David Chung Chi-man was born in Hong Kong in 1947 with roots in Zhongshan, Guangdong. In 1964 he joined Shaw Brothers as a camera assistant, moved to Rediffusion Television as a cameraman in 1968, and joined TVB in 1973, shooting drama programmes ranging from exterior work on Stage 73 (1973) and Nice to Meet You (1976) to the film-unit series CID, Seven Women and Big Dipper (all 1976), The Young Ones (1977) and the documentary Curiosities (1975); among the young directors he worked with were Patrick Tam and Yim Ho. He moved into feature films in the late 1970s, co-directing an early picture with To Ping and taking his first cinematographer credit on Vortex (1978). He then shot Ann Hui's debut The Secret (1979), which won him Best Cinematography at the 17th Golden Horse Awards. He went on to shoot for many New Wave directors, including Tsui Hark's Dangerous Encounters of the First Kind (1980), Dennis Yu's The Beasts (1981), Patrick Tam's Nomad (1982) and Johnnie To's The Enigmatic Case (1980). In the mid-1980s he worked freelance for D&B and made his solo directorial debut with Merry Christmas (1985), also serving as cinematographer. Through the 1980s and 1990s he was chiefly a cinematographer, working on Shanghai Blues (1984), Killer's Nocturne (1989), Song of the Exile (1990), Once Upon a Time in China (1991) and King of Beggars (1992). He was nominated repeatedly for Best Cinematography at the Hong Kong Film Awards and won with An Autumn's Tale (1987), which he shot in Hong Kong while James Hayman handled the US locations; the next year he took Best Cinematography at the 25th Golden Horse Awards with Painted Faces (1988). In 1989 he became vice-chairman of the Hong Kong Society of Cinematographers; he emigrated to the United States in 1995 and stepped back from the local film industry.
As the go-to cinematographer for New Wave directors from The Secret to Nomad and The Beasts, Chung used nimble handheld and location shooting to capture the texture of Hong Kong's streets, helping shape the visual language of the period. He was the first cinematographer to win Best Cinematography at the Hong Kong Film Awards in two consecutive years, for An Autumn's Tale and Painted Faces.
Achievements
- 1979 · Shot Ann Hui's debut The Secret, winning Best Cinematography at the 17th Golden Horse Awards.
- 1987 · Won Best Cinematography at the 7th Hong Kong Film Awards for An Autumn's Tale.
- 1988 · Won Best Cinematography at the 25th Golden Horse Awards for Painted Faces.