Johnny Mak, born in British Hong Kong in 1949, is a Hong Kong film director, producer and screenwriter known for crime films. In the 1970s he was programme director of RTV and head of its first channel, repeatedly beating the ratings-leading rival with dramas; from the 1980s he became a film producer, winning best director at the 21st Golden Horse Awards for Long Arm of the Law and best screenplay at the 11th Hong Kong Film Awards for To Be Number One. His younger brother is the director Mak Tong-kit. Mak entered a leading Jesuit college in 1962, where he met the actor Damian Lau, one year his junior; after finishing his pre-university year in 1969 he taught history at a secondary school in Kowloon City. In 1971 he and Damian Lau joined RTV's fifth actor training class; he moved behind the camera as an assistant director, became a director in 1974 and made anthology dramas that were among the station's top-rated programmes. In 1975 two episodes of a crime anthology made his name: his documentary style, laced with scenes of blood and horror, shook the habitual ratings lead of the rival station's flagship variety show and earned him, with two colleagues, the nickname of one of RTV's three heroes. Promoted to producer in 1977 and then production manager, he was made programme director of RTV in 1978 after a rival station closed and his drama series performed strongly; into the early 1980s he and Stephen Shiu ran the station's drama output. In 1981 he founded his own production company and moved fully into film, producing hard-edged crime pictures such as Lonely Fifteen (1982) and Long Arm of the Law (1984), the latter winning him best director at the 21st Golden Horse Awards and regarded as a milestone of Hong Kong crime cinema; in 1991 he co-wrote To Be Number One, directed by Poon Man-kit, which won best screenplay at the 11th Hong Kong Film Awards.
Moving from television to the big screen, Johnny Mak opened new genre ground for Hong Kong cinema: the documentary-style violence of Long Arm of the Law and the gangster biography To Be Number One set templates that shaped a generation of local crime films with their hard-edged realism.
Achievements
- 1975 · Made his name with the television crime anthology Ten Great Cases, becoming known with two colleagues as one of RTV's three heroes
- 1984 · Won best director at the 21st Golden Horse Awards for Long Arm of the Law
- 1991 · Co-wrote To Be Number One, which won best screenplay at the 11th Hong Kong Film Awards