Peter Chan, born in Hong Kong on 28 November 1962, is the son of Chan Tung Man, a Thai-Chinese who worked in the Hong Kong film industry in the 1950s and 1960s; when his father's career did not prosper the family returned to Thailand, so Chan grew up there. He went to the United States for university and, on a summer visit home, joined Golden Harvest as an intern through his father's connections. In 1986 he assisted John Woo on Heroes Shed No Tears and entered the film industry. He produced and directed his first feature, Alan and Eric: Between Hello and Goodbye, in 1991, a fresh portrait of friendship that the Hong Kong directors' guild named Best Film. In 1992 he co-founded the production company United Filmmakers Organisation (UFO) with Lee Chi-ngai, Jacob Cheung, Eric Tsang and Claudie Chung, opening a new path with urbane romantic comedies; he co-directed Tom, Dick and Hairy with Lee Chi-ngai in 1993, and He's a Woman, She's a Man (1994), set in the music industry, was a critical and commercial success. Comrades: Almost a Love Story (1996), starring Leon Lai and Maggie Cheung and telling of two mainland migrants in pre-handover Hong Kong, swept a then-record nine prizes at the 16th Hong Kong Film Awards — Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Actress among them — and won Best Feature at the 34th Golden Horse Awards; Time magazine named it one of its top ten films of the year. Tempting Heart (1999) was another well-received romance, and in 2002 he directed the Going Home segment of the three-part horror omnibus Three and produced the thriller The Eye. Moving north in the 2000s, his Perhaps Love (2005), starring Jacky Cheung, Zhou Xun and Takeshi Kaneshiro and billed as China's first large-scale musical in forty years, closed the 62nd Venice Film Festival and won him Best Director at the 43rd Golden Horse Awards; The Warlords (2007), starring Jet Li, Andy Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro, won him Best Film and Best Director at the 27th Hong Kong Film Awards as well as the Golden Horse Award for Best Director, and his Wu Xia (2011) was selected for Cannes. American Dreams in China (2013), starring Huang Xiaoming, Deng Chao and Tong Dawei, took about 500 million yuan at the mainland box office and earned him Best Director at the 29th Golden Rooster Awards, making him the first Chinese filmmaker to take top directing honours at Taiwan's Golden Horse, the Hong Kong Film Awards and the mainland's Golden Rooster. He went on to direct the child-trafficking drama Dearest (2014), starring Zhao Wei, and Leap (2020), about the Chinese women's volleyball team and starring Gong Li, the latter bringing a Best Director nomination at the 40th Hong Kong Film Awards in 2022. As a producer he was behind Bodyguards and Assassins, which won Best Film at the Hong Kong Film Awards, and he also produced Soul Mate (2016) and This Is Not What I Expected (2017), nurturing younger directors. He has long been the partner of the actress Sandra Ng, with whom he has a daughter. In 2000 he founded Applause Pictures, producing pan-Asian films such as Jan Dara (2001), One Fine Spring Day (2001), the Eye series (2002), the Three series, the Golden Chicken series (2002-03) and McDull, the Alumni (2006), and he later set up We Pictures.
Peter Chan founded UFO and pioneered urbane romantic comedy before widening the map of mainland-Hong Kong co-productions through Comrades: Almost a Love Story, The Warlords and American Dreams in China. By winning top directing prizes at Taiwan's Golden Horse, the Hong Kong Film Awards and the mainland's Golden Rooster, he became the first Chinese filmmaker to complete that grand slam. His producing work, including Bodyguards and Assassins and Soul Mate, also set production standards for Chinese commercial cinema and nurtured younger directors. His films consistently explore migration, love and social change, offering a window onto Hong Kong and mainland society.
Achievements
- 1996 · Comrades: Almost a Love Story swept a record nine prizes at the 16th Hong Kong Film Awards, including Best Director.
- 2007 · Directed The Warlords, which won Best Film and Best Director at the 27th Hong Kong Film Awards the following year.
- 2013 · Won Best Director at the 29th Golden Rooster Awards for American Dreams in China, completing a grand slam across the three Chinese-language film awards.