In 1906, Fei Mu was born in Shanghai, China. He grew up to be a movie director, and and made the 1948 movie Spring in a Small Town. It’s been declared the greatest Chinese movie ever made.
On Fei Mu’s 18th birthday, Ed Wood was born in Poughkeepsie, New York in the US. He grew up to be a movie director, and made movies like Plan 9 from Outer Space (1957) and Glen or Glenda (1953). He was named the Worst Director of All Time. As another twist, Tim Burton made the 1994 film Ed Wood about him, and that film won two Academy Awards.
Fei Mu’s films were primarily costume dramas. His films were seldom shown outside China, but in the late 1930s at least one, Song of China, was available in the US. His work was mostly ignored after the Communist revolution in China for political reasons. Fei Mu himself fled to Hong Kong in 1949, but never established himself there before dying of a heart attack in 1951, at 44.
Ed Wood’s mother claimed she had always wanted a daughter instead of a son, and dressed young Ed in girls’ clothing. He maintained the habit, crossdressing frequently — including on movie sets. His films were primarily low-budget crime, horror, and science-fiction stories notable for amateurish special effects, odd stories, and dialog that made no sense. In addition to directing movies, he wrote short novels and short stories — still in the sensational crime and horror genres. He churned out at least 80 of them, and reportedly their quality matched his movies. In his later years he became an alcoholic, subsisting on what he could earn from writing pornography. He died of a heart attack in 1978, at 54.
