Allen Fong Yu-ping, born in Hong Kong on 10 July 1947 with ancestral roots in Huiyang, Guangdong, is a key director of the Hong Kong New Wave. After graduating from the communication department of Hong Kong Baptist College he studied in the United States, first broadcasting, film and television at the University of Georgia and then film production at the University of Southern California, where he earned a master's degree; he returned to Hong Kong in 1975. He joined Radio Television Hong Kong as a production assistant and was promoted to director in 1976, directing many episodes of Below the Lion Rock, including The Wild Child (1977) and Ode to Un Chau Chai (1977), both of which portrayed grassroots life in a realist manner. The two episodes were given a special screening at the 21st London Film Festival, and The Wild Child won the gold award for young filmmakers at the 5th Asian Broadcasting Union Shiraz Film Festival. In late 1979 he was recruited as a director by Feng Huang Motion Picture Co. His 1981 debut, Father and Son, a semi-autobiographical work, won both Best Film and Best Director at the 1st Hong Kong Film Awards. His 1983 Ah Ying, starring the non-professional actress Hui So-ying and based on her true experience, was selected for the 34th Berlin Film Festival and took Best Film and Best Director again at the 3rd awards. His 1986 Just Like Weather was more experimental: the married couple played themselves and Fong appeared on screen interviewing them, blurring documentary and fiction, and it won him a third Best Director award, a record still unbroken. He later directed Dance with the Ox (1990) and A Little Life-Opera (1998). He also produced video work and directed stage plays for the City Contemporary Dance Company, shot the TVB series Echoes of the Heart (1988), and made cameos in films including Shanghai Blues (1984) and Summer Snow (1995). He moved to Toronto, Canada, in 2000, and received an Honorary Award from the Hong Kong Film Directors' Guild in 2016.
Fong brought the real lives of working-class families, fishing-village girls and emigrants to the screen using a blend of documentary and fiction and casts of non-professionals; a three-time Best Director at the Hong Kong Film Awards, he set a realist, humanist course for the New Wave and influenced later socially minded directors.
Achievements
- 1977 · Directed the Below the Lion Rock episodes The Wild Child and Ode to Un Chau Chai for RTHK, portraying grassroots life in a realist style
- 1981 · Directed his debut Father and Son, winning Best Film and Best Director at the first Hong Kong Film Awards
- 1983 · Ah Ying won him a further Best Director award and was selected for the 34th Berlin Film Festival
- 1986 · Just Like Weather brought him a third Best Director award