Pang Ho-cheung (born 22 September 1973 in Hong Kong, with ancestral roots in Panyu, Guangdong) is a Hong Kong director, screenwriter, producer and author. After seeing A Better Tomorrow as a teenager he decided to become a filmmaker and began making video shorts with his family at fourteen. Leaving secondary school, he worked as a postman, waiter, hawker and children's drawing tutor while sending his fiction and film criticism to newspapers and magazines. At nineteen he studied in a preparatory programme in Taiwan, then returned to Hong Kong and joined Asia Television as a writer in its comedy and variety unit. In 1995 he wrote the screenplay for Sky Story, directed by Jan Lamb. In 1999 he directed the short Summer Job for about US$15,000, winning a merit award at a Hong Kong independent short film competition. In 2001 he completed his debut feature You Shoot, I Shoot in only fifteen shooting days, its black humour and thrifty invention drawing attention; it won Best Screenplay at the 7th Golden Bauhinia Awards and was nominated in the same category at the 21st Hong Kong Film Awards. His 2003 film Men Suddenly in Black brought him Best New Director at the 23rd Hong Kong Film Awards in 2004. Isabella (2006) was selected for the 56th Berlin Film Festival, where Peter Kam won the Silver Bear for Best Film Music. Love in a Puff (2010), about two smokers' urban romance, won him and Heiward Mak Best Screenplay at the 30th Hong Kong Film Awards, and Love in the Buff and Love Off the Cuff continued the series. His other films include Beyond Our Ken, Exodus and Vulgaria, and he has supported new directors as a producer.
By putting the everyday details of urban courtship on screen in Love in a Puff, Pang gave 2010s Hong Kong romantic cinema an emblem; moving from author and film critic to director, he has also backed new writers and directors as a producer.
Achievements
- 2001 · His debut feature You Shoot, I Shoot was made in fifteen shooting days and won Best Screenplay at the 7th Golden Bauhinia Awards
- 2004 · Won Best New Director at the 23rd Hong Kong Film Awards for Men Suddenly in Black
- 2006 · Isabella was selected for the 56th Berlin Film Festival, where Peter Kam won the Silver Bear for Best Film Music
- 2011 · With Heiward Mak won Best Screenplay at the 30th Hong Kong Film Awards for Love in a Puff