew vast tapestry of palace intrigues is vividly brought to the screen in this memorable epic.

The Empress Dowager

1975

The Moment: Fifty Years of Golden Horse poster
NR

In 2013, the Golden Horse Film Festival celebrated its 50th anniversary. The ministry of Culture commissioned director Yang Li-chou to make a documentary about the history of Golden Horse. What is unique to this film is that it's not an ode to celebrities but about the role cinema plays in ordinary people's lives. It's a love letter to cinema, filmmakers and audiences.

The Moment: Fifty Years of Golden Horse

2016

The Sword and the Lute poster
5.9

The adventures of a young married swordfighting couple, Lianzhu and Gui Wu, and the swordfighting members of their different clans.

The Sword and the Lute

1967

Raw Passions poster
3.6

Ivy Ling Po plays the dedicated wife of a man being blackmailed for an illicit love affair, who uncovers a pit of deceit, double-crosses, extortion and murder after murder.

Raw Passions

1969

Behind the camera