Ricky Lau Koon-wai, born in Hong Kong on 20 December 1949, is a film director and cinematographer. Raised in the Diamond Hill studio district because his father worked in films, he left school after Form Three, worked as a mechanic at a camera-equipment shop and joined the industry as a camera assistant in 1967, learning under the Japanese cinematographer Nishimoto Tadashi. His first film as credited cinematographer was Seek Mother after Seventeen Years (1971); from Enter the Fat Dragon (1978) he became Sammo Hung's regular cameraman, shooting Warriors Two (1978), Knockabout (1979), The Prodigal Son (1981) and Winners and Sinners (1983). Encouraged by Hung, he turned to directing, and his 1985 Golden Harvest horror-comedy Mr. Vampire took over HK$20 million at the box office and launched a wave of jiangshi films across Hong Kong and Taiwan. Sequels followed, including the Mr. Vampire series instalments of 1986, 1987 and 1988. From the 2000s he worked mainly on the mainland, directing films such as I Am Chinese (2012) and The Taoist Priest Returns (2017).
By fusing folk jiangshi legend, Taoist ritual and slapstick in Mr. Vampire (1985), Lau created Hong Kong's 'magical fantasy' horror-comedy cycle, triggering a wave of imitations in the mid-to-late 1980s and fixing Lam Ching-ying's vampire-hunting priest image in the public mind.
Achievements
- 1971 · Credited as cinematographer for the first time on Seek Mother after Seventeen Years
- 1978 · Became Sammo Hung's regular cinematographer, shooting Enter the Fat Dragon
- 1985 · Directed Mr. Vampire, which grossed over HK$20 million and sparked a jiangshi film boom