Cha Chuen-yee, born in Hong Kong on 13 January 1956 with ancestral roots in Haining, Zhejiang, is a Hong Kong film director, producer and actor and a former television producer. His father, Cha Leung-king, a Haining native, worked in Hong Kong as a screenwriter under the pen name Chow Yin; his mother, Chin Chi, was a daughter of the Republican-era Yunnan general Chin Hon-ting and once headed the publicity department of a Hong Kong film company. Cha is a distant clansman of the novelist Jin Yong, who belonged to the same generation as his father, though little is documented about the exact relationship. He began as a camera assistant at Television Broadcasts, became a cameraman at Commercial Television and rose to director there; after the station closed he moved to RTV, making dramas such as The New Big Man and The Strange Lady. He left Asia Television in 1984 to work for Shaw Brothers and Taiwanese television, and in 1985 directed his first action costume film. He returned to Hong Kong in 1988 to join D&B Films and made his directorial debut that year with a comedy. In 1993 he adapted the 1989 Tso Pok Hang air-hostess murder case into Legal Innocence; nominated at the 13th Hong Kong Film Awards in 1994, he was the first director to earn a best director nomination on the strength of a Category III film. His 1994 Portrait of a Serial Rapist, drawn from the Tuen Mun serial rape and murder case of 1992–93, opened on 30 December 1994 and took over HK$4 million at the box office. He continued directing and producing through the 1990s and 2000s, and has worked mainly on the mainland in recent years.
Cha Chuen-yee is known for adapting sensational true-crime cases; Legal Innocence and Portrait of a Serial Rapist brought headline murders to the screen and stand among the representative 'true crime' films of 1990s Hong Kong. He was also the first director to earn a Best Director nomination at the Hong Kong Film Awards on the strength of a Category III film, reflecting the era's bold treatment of social subject matter.
Achievements
- 1988 · Returned to Hong Kong to join D&B Films and made his directorial debut
- 1993 · Adapted the Tso Pok Hang murder case into Legal Innocence, earning a best director nomination at the 13th Hong Kong Film Awards
- 1994 · Directed Portrait of a Serial Rapist, based on the Tuen Mun serial rape case of 1992–93