By Gabriel Chong & Linus Tee |
10 September 2010

If there is one genre that defines the Hong Kong film industry, it would undoubtedly be the ‘gu wak zai’ movies. After all, the most successful Hong Kong films of the 1990s and 2000s belonged to that genre- think the “Young and Dangerous” movies and the “Infernal Affairs” trilogy. And behind those iconic “gu wak zai” movies was one man called Lau Wai- Keung, better known as Andrew Lau, who with both franchises, breathed life- not once, but twice- into an industry threatening to fall into a long deep slumber.

The 50-year-old filmmaker is the director behind the six Young and Dangerous movies and one Young and Dangerous prequel in the late 1990s, and the director of all three Infernal Affairs movies in the early 2000s. If you combine the box-office receipts from all these movies, Andrew Lau would very likely rank as the top box-office draw in Hong Kong- much like the position James Cameron enjoys in Hollywood.

This month, Andrew Lau takes on the fictional Chinese hero Chen Zhen, made popular by Bruce Lee through his martial arts classic Fist of Fury (1972) and Jet Li through the equally iconic Fist of Legend (1994). His new “Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen” sees Donnie Yen in the titular role, which Donnie had once played in a TV series back in 1995. besides a star-studded cast including Shu Qi and Anthony Wong, the script is written by Hong Kong veteran Gordon Chan (incidentally, Gordon also wrote and directed the 1994 Jet Li film).

As a sign of Andrew Lau’s recognition, the film was selected as the second opening-night film of the Venice Film Festival (Lau right with actors Donnie Yen and Shawn Yue, courtesy of wireimage.com) and has also been chosen to be screened at the Toronto International Film Festival. It is an honour that few Hong Kong directors can lay claim to, but really, how many directors in Hong Kong can claim to have enjoyed the same commercial and critical success that Andrew Lau has enjoyed since he started out as a director 20 years ago?

Andrew Lau first started his craft as an assistant cinematographer with the legendary Shaw Brothers studios, and was promoted to cinematographer in 1985. Known for his ability in shooting action films using handheld cameras, he honed his skill in films such as Ringo Lam’s “City on Fire” (1987) and Wong Kar-Wai’s “As Tears Go By” (1988) (which earned him his first Hong Kong Film Award for Best Cinematography).

He made the leap into the director’s chair with the Danny Lee police drama “Against All” (1990). Andrew explained his decision to become a director in an interview with HK Cinemagic: “I've worked as a cinematographer on so many films. Of course, I like directing, so I can be in control of the cinematography, the acting, etc. In Hong Kong , normally the actors have a lot of control, but I need to fully control everything.”

“When I was a cameraman, I was very upset sometimes because I could not control everything. Even when you shoot a shot you don't like, the director can say it's okay, and it will end up in the film. So that's why I want to be the director,” he said. Still, in the early years that followed, his lensing skills were still much more in-demand than his directorial talents.

Between 1991 and 1995, he served as cinematographer for notable movies such as “Lee Rock” (1991), “The Wicked City” (1992), “Crime Story” (1993) and “Chungking Express” (1994), while simultaneously helming little-known movies like “Ghost Lantern” (1993) and a Wong Jing-produced Category-III film, “Raped By An Angel” (1993). His big break as a director would come in 1996 with the “Young and Dangerous” series, produced by Wong Jing and scripted by Manfred Wong.

The trio started BOB & Partners Co (BoB) just one year earlier and their unlikely partnership proved to be a winning combination. Andrew made “Mean Street Story” (1995) and Manfred was a then-DJ and movie reviewer on the radio who criticized the movie. After Andrew mentioned this to Wong Jing, Wong set up a meeting among the three of them and suggested they form a new company together. The rest, as they say, is history.

When the then-little known triad flick was released, word-of-mouth spread so quickly that the film made overnight stars out of Ekin Cheng and Jordan Chan and almost instantly became a bona fide franchise. Andrew would go on to make six sequels and a prequel before officially retiring from the Young and Dangerous series in 2000. Riding on his newfound fame, Andrew took a big gamble in 1998 with the big-screen adaptation of the Ma-Wing Shing beloved comic series, Fung Wan, aka “The Storm Riders”.

One of the most expensive Hong Kong films at that time, “The Storm Riders” broke local box- office records when the CG-filled wuxia epic starring Ekin Cheng and Aaron Kwok posted over US$2 million at the local box-office in its first week of release. He followed that with another action-packed CG extravaganza, “A Man Called Hero” (1999), retaining Ekin in the lead role. Though it was less well-received, Andrew had already established himself as the visionary film director of Hong Kong able to blend traditional filmmaking techniques with modern CG technology. It was especially significant for an industry struggling to stay afloat with big-budget CG Hollywood imports.


But the good the Young and Dangerous series did for the Hong Kong film industry faded towards the end of the 1990s- once again, the industry found itself in need of a shot in the arm. That came in 2002 when Andrew Lau gave audiences the crime thriller “Infernal Affairs”. Of course, Andrew never knew that it would single-handedly rescue the industry, at least for that year.

“Before Infernal Affairs, I set up this company (Basic Pictures Ltd.), and people thought I would lose money. A lot of people were talking about the Hong Kong film industry as a sunset industry. People thought I had a lot of guts to set up a new company, and asked why. Why not? I only know movies, so what else can I do? We have to keep on going and make movies,” he said.

The hugely successful movie starring Andy Lau and Tony Leung amidst one of the largest ensemble cast ever assembled for a Hong Kong film would go on to spawn two sequels and an American remake- Martin Scorcese’s “The Departed” (2006)- which Andrew has said he is ambivalent about. It also marked the start of a string of collaborations with his “Infernal Affairs” writers Alan Mak and Felix Chong, producing hits such as “Initial D” (2005), and misses like “Moonlighting in Tokyo” and “Confession Of Pain” (2007).

As if a victim of his own success, Andrew’s subsequent films would pale in comparison with the blazing success of “Infernal Affairs”- despite forays into the international market with the romance-crime drama “Daisy” (2006) starring Gianna Jun and the suspense thriller “The Flock” starring Richard Gere and Claire Danes. The underwhelming success of both films, and a suspect fallout with Basic partners Alan and Felix, led to one of the lowest points of his directing career.

TRAIL BLAZER ANDREW LAU continues...