Danny Pang Phat, born on 11 November 1965, is a Hong Kong director, editor and producer who works alongside his twin brother Oxide Pang; the two are known as the Pang Brothers and have long alternated between co-directing and solo work in horror, thriller and action cinema. He began as a film editor and won Best Editing at the 18th Hong Kong Film Awards in 1999 for The Storm Riders, shared with Marco Mak. The same year the brothers directed their first feature, Bangkok Dangerous, set in Bangkok, with Danny serving as director, writer and editor; the film won Best Picture at the Thailand National Film Awards and the FIPRESCI prize at the 25th Toronto International Film Festival, bringing the duo international attention and leading them to base much of their work in Thailand. In 2002 Danny and Oxide co-directed the thriller The Eye, about a young woman who, after a corneal transplant, sees between the worlds of the living and the dead; it was a box-office hit across Asia, won its lead actress Angelica Lee the Golden Horse Award for Best Actress, and was later remade in Hollywood. The brothers went on to make The Eye 2 (2004), The Detective (2007) and The Child's Eye (2010), the last selected for the Horizons section of the 67th Venice Film Festival, and co-directed Out of Inferno in 2013; their Re-cycle was chosen for Un Certain Regard at Cannes in 2006. In 2003 Pang took Best Editing again at the 22nd Hong Kong Film Awards for Infernal Affairs, shared with Pang Ching-hei. He has continued to direct and produce thrillers and mysteries and to edit, known for brisk pacing and an oppressive atmosphere, often dealing with revenge and the supernatural.
Rising from editor to director, Danny Pang formed the Pang Brothers with his twin Oxide and is one of the few Hong Kong film-makers equally at home in editing and genre direction; The Eye pushed Asian horror onto the international stage, and his editing has repeatedly won Hong Kong Film Awards.
Achievements
- 1999 · Won Best Editing at the 18th Hong Kong Film Awards for The Storm Riders and directed his first feature, Bangkok Dangerous, with Oxide Pang
- 2002 · Co-directed The Eye with Oxide Pang, a landmark of Asian horror
- 2003 · Won Best Editing at the 22nd Hong Kong Film Awards for Infernal Affairs