Born in Nanjing and a native of Jiangsu Pao went to Taiwan in 1949 While in Secondary school he worked parttime in the evenings at the film processing studio of Taiwan Motion Picture Studio Upon graduation he continued to work at the company as an assistant cinematographer for six years and later switched to Lucky Star Film Co Ltd to work as a cinematographer for three years where he shot many Taiwanesedialect films In 1966 when Lo Chen went to Taiwan for the location shooting of Too Late for Love 1967 Pao assisted him and gained his recognization Pao then went to Hong Kong the following year and joined Shaw Brothers Hong Kong Ltd He first worked as a cinematographer at Shaws responsible for shooting Lo Chen Griffin Yue Feng and Chang Chehs films Some of the major works included Chang Chehs The Trail of the Broken Blade 1967 and Golden Swallow 1968 Griffin Yue Fengs Rape of the Sword 1967 Spring Blossoms 1968 and The Silent Love 1971 Pao was acclaimed for his meticulous camerawork and the way he captured the sentiments of the characters Recommended and encouraged by Chang and Yue he began his directorial career in 1970 His first film was a horror action film shot in the same year Finger of Doom released in 1972 followed by Oath of Death 1971 He directed ten and plus titles for Shaws of which he codirected six of them with Chang including the remarkable The Boxer from Shantung 1972 and Man of Iron 1972 He was deeply influenced by Chang and like him his forte was action films In 1977 Pao left Shaws and returned to Taiwan to make wuxia films Blooded Treasury Fight 1979 and The Eight Escorts 1980 for companies such as Yen Sheng Film His wife Chin Shumei was a scriptwriter for Shaws when he was working there The two of them later founded Yu Fung Film Company in Taiwan and produced films directed by Pao including Heroic One 1981 and Night of the Assassins 1981 From Hong Kong Film Archive
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