Jacob Cheung Chi-leung was born in Hong Kong on 6 September 1959, with ancestral roots in Shunde, Guangdong. He trained in TVB's tenth acting class and worked for years in television writing and production. His first feature as director, 'Lai Shi, China's Last Eunuch', was released in 1988 and earned him a Best Director nomination at the 8th Hong Kong Film Awards and a young-director nomination at the 2nd Tokyo International Film Festival. His 1989 film 'Beyond the Sunset', about romance in later life, won Best Film and Best Screenplay at the 9th Hong Kong Film Awards. His 1992 'Cageman', set among Hong Kong's cage homes, uses an ensemble to portray the urban underclass and sets the residents' daily lives against institutional indifference; it swept Best Film, Best Director and Best Screenplay at the 12th Hong Kong Film Awards and remains his signature work. He directed a 1993 comedy and the 1997 'Intimates', which follows a bond between women. His 1999 feature 'The Kid' was released by the Creative Alliance he formed with about twenty directors including Derek Yee, and starred Leslie Cheung, who took a token one-dollar fee and also produced, in a gesture to lift the ailing post-crisis film market. In 2006 his 'A Battle of Wits', adapted from a Japanese manga about Mohist thought and war and starring Andy Lau, showed his taste for history and ideas, and 'Rest on Your Shoulder' (2011) wrapped a human story in fantasy. In 2026 the Hong Kong Film Archive screened six of his films chosen by him, and a 4K restoration of 'Cageman' was shown at the Taipei Film Festival. Cheung's films consistently focus on the disadvantaged and the socially marginalised while balancing commercial and artistic demands. Earlier in his career he worked at Cinema City as an assistant producer and producer, and later as a planner at Bo Ho Company on films including 'Mr Vampire' (1985), and his directing credits also include a number of features through the 1990s and 2000s.
Through realistic works such as 'Cageman', Cheung brought cage-home dwellers, the elderly and marginal groups into mainstream cinema. Holding an art-house line amid a market dominated by genre films, with repeated Hong Kong Film Awards recognition, his social-realist approach influenced a generation of Hong Kong directors in the 1990s.
Achievements
- 1988 · Released his first feature, 'Lai Shi, China's Last Eunuch', earning a Best Director nomination at the 8th Hong Kong Film Awards and a young-director nomination at the 2nd Tokyo International Film Festival.
- 1990 · 'Beyond the Sunset' won Best Film and Best Screenplay at the 9th Hong Kong Film Awards.
- 1993 · 'Cageman' won Best Film, Best Director and Best Screenplay at the 12th Hong Kong Film Awards.