Lau Sze-yu was born on 4 July 1950 in Hezhou, Guangxi, and is a Hong Kong television producer and film director, formerly a producer in TVB's drama division. He swam to Hong Kong illegally in the 1970s at about the age of twenty-five, having previously worked as an office clerk. In 1975 he graduated from the fourth artiste training class of Television Broadcasts, in the same cohort as Wong Hang-sau, Lee Kwok-lun, Poon Ka-tak, Tam Chuen-hing and Johnnie To. In the 1970s he appeared in series such as Chinese Folklore and Below the Lion Rock, then worked as an actor, television director and producer, and was himself a keen photographer with a particular eye for composition; in the 1980s he formally became a director and was promoted to producer. His productions include Vengeance, the Dark Tales and Journey to the West series, Gods of Honour and the rural dramas Plain Love II (1999) and Country Spirit (2001); the Dark Tales series adapted Pu Songling's Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio, while Journey to the West starred Dicky Cheung as the Monkey King. His shows helped launch the careers of stars such as Irene Wan, Gordon Lam, Charmaine Sheh, Dicky Cheung, Kwong Wa and Benny Chan. Over several decades he worked on more than a hundred drama series and also directed feature films. He left TVB when his contract expired in 2002, shifted his focus to the mainland — at one point working there on drama production and training — and later emigrated. Having entered the industry as an actor before moving behind the camera as a director and producer, he was one of TVB's senior drama producers in the 1980s to 2000s, known for his casting and staging and for turning out programmes that generally performed well in the ratings, and his career witnessed Hong Kong television's move from the local market into the mainland.
Productions such as Journey to the West and Plain Love II, overseen by Lau, drew strong ratings in the 1990s and helped make stars of Irene Wan, Charmaine Sheh and Dicky Cheung; he turned rural drama into a ratings staple for TVB and his career witnessed Hong Kong television's move to the mainland market.
Achievements
- 1975 · Graduated from the fourth artiste training class of Television Broadcasts
- 1992 · Produced the TVB drama Vengeance
- 1996 · Produced the TVB drama Journey to the West
- 1999 · Produced the rural drama Plain Love II