Herman Yau | WatchedThis
Herman Yau
Directing
Biography
Herman Yau Lai-To (Chinese: 邱禮濤), born 1961 in Hong Kong is a film director, actor, cinematographer, scriptwriter and film producer. A Chiuchow by origin, Yau studied film at The Department of Communications, Hong Kong Baptist College from 1981 to 1984 where he spent much of his early days hanging out with music lovers and making independent films. Upon leaving school, Yau devoted most of his time working in the film industry, and writing for a number of magazine and newspapers as a columnist and freelance writer. Yau has also participated in a number of productions including music videos for Chang Kuan, Jie Cheng-jiang, Anthony Wong, Jacky Cheung, Andy Hui and the American jazz player Eric Marienthal. He has also produced TV commercials and promos for the Hong Kong Film Awards. From 1997 to 1998, Yau participated in the filming of a TV series produced by Radio Television Hong Kong. In 2003, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Independent Committee Against Corruption, the ICAC produced a television drama series and invited Yau to direct one of the episodes. Yau is also one of the founders of the cultural newspaper, Chinese Youth Weekly, and two movie magazines (these three periodicals have stopped releasing). Yau has also published two books of his own. Yau has produced and directed over 70 movies, which include The Untold Story, The Untold Story III, War of the Underworld, Walk In, Ebola Syndrome, Master Q 2001, From the Queen to the Chief Executive and the Troublesome Night series. Yau’s films have also been shown in the Hong Kong International Film Festival and film festivals in Europe and the United States. The Untold Story and Ebola Syndrome were praised as “cult classics” (Yau himself considers Ebola Syndrome as his most achieved work). From the Queen to the Chief Executive was awarded the Golden Torch Award by the International Catholic Organization for Cinema and Audiovisual. In 1997, together with a group of people coming from different fields who share the same belief in writing and the power of words, Herman founded Step Forward which specializes in publication. In 1999, Hong Kong Polytechnic University invited Herman as their first “Artist-in-Residence”. For seven years, from 1996 to 2002, the Hong Kong Art Centre invited Herman to be a member of the jury for the “Hong Kong Independent Short Film and Video Awards”. In 2002 and 2003, Herman was invited as a consultant for the “Master Degree Programme in Multimedia and Entertainment Technology” and Art Consultant for the Hong Kong Art Development Board. —Wikipédia
Filmography Movies
Acting
Mr. Mumble
An action comedy about a sharp shooter from the S.W.A.T team (SDU) in Hong Kong who gets fired for failing to show up in time for a hostage mission because he was womanizing at a local disco. Out of a job, he meets a beautiful wandering girl, at his friend's pub and takes her in not knowing she is the daugther of a triad boss. She is hunted and Mr. Mumble becomes her bodyguard. At first, she is disgusted with the fact that Mumble was always trying to get into the sack with her. But when danger arises, Mumble utilizes his special skills to serve and protect. At the end, does Mumble get his woman?
Troublesome Night 6
Four reporters from a tabloid magazine stalks a model for their gossip column. The model, having breaking up with her rich boyfriend, later commits suicide to escape all the pressure. The reporters relentlessly post the photos of suicide aftermath in their tabloid magazines. Years later, the reporters begin to fester and die violent deaths, and an inspector is assigned to track down the perpetrator. In addition, the inspector claims he has seen the model at the crime scenes, even if it has since been four years after her death!
War of the Underworld
When the son of a gang leader manages to insult the son of a rival gang leader, total war erupts between the rival gangs, and the young hero is forced to do terrible things in order to maintain order and honor.
Crying Heart
Mrs. Fat is slowly succumbing to cancer, but her biggest worry is her only child, the 30-year-old Bee. Possessing the mind of a toddler but the hormonal urges of a sexually aroused rhino, Bee finds himself in trouble with the gangster boyfriend of his neighbor May. After the thug is killed for stealing some heroin, the pregnant May becomes severely disabled -- and after Bee's real mother dies, the surrogate mother for her new friend.
Cop Image
Anthony Wong plays a traffic cop who is obsessed with action films. He wants to be a real life hero and gets his chance when he becomes involved in a botched bank robbery case.
Troublesome Night 4
A group of tourists from Hong Kong visit the Philippines on holiday and run into ghosts.
The Wall
A modern HK Cinema throwback to eighties triad dramas. Jordan Chan is Cho, a recently released ex-con who was imprisoned when he took the heat for a killing performed by his childhood buddy Dik (Patrick Tam). Now free, Cho only wants to be rid of the triad life, but finds himself inexorably drawn back in when Dik reappears. Dik is now a top triad lieutenant, and only wants to repay Cho for his loyalty and friendship. The two reforge their friendship, but it's an uneasy alliance which is complicated by Dik's seeming enjoyment at the violence of the triad life. Matters reach a head when Cho romances San (Cherrie Ying), the girlfriend of Dik's triad boss, leading to an explosive confrontation between the two longtime friends. Directed with smart, low-key precision by Marco Mak, The Wall is a tense action drama which recalls the righteous triad dramas of old!
