David Wu Tai-wai was born in Hong Kong on 31 July 1952, of Shanghai ancestry, and works as a film editor, director, composer and actor, nicknamed a grandmaster of comedy for the sketch show he co-hosted with Liu Wai-hung. After secondary school he studied graphic design at the Hong Kong Polytechnic, and in 1970 was taken on as a film-editing apprentice at Shaw Brothers. Assigned to editor Kwok Ting-hung's team, he worked on several films directed by Chang Cheh; the first film he officially edited was The Spiritual Boxer (1975), having already edited Police Force (1973) anonymously. Working as an editor at TVB in the later 1970s, he was spotted for his performing talent, appearing in television dramas between 1976 and 1979 and hosting the youth music show Bang! Bang! in 1977; from 1989 to 1992 he and Liu Wai-hung starred in the hugely popular sketch comedy The Funny Half Show, whose routines satirised social issues of the day. He edited Hong Kong New Wave films including Encore (1980), and composed the music for A Better Tomorrow (1986), A Chinese Ghost Story (1987) and The Killer (1989), while also acting in some seventy films as a screen comedian. A long-time collaborator of John Woo, he shared the 12th Hong Kong Film Award for Best Editing in 1993 for Hard Boiled, and the same year shared the 30th Golden Horse Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Bride with White Hair with Ronny Yu and others; his directing credits include Spy Games (1990) and The Bride with White Hair II (1993). Moving to Vancouver in 1994, he edited Ronny Yu's Warriors of Virtue (1997) and Bride of Chucky (1998) as well as the French film Brotherhood of the Wolf (2001), and directed numerous television series and films. After editing Red Cliff II (2009) he directed Cold Steel (2011), and in 2015 won a second Hong Kong Film Award for Best Editing, for The Crossing.
David Wu was a key editor of Hong Kong action cinema's golden age, cutting many of John Woo's films and setting the brisk tempo of 1990s Hong Kong action through Hard Boiled. A rare all-rounder who edited, composed music and acted, he later moved to Hollywood and Canada, editing international productions such as Bride of Chucky and Brotherhood of the Wolf, an early example of Hong Kong editing craft taken abroad.
Achievements
- 1970 · Was taken on as a film-editing apprentice at Shaw Brothers, assigned to editor Kwok Ting-hung's team working on Chang Cheh's films.
- 1993 · Won Best Editing at the 12th Hong Kong Film Awards for Hard Boiled and Best Adapted Screenplay at the 30th Golden Horse Awards for The Bride with White Hair.
- 2015 · Won Best Editing at the 34th Hong Kong Film Awards for The Crossing.