Cheng Siu-keung (born 21 July 1952), also known as Alan Cheng or Milo Cheng, is a Hong Kong cinematographer. Between 1976 and 1985 he worked at Television Broadcasts Limited as a cameraman and producer, and in 1989 he shot his first feature, Unfaithfully Yours, for which he also wrote the screenplay. He joined the Hong Kong Society of Cinematographers in 1992. From the mid-1990s he worked closely with the directors Johnnie To and Wai Ka-fai as a leading cameraman for Milkyway Image, shooting films such as The Longest Nite, Running Out of Time, PTU, Breaking News, Election, Exiled, Mad Detective and Sparrow, as well as Where a Good Man Goes and Throw Down. In 1999 he was the cinematographer on Johnnie To's The Mission, which won several Golden Horse Awards, and in 2004 he shot Johnnie To's Breaking News, whose opening gun-battle sequence unfolds in a single take lasting several minutes. His collaboration with Johnnie To has run for more than twenty years, making him one of the core technical figures behind the Milkyway team. His restrained camera makes heavy use of cool tones, stark contrast and cramped framing to build pressure, and his work moves between crime, action and drama. Cheng has won the Hong Kong Film Award for Best Cinematography three times, for Limbo (2022), Detective vs Sleuths (2023) and Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In (2025), and the Golden Horse Award for Best Cinematography twice, for Sparrow (2008) and Limbo (2022). He was also nominated at the 39th Hong Kong Film Awards for Ip Man 4: The Finale and at the 15th Asian Film Awards for Limbo, and served as cinematographer on Drug War (2013), Blind Detective (2013) and Mad Fate (2023).
Cheng Siu-keung's long partnership with Milkyway Image made his austere, high-contrast visual language the studio's trademark in crime films, visible from The Mission and PTU to Election; with three Hong Kong Film Awards for Best Cinematography, he carried that visual idiom through to Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In.
Achievements
- 1989 · Shot and wrote the screenplay for his first feature, Unfaithfully Yours
- 2022 · Won Best Cinematography at the 40th Hong Kong Film Awards and the 59th Golden Horse Awards for Limbo
- 2025 · Won Best Cinematography at the 43rd Hong Kong Film Awards for Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In