Producer and director Andrew Lau Wai-keung started his film career as a cinematographer working on films such as Ringo Lam's City on Fire and Wong Kar-wai As Tears Go By and Chungking Express. Although he made the switch to being director in 1990, Lau still serves as cinematographer on his own films.

Lau's artistic camera eye and his love for gritty stories about the darker side of Hong Kong life helped the director carve a niche for himself in Hong Kong. He cemented his reputation as Hong Kong's new breed of action directors with the Young and Dangerous series.

Young and Dangerous follows the life of a young man named Chan Ho-nam (Ekin Cheng) who unwittingly joins the triads as a young boy and later brings a new justice to the underground as he moves up the ladder. The film was a cult hit and spawned five sequels.

Young and Dangerous, which were mainly low-budget fare, served as Lau's springboard to bigger and more explosive films. He was quickly recruited by Golden Harvest to helm their multi-million dollar groundbreaking comic book adaptation Storm Riders, and later A Man Called Hero. Storm Riders set new standards for computer graphics in films for Hong Kong.

Since then, Lau has turned his eye to light-hearted romantic fare such as Sausalito and Dance of A Dream. Lau served for a while as head of production as Andy Lau's Teamwork Productions but, last year, set up his own Base Productions which produced Infernal Affairs and Cat and Mouse.

Awards Won

Infernal Affairs

The 22nd Hong Kong Film awards - Best Director

(hkfilmart December 12, 2005)