Fame may have come late for director Alan Mak Siu-fai. But when it did, it came in a big way.
Virtually unknown before becoming involved in the Infernal Affairs series, Mak (below) is now riding high on its success. He picked up the best director award at this year's Hong Kong Film Awards for the first instalment, returned as co-director (alongside Andrew Lau Wai-keung) for parts two and three of the trilogy, and has seen his films pass into local legend.
What's less well-known is that Mak's insight into the lives and working of the Hong Kong police derives from personal experience.
At first, he claims his scripts come simply from his keen eye for people watching or what he describes as his 'outstanding imagination'. Questioned further, the truth is revealed. 'My father was a policeman and I grew up in a dormitory of a police station.
'I had complex feelings for those policemen living around me,' Mak says, half closing his eyes behind a light cloud of cigarette smoke, which seems to intensify his nostalgia. 'I thought I would be a policeman. And my father thought the same, because I was the strongest one among my brothers.'
Born the third of four boys to a humble family from Kennedy Town, Mak says he regards his father as his idol. 'My mother was a housewife. All that my father earned he gave to the family. In my eyes, the best man in the world is like my father. When I was a little kid, I wanted to grow up and be just like him.'' However, some incidents changed his mind about being a policeman. 'On a few occasions I heard gun shots. My mother didn't tell me what happened, but I found out later that some policemen had killed themselves.'