Dante Lam
Prolific film director Dante Lam is a key figure in Hong Kong action cinema, having been in the industry since the early 1990s. He has won a Hong Kong Film Award for Best Director, and his new film, MMA-flick “Unbeatable,” is out this week. He tells Andrea Lo about the film, his early days in the industry, and his philosophies on life and destiny.
Entering the film industry was a yuanfen [fate/destiny] of sorts. I was job-searching in the classifieds. The ad was looking for a messenger.
When I got there, it was a large film company. I was working a summer job, and started to come into contact with films. I didn’t get to know what directing really was, though, because I didn’t have a lot of opportunities to be on set.
At the time, I met some friends. After working in film advertising for a few years, I started to take an interest in production. That was when I thought I wanted to give it a try, so I got in touch with those friends.
I didn’t come into contact with film at an early age. But of course, when I’m directing films now, there are definitely links between them and my life—where we live, what we feel, or what I’ve experienced.
“Unbeatable” uses MMA as a main storyline, but there are a lot of emotional scenes in the film. Nick Cheung thinks his life is pretty much over, but he realizes that you can’t just let yourself go. Life is hard and you might make a lot of sacrifices, but you don’t necessarily gain what is proportionate to what you offer. However, you can’t give up. As long as you do something for yourself, that is enough.