Ho-Kwan was a pirate operating in the 1720s. Around 1729, he was recruited by Captain Jack Sparrow as part of his motley crew. Aboard the Black Pearl, Ho-Kwan served under Jack Sparrow's command, embarking on several misadventures until the crew eventually began to doubt Sparrow's leadership. Ho-Kwan was among around half of the crew who wished to overthrow Jack and elect a new captain, Leech. They finally got their chance when the crew were captured by the Pelegostos Tribe and held captive on their island, with several of the would-be mutineers kept in one large bone cage and several pirates loyal to Jack held in the other. Ho-Kwan, one of Leech's supporters, was kept in the same cage as the loyal pirates, avoiding the gruesome death suffered by the mutineers only to be separately killed by the poison dart of one of the native cannibals.
Biography[]
Ho-Kwan was hired as part of the motley crew of the Black Pearl under Captain Jack Sparrow around 1729. He continued to serve under Sparrow for the next year, however he, Leech and many other crewmen secretly planned to lead a mutiny against Jack. They were unhappy with Jack's leadership, and felt they needed to do more "pirate" things. Ho-Kwan was present as Jack arrived aboard the ship in a coffin using the arm of a skeleton as an oar, having escaped from the Turkish prison, and showed his crew their next goal: to locate a mysterious key apparently leading to something "shiny". Ho-Kwan and Leech eyed each other when Jack asked about them being unhappy. When Jack suddenly woke everybody up in the middle of night, they rushed to their stations, shocked at their Captain's strange behavior, especially when he ordered them not to retrieve his hat when it was thrown overboard by Jack the monkey. Later, when they made port at the nearest land on demands from a desperate Jack and were captured by the cannibalistic Pelegostos Tribe, many of the crew were killed, with Sparrow unwillingly becoming chief of the tribe, whilst Ho-Kwan was put into a bone cage made by the skeletons of his former cohorts dangling from a bridge between two cliffs with fellow crewmen Joshamee Gibbs, Cotton, Marty, Lejon and later also Will Turner, opposite a cage containing Leech, Duncan, Ladbroc, Matelot and two others.[1]
Both groups attempted to swing their cage towards the cliff side in order to climb up to reach the peak, but as the Black Pearl needed only six men to crew it, Leech and the others in his cage promptly instead attempted to abandon the other crewmen and take over the Pearl. However, they ended up suffering a brutal death when they were startled by a snake, and as a result let go of the cliff side, snapping the rope holding them up and letting their cage fall down a ravine. All six of them perished. This left Ho-Kwan and his companions at the mercy of a native guard who had heard them and immediately ran to warn the rest of the tribe. Upon reaching the clifftop, the pirates broke the rope and fled into the jungle, relentlessly pursued by the natives. Eventually, the cage was destroyed when it toppled into a ravine. All six men survived the fall, however Ho-Kwan met his end seconds afterwards when a native fired a poisoned dart into his upper back whilst he celebrated his escape. After the dart pierced his back, Ho-Kwan fell lifelessly forward onto Turner who dumped his body in the water before him.[1]
Behind the scenes[]
- Ho-Kwan was portrayed by Ho-Kwan Tse in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.[1]
- The character being credited as "Ho-Kwan" is an example of tuckerization.
- The character, while credited, wasn't recognizable until director Gore Verbinski mentioned actor Ho-Kwan Tse's contribution in the film in the audio commentary of the deleted scene "Six Became Five" featured in Blu-ray releases beginning in 2011..[2]
- Despite having been killed by the Pelegostos Tribe in Dead Man's Chest, Ho-Kwan was present alongside other pirates in Terry Rossio's original script for Dead Men Tell No Tales, where it is implied that he conspired to poison King George II of Great Britain, suggesting that he survived his death in the second film, considering the fact that the scene in which he gets killed was deleted.[3] According to Rossio, the story of how Ho-Kwan survived was planned to be revealed in a sixth film.[4]