Chan Wan, whose original name was Chan Lo-man and who also used the pen names Lau Cheung-ching, Yu Ho and Chun Man-to, besides the joint pseudonym 'Wei Man' with his wife Ngai Siu-chi, was born in Hong Kong in 1921. In early 1942 he fled to the mainland and returned to Hong Kong from Guangzhou in 1946, spending his first two years teaching. In 1948, through amateur stage work, he met film people including Lan Fei and Ng Tin-chi, who introduced him to extra work; in 1950 he was reunited with his primary-school teacher Lee Sun-fung, by then an established director, and after passing a screenwriting test became his disciple and entered the film industry. Under Lee he drafted scripts including Deep as the Sea (1952), and served as assistant director and first-draft writer on The Earth (1954), Cold Nights (1955) and The Lonely Swan (1955). He then spent years as a screenwriter in the Cantonese unit of Shaw and Sons, debuting with Chow Sze-luk's Murder in a Hotel (1958). He directed his first film, A Girl in Pursuit (1959), starring Lin Fung, and thereafter both wrote and directed. After making Warmth in the World for Shaw he joined Kong Ngee, where he wrote and directed his admired Sister-in-law (1962); he scripted the Lin Fung youth picture Red Male, Green Female in 1965 and directed the hit Pretty Boy. In 1966 he joined Chi Luen and made the hit youth picture Colourful Youth with Connie Chan and Josephine Siao, followed by a string of popular youth films through to 1969, most of them built around young idols and song-and-dance set pieces. In 1970 he moved to RTV as a writer at Chor Kei's invitation, retired in 1985 and died in Hong Kong in 2009.
Trained as an apprentice screenwriter, Chan Wan concentrated on youth films in the 1960s, putting young idols such as Connie Chan and Josephine Siao on screen; hits like Colourful Youth and Pretty Boy shaped the look of Cantonese youth cinema. He was also a key creative figure bridging Shaw and Sons' Cantonese unit and Kong Ngee, witnessing the shift of Cantonese film from literary drama towards youth musicals.
Achievements
- 1952 · As Lee Sun-fung's disciple, drafted the screenplay Deep as the Sea
- 1959 · Directed his first film, A Girl in Pursuit, starring Lin Fung
- 1966 · Joined Chi Luen and wrote and directed the hit youth film Colourful Youth with Connie Chan and Josephine Siao