Contemporary Hong Kong Cinema’s Top Directors

1. Wong Kar-wai

Wong Kar-wai is a Hong Kong Second Wave filmmaker, internationally renowned as an auteur ofr his visually unique, highly stylised, emotionally resonant work, including Days of Being Wild (1990), Ashes of Time (1994), Chungking Expresses (1994), Fallen Angels (1995), Happy Together (1997), 2046 (2004) and The Grandmaster (2013).

2.  Andrew Lau Wai-Keung

Andrew Lau Wai-Keung is a Hong Kong film director, cinematographer and producer. Lau gegan his career in the 1980s and 1990s, serving as a cinematographer to filmmakers such as Ringo Lam, Wong Jing and Wong Kar-wai. Lau has made films in a variety of genres, and is most notable in the West for his action and crime films which include the Young and Dangerous film series, and the Infernal Affairs trilogy.

3. Alan Mak Siu-fai

Alan Mak Siu-fai, born on 1 January 1968 in Hong Kong, is a writer, director and producer. In 2002, Mak and Felix Chong wrote their first script together. The movie was Infernal Affairs, which was produced by Mak’s directing partner, Andrew Lau, who also served as cinematographer. Lau and Mak also served as directors for the film, and it would be the first of many collaborations involving the directing duo.

4. John Woo

John Woo is a Hong Kong film director, writer, and producer. He is considered a major influence on the action genre, known for his highly chaotic action sequences, Mexican standoffs, and frequent use of slow-motion. Woo has directed several notable Hong Kong action films, among them, A Better Tomorrow, The Killer, Hard Boiled, and Red Cliff. His Hollywood films include Hard Target, Broken Arrow, Face/Off and Mission: Impossible Ⅱ.

5. Derek Yee Tung-sing

Derek Yee Tung-sing, born in 1957, is a former Shaw Brothers actor from Hong Kong, currently a film director and screenwriter, who has achieved fame and respect in Hong Kong and international film festival circuits for treading carefully commercial viability concerns with artistic integrity. He is the younger half-brother of famed Hong Kong actors Paul Chun and David Chiang, the latter also a former Shaw Brothers star.

Hong Kong Gangster Genre Top Actors

1. Tony Leung Chiu-Wai

Tony Leung Chiu-Wai (born 27 June 1962) is a Hong Kong actor and C-pop singer. He was the winner of Cannes Film Festival for Best Acror for his role in Wong Kar-wai’s film In the Mood for Love. Leung is also a nine-time winner of Hong Kong Film Award and three-time winner of Golden House Film Awards.

2. Andy Lau

Andy Lau (Lau Tak-wah; born 27 September 1961) is a Hong Kong Cantopop singer, songwriter, actor, presenter,  and film producer. Lau has been one of Hong Kong’s most commercially successful film actors since the mid-1980s, performing in more than 160 films while maintaining a successful singing career at the same time. In the 1990s, Lau was branded by the media as one of the Four Heavenly Kings of Cantopop.

3. Daniel Yin-Cho Wu

Daniel Yin-Cho Wu (born September 30, 1974) is a Hong Kong American actor, director and producer. Since his film debut in 1998, he has been featured in over 60 films. Wu has been called “the young Andy Lau,” and is known as a “flexible and distinctive” leading actor in the Chinese-language film industry.

4.  Anthony Perry

Anthony Perry (born 2 September 1961), better known professionally as Wong-Chau-Sang or Anthony Wong, is a Hong Kong Film Awards winning British-Hong Kong actor, screenwriter and film director.

5.  Jackie Chan

Jackie Chan (born Chan Kong-sang, 7 April 1954) is a Hong Kong actor, action choreographer, comedian, director, producer, martial artist, screenwriter, entrepreneur, singer, and stunt performer. In his movies, he is known for his acrobatic fighting style, comic timing, use of improvised weapons, and innovative stunts. He is one of the few actors to have performed all of his film stunts. Chan has been acting since the 1960s and has appeared in over 150 films.

6.Sean Lau Ching-wan

Sean Lau Ching-wan (born 16 February 1964) is a Hong Kong actor who has acted in both films and television series. He won Best Actor in the 2007 Hong Kong Film Awards and in the 2000 and 2007 Golden Bauhinia Awards.