Yau Nai-hoi, born in Hong Kong on 14 April 1968 to a family from Nanhai in Guangdong, is a Hong Kong screenwriter and director. He worked for Television Broadcasts and Metropolis Films before joining Milkyway Image, the company founded by Johnnie To and Wai Ka-fai, where he became a core member of its screenwriting team. At Milkyway he and Wai took turns drafting scripts while To directed, forming a stable creative trio, and his work is known for tight structures and cool, terse dialogue, with credits including Running Out of Time (1999), Running on Karma (2003), PTU (2003), Throw Down (2004), Election (2005) and Mad Detective (2007). He also wrote Milkyway's urban comedies such as Needing You (2000) and Love on a Diet (2001). He has won the Hong Kong Film Award for Best Screenplay twice, for Running on Karma and Election; his screenplays for PTU, Throw Down and Election won the Golden Horse Award for Best Original Screenplay. In 2007 he made his directorial debut, writing and directing Eye in the Sky, a thriller about the police surveillance unit nicknamed the 'dog squad', which won him Best New Director at the 27th Hong Kong Film Awards and was selected for the Berlin Film Festival. He has continued to write and produce for Milkyway, and his screenplay for Mad Fate (2023), co-written with Li Chun-fai, brought him Best Screenplay at the 42nd Hong Kong Film Awards. His scripts often centre on cool, rational characters, and he has frequently collaborated with Au Kin-yee. His earlier screenplay for Running Out of Time won Andy Lau his first Hong Kong Film Award for Best Actor. His elder brother Yau Nai-keung is a former superintendent of the Hong Kong Police, and his cousin Yau Nai-kuen is a veteran internet-radio producer and host.
Together with the Milkyway Image team, Yau pushed Hong Kong crime cinema towards cooler, more tightly structured storytelling, and the way he and Wai Ka-fai alternated on scripts helped define the company's working method; Eye in the Sky turned the little-noticed police surveillance unit into a lead subject and influenced how similar material was later written.
Achievements
- 2004 · Won his first Hong Kong Film Award for Best Screenplay at the 23rd edition for Running on Karma.
- 2007 · Made his directorial debut with Eye in the Sky, winning Best New Director at the 27th Hong Kong Film Awards the following year.
- 2024 · Won Best Screenplay again at the 42nd Hong Kong Film Awards for Mad Fate.