Patrick Tam Ka-ming (born 1948) is a Hong Kong director, screenwriter, editor and art director, and a leading figure of the Hong Kong New Wave. He began his career at TVB, directing experimental television dramas such as Seven Women, noted for their striking images and editing. In 1980 he made his feature debut for Golden Harvest with The Sword, starring Adam Cheng and Norman Chu with Corey Yuen as action choreographer, giving the wuxia genre a colder, more refined visual style. He followed with the psychodrama Love Massacre, starring Brigitte Lin, in 1981, and in 1982 with Nomad, starring Leslie Cheung, Pat Ha, Cecilia Yip and Kent Tong, which boldly explored sexuality and violence, is regarded as a landmark of the New Wave and helped bring Cheung to prominence. He then studied in the United States and spent the 1990s directing commercials in Taiwan; back in Hong Kong he worked mainly as an editor, cutting Wong Kar-wai's Days of Being Wild and Chungking Express. In 2006, after a long absence from feature filmmaking, he directed After This Our Exile, a 158-minute drama starring Aaron Kwok and Charlie Yeung about the estrangement and ruin of a father and son. It won five prizes at the 26th Hong Kong Film Awards, including Best Film, Best Director and Best Screenplay (with Tian Koi-leong), and Best Feature Film and Best Actor for Kwok at the 43rd Golden Horse Awards. Tam has also taught film, helping to train new talent, and his experiments with image and narrative have been studied and borrowed by later Hong Kong directors.
Tam's avant-garde Nomad and After This Our Exile, and his work as writer, editor and television director, influenced a later generation of Hong Kong filmmakers through their experiments with image and narrative.
Achievements
- 1980 · Directed his debut feature, The Sword, for Golden Harvest, starring Adam Cheng and Norman Chu.
- 1982 · Directed Nomad, starring Leslie Cheung and Pat Ha, regarded as a landmark of the Hong Kong New Wave.
- 2006 · Won Best Director and Best Screenplay at the 26th Hong Kong Film Awards for After This Our Exile, which took Best Feature Film at the 43rd Golden Horse Awards.