Peter Chan’s early films, featuring the two Tony Leungs and Maggie Cheung, were a breath of fresh air in Hong Kong
- Well written and neatly structured in the manner of Hollywood films, Peter Chan Ho-sun’s first four movies are chock-a-block with Hong Kong references
- Character-driven and starring the likes of Maggie Cheung, Tony Leung Ka-fai and Tony Leung Chiu-wai, they also have an international feel, one observer says
Peter Chan Ho-sun made a big splash in Hong Kong cinema when he began his career as a director in the early 1990s. His first four films – Alan and Eric: Between Hello and Goodbye; Tom, Dick and Hairy; He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Father; and He’s a Woman, She’s a Man – brought a slick, contemporary approach to Hong Kong light drama.
Well written and neatly structured in the manner of Hollywood films, the films were chock-a-block with Hong Kong references. They were different enough for audiences to find them novel, yet local enough to speak to their everyday concerns.
“The production is infused with a degree of taste usually absent from local filmmaking,” an enthusiastic Post critic said of Alan and Eric in 1991.
Two years later, Post critic Paul Fonoroff noted that Tom, Dick and Hairy provided a breath of fresh air during the last days of the wuxia and kung fu boom of the early 1990s. “This character-driven picture is a refreshing change from the action-oriented costume epics that have flooded cinemas in the last year,” he wrote.
Chan had paid his dues before he began his directing career. Born in Hong Kong, but brought up in Thailand – he is fluent in Thai – Chan moved to the US to attend film school. He returned to Hong Kong for an internship, and never went back to college.