Adrian Kwan Shun-fai is a Hong Kong film director and screenwriter who has also worked as an assistant director, actor and producer, his films often carrying inspirational and warm-hearted themes. Raised in a Christian family, he attended a Catholic primary school and Kowloon Sam Yuk Secondary School, graduating from junior secondary in 1980, and emigrated to Canada with his family in the 1980s, where he finished school and university. He earned a bachelor of arts in film and digital media from the University of Regina in 1992; his graduation film, Stranger, won best educational documentary and best new director awards at the Saskatchewan Showcase, and he spent 1992–93 shooting documentaries in South America. Returning to Hong Kong in 1993, he joined the publicity department of TVB's Pearl channel as a production assistant; in 1994 he approached director Peter Chan and became a continuity assistant on He's a Woman, She's a Man, later working as an assistant director on films including He's a Woman, She's a Man 2, Comrades: Almost a Love Story and Lost and Found. From the 1990s he directed a run of gospel features for the Media Evangelism organisation, among them City of Angels (1999) and Life Is a Miracle (2001). He was nominated for outstanding young director at the 22nd Hong Kong Film Awards for The Mighty Spirit (2002), and directed Miracle Box in 2004. Later came We Will Rock You (2009), based on a true story, and a 2011 fantasy comedy. His 2015 film Little Big Master, about a headmistress who saves a rural kindergarten, grossed HK$46.72 million, the year's top-grossing Chinese-language film in Hong Kong, and brought him nominations for best director and best screenplay at the 35th Hong Kong Film Awards. In 2019 he produced and directed a series of short films for the Hong Kong Film Awards' outreach programme, and in 2020 he directed Find Your Voice, starring and produced by Andy Lau. In 2025 he directed and wrote his first television drama.
Kwan specialises in stories of ordinary people overcoming hardship. Little Big Master, based on headmistress Lui Lai-hung's rescue of a doomed village kindergarten, became the top-grossing Chinese-language film in Hong Kong in 2015 and drew public attention to rural schooling and grassroots education.
Achievements
- 1992 · Graduated from the University of Regina, his film Stranger winning best educational documentary and best new director awards at the Saskatchewan Showcase
- 1994 · Was taken on by director Peter Chan as a continuity assistant on He's a Woman, She's a Man, entering the film industry
- 2002 · Directed The Mighty Spirit and was nominated for outstanding young director at the 22nd Hong Kong Film Awards
- 2015 · Little Big Master grossed HK$46.72 million, the year's top-grossing Chinese-language film in Hong Kong, earning him best director and best screenplay nominations at the 35th Hong Kong Film Awards