Henry Chan Chun-kit was born in Hong Kong in 1946 to a family from Bao'an, Guangdong, and moved to Britain with his family as a teenager, graduating from the London Film School in 1971. In Britain he worked on the cinematography of The Peace Game (also known as The Gladiators, 1969). Returning to Hong Kong in 1973, he shot commercials as a contract cameraman and entered features in 1975, his first credit being the Iran-shot Sunset in Persia (1977), followed by work on Leong Po-chih's The Extra (1980) and Tang Shu Shuen's The Tycoon (1979). From 1978 to 1979 he went to Korea with King Hu to shoot Raining in the Mountain and Legend of the Mountain (both 1979), winning Best Cinematography at the 16th Golden Horse Awards in 1979 for the latter. Back in Hong Kong he photographed the very different The Hong Kong Tycoon (1979) and The Big Stunt (1983) and served as photographic consultant on Aces Go Places (1982). He directed his only feature, The Eye (1983), and from that year became a regular cinematographer for Cinema City, shooting nine films including Esprit d'amour (1983), Working Class (1985) and Sister Cupid (1987). He emigrated to Canada in 1986 but continued to shoot in Hong Kong, with key credits including The Golden Swallow (1987) and Starry Is the Night (1988); from 1988 to 1992 he was cinematographer for many Win's productions, among them Casino Raiders (1989), Dance with the Dragon (1991) and Royal Tramp (1992). In the 1990s he shot Peter Chan's He Ain't Heavy, He's My Father (1994), Comrades: Almost a Love Story (1996) and its sequel. He later moved his base to North America, shooting film and television in the United States and Canada, including the Coppola-produced series First Wave (1998-2001) and the award-winning Canadian series Human Cargo (2004); in 2005 he won the Leo Award for Best Cinematography for The Collector (2004-2006). He has also taught at the Vancouver Film School and is now retired in Las Vegas.
A cinematographer who moved from Hong Kong to international work, Chan won the Golden Horse for Best Cinematography with Legend of the Mountain. His Korean-shot collaborations with King Hu are admired for their lighting and composition, and he later shot features and television in North America, one of the few Hong Kong cinematographers to work across Hong Kong, Canada and the United States.
Achievements
- 1977 · Made his feature cinematography debut on the Iran-shot Sunset in Persia
- 1979 · Won Best Cinematography at the 16th Golden Horse Awards for Legend of the Mountain
- 2005 · Won the Leo Award for Best Cinematography for The Collector