DIRECTOR IN FOCUS: BENNY CHAN MUK-SHING
Now and then: His directorial debut A Moment of Romance (1989) merged romance with the gangster genre and established Andy Lau Tak-wah and Taiwanese actress Jacqueline Wu Chien-lien as a classic screen couple.
His latest film Invisible Target, which opened on Thursday, is a police action thriller starring singer-actors Shawn Yue Man-lok, Jaycee Chan Cho-ming and Nicholas Tse Ting-fung as young cops facing a ruthless criminal (Wu Jing).
His trademark style: An action director who had the nerve to make Jackie Chan shed tears in New Police Story (2004) and wasn't afraid to blow up the new wing of the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre in Gen-X Cops (1999), Chan is renowned for his careful attention to characters and plot.
His recent films are characterised by realistic stunts and psychologically offbeat characters.
His road to the top: Chan spent the 1980s honing his skills in television productions.
After making A Moment in Romance, he worked on a wide variety of genres - from the martial arts flick The Magic Crane (1993) to undercover police thriller Man Wanted (1995) - before he led the mega-budget Jackie Chan movie Who Am I? (1998), securing his reputation as a blockbuster director.