Po-Chih Leong | |
---|---|
Chinese: 梁普智 | |
Born | England | 31 December 1939
Other names | Leung Po-Chi, Po-Chick Leong, Leong Po-Chih, Pochih Leung, Po-Chih Leong |
Alma mater | |
Occupation | Film director |
Spouse | Mary Leong |
Relatives | Po Shun Leong (brother) |
Leong Po-Chih (born 31 December 1939[1]) is a British-Chinese film director. He has worked in England, Hong Kong, and the United States.
On 31 December 1939, Leong was born in England to parents from Taishan, Guangdong.[2] His father was a seaman who opened a Chinese restaurant in London's West End.[3] Leong has two siblings; his younger brother is sculptor Po Shun Leong, and his nephew is photographer Sze Tsung Leong.
Leong attended Leighton Park School.[4] He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from the University of Exeter and studied at the London Film School.[4][5]
Leong began his career as a trainee film editor at the BBC. Leong worked on a variety of productions, including the long-running series Panorama. In 1967, Leong joined TVB and set up its film unit in British Hong Kong. As an executive producer he also directed a number of entertainment programmes, including The Star Show. He left TVB in 1969 to form Adpower, one of the first commercial production companies in Hong Kong.[6]
In 1976, Leong co-directed his first Hong Kong film Jumping Ash, an action film set in a drug underworld, where he also appeared in this film as Tiger's man.[7][4][8] It was one of the two top-grossing films of the season.[9] At the 23rd Hong Kong Film Festival, it was described as "the advance guard of the (Hong Kong) New Wave".[10] He went on to direct a range of genres from drama to action movies, comedies, horror and satire, in both English and Chinese. Banana Cop (1984)[11] was the story of a British–Chinese policeman who returns to Hong Kong to seek help with a case. It was the genesis for his first British film Ping Pong (1986),[12] made for UK's Channel 4, the first English feature film set in Soho's Chinatown.[13]
After Banana Cop, Leong turned to history for inspiration and made the award-winning movie Hong Kong 1941 (1984), starring Chow Yun Fat,[14][15] set in Hong Kong during the early days of the Japanese invasion.[16][17] Hong Kong 1941 was an oblique comment on the 1984 deal between Britain and China about Hong Kong's future.[18][19] Leong and his film maker daughter, Sze Wing Leong,[20] directed and filmed the effect of this deal up to and beyond the handover in Riding the Tiger (1997-1998),[21] an eight part, observational documentary series for the UK's Channel 4.[22]
Further pursuing his interest in history, Leong made a Hong Kong English-language movie, Shanghai 1920 (HK, 1990),[23][24] set in Shanghai and starring John Lone,[25][26] about the rise of the legendary Shanghai gangster Big-Eared Du.[27]
His second British feature film, was the award-winning 1998 movie, The Wisdom of Crocodiles, starring Jude Law, Timothy Spall, and Kerry Fox, with notable references to Akira Kurosawas opus, especially Rashomon, and to Jean-Pierre Melville's Le Samouraï.[28] In recent years Leong has made action films starring Steven Seagal,[29] Wesley Snipes,[30] Judd Nelson,[31] Joe Mantegna,[32] and Oscar-winning Marcia Gay Harden.[33] He has directed films for US network television and AMC.[34] In 2012, he reunited with Hong Kong producer Raymond Wong Bak Ming to direct the 3D movie, Baby Blues.[35]
Leong is married to Mary Leong.[36] His son James Leong is also a filmmaker.[37]
Year | Film title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1976 | Jumping Ash (Chinese: 跳灰 | Tiger's man, also as Co-director | [4] |
1977 | Foxbat (Chinese: 狐蝠) | Director, writer | |
1979 | Itchy Fingers Chinese: 神偷妙探手多多 | Director, writer | |
1980 | Dangerous Encounter - 1st Kind | Interpol officer | |
1980 | No Big Deal Chinese: 有你冇你 | Director | |
1981 | Super Fool Chinese: 龍咁威 | Director, writer | |
1982 | He Lives by Night (Chinese: 夜驚魂) | Director | |
1984 | Hong Kong 1941(Chinese: 等待黎明) | Director, actor | Nominated – Hong Kong Film Award Best Director |
1984 | Banana Cop (Chinese: 英倫琵琶 | Director | |
1985 | The Island (Chinese: 生死線) | Director | |
1986 | Welcome (Chinese: 補鑊英雄 | Director, writer | |
1986 | Ping Pong (Chinese: 乒乓) | Director | [38] |
1988 | Keep on Dancing (Chinese: 繼續跳舞) | Director | [39][40] |
1988 | Fatal Love (Chinese: 殺之戀) | Director, actor | |
1991 | Shanghai 1920 (Chinese: 上海1920) | Director | Nominated – Chicago International Film Festival Best Feature |
1997 | Riding the Tiger: The Hong Kong Handover Years 1 | Director, producer, writer, cinematographer | |
1998 | Riding the Tiger: The Hong Kong Handover Years 2 | Director, writer, cinematographer | |
1998 | The Wisdom of Crocodiles | Director | Brussels International Festival of Fantasy Film Grand Prize of European Fantasy Film in Silver [41] Gérardmer Film Festival Special Jury Prize[42] Valenciennes International Festival of Action and Adventure Films Audience Award[43] Nominated – Sitges - Catalan International Film Festival Grand Prize of European Fantasy Film in Gold[44] |
2000 | Cabin by the Lake | Director | |
2000 | The Darkling | Director | |
2001 | Return to Cabin by the Lake | Director | [45] |
2001 | Walking Shadow | Director | [46][34] |
2004 | Out of Reach | Director | |
2006 | The Detonator | Director | |
2013 | Baby Blues | Director | |
2014 | Bounty Hunter (Chinese: 賞金獵人 | Director | [47] |
2017 | The Jade Pendant | Director | [48] |
Year | Film title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
2001 | Wolf Lake | Director | Episode Excitable Boy |
2001 | Night Visions | Director | Episode: If a Tree Falls... |
His movies have won multiple awards and have been shown at the Venice, London, Toronto, Locarno, Hong Kong and Edinburgh film festivals, amongst others.