C'est La Vie Mon Cheri
Unable to make it as a commercial success because he staunchly refuses to sell out, a struggling Hong Kong musician rediscovers his love of music and regains an interest in his life's meaning through his relationship with a dying girl.
New Tenant
Alan Tam is a writer who has spent the last decade in a mental hospital. Upon leaving, he rents an apartment in an abandoned building which contains a clock that sends him back to 1984. The only person that can hear Alan during this time is one of the previous tenants, a young girl named Dolphin. A strange romance soon develops between the two, and so when her sister Whale begins dating a suspicious professor, Alan helps Dolphin to find out the shocking truth about her sister's beau.
From the Queen to the Chief Executive
In 1985, Cheung Yau-ming was one of five miscreants involved in the brutal murder of a white couple. As he was still a juvenile, the court ordered that he be "detained at Her Majesty's pleasure," a clause in British law allowing the government to imprison young offenders for an indefinite period. The film picks up in 1997, with Yau-ming (now 28) being paid a visit by a girl named Cheung Yue-ling. With only six months to go before the Handover, Yau-ming and 22 other prisoners hope to have their sentences determined soon, fearing what might happen should the decision about what to do with them become the province of incoming Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa.
Production
Ebola Syndrome
A violent fugitive on the run from the law makes his way from Hong Kong to South Africa, where he discovers that he's immune to the Ebola virus, and later returns home to spread the deadly disease.
Love Actually... Sucks!
It tells a variety of stories about love that has gone wrong: a brother and sister in an illicit relationship, a married painter who falls in love with his young male life model, a dance school teacher who is besotted with his senior student, and a lesbian couple, one of whom has role-play paranoia, and is caught in a complex love triangle.
Permanent Residence
The life story of a young man who has been pursuing an impossible love with his straight boyfriend and contemplating on the mortality of his loved ones.
Bad Blood
When the boss of a ruling Hong Kong triad is arrested and executed in China for counterfeiting money, mayhem ensues as the mob's leading contenders circle the throne.
True Women for Sale
The story revolves around two women in the grassroots of Hong Kong society, struggling to survive and haunted by demons in their respective pasts. The literal translation of the Chinese film title is "I do not sell my body, I sell my uterus".
On the Edge
After working as an undercover in a triad for 8 years, Sheng finally arrests the triad leader and resumes his duties as a police officer. However, life does not return to normal as he is faced with suspicions colleagues and even trailed by the investigations team. One day, he meets some triad members whom he has earlier befriended as an undercover agent and is forced into a corner when asked to collaborate with them once again.
On the Edge
After working as an undercover in a triad for 8 years, Sheng finally arrests the triad leader and resumes his duties as a police officer. However, life does not return to normal as he is faced with suspicions colleagues and even trailed by the investigations team. One day, he meets some triad members whom he has earlier befriended as an undercover agent and is forced into a corner when asked to collaborate with them once again.
The First 7th Night
A helpless Taxi driver, a mysterious delivery boy, a 30 years abandoned motel, a touching past, all come together to form a strange tale. One day, a strange passenger Xiao Ma hires a taxi driver named Map King, paying him a huge sum of money to take him to an abandoned old motel. The Chun Lei Motel was mysteriously burnt 30 years before, and has been abandoned since. Very few people remember that the hotel ever existed and no one ever speaks of it. To Xiao Mas' surprise, the taxi driver actually knows the way to the motel. Ah Fang, was the owner of the motel. She had lived peacefully in the motel with her young son and husband. Seven days after the unfortunate death of her beloved husband, four thieves visited her motel. By the end of that evening, the motel was in flames and everyone involved had vanished. Thirty years after that fateful night, Xiao Ma and the taxi driver reach the motel.
The First 7th Night
A helpless Taxi driver, a mysterious delivery boy, a 30 years abandoned motel, a touching past, all come together to form a strange tale. One day, a strange passenger Xiao Ma hires a taxi driver named Map King, paying him a huge sum of money to take him to an abandoned old motel. The Chun Lei Motel was mysteriously burnt 30 years before, and has been abandoned since. Very few people remember that the hotel ever existed and no one ever speaks of it. To Xiao Mas' surprise, the taxi driver actually knows the way to the motel. Ah Fang, was the owner of the motel. She had lived peacefully in the motel with her young son and husband. Seven days after the unfortunate death of her beloved husband, four thieves visited her motel. By the end of that evening, the motel was in flames and everyone involved had vanished. Thirty years after that fateful night, Xiao Ma and the taxi driver reach the motel.
Cocktail
The melancholy Candy runs the Half Mortal, a trendy bar in Hong Kong. She hires Paul; Stella, a part-time employee who's a college student in psychology, trains him. He has a gift for mixing the perfect drink to fit each customer's emotional needs. His own emotions, however, are complex: his father, an alcoholic, has died recently; he's abandoned his studies; and, although he's likes Stella, he's a tyro with women and inarticulate with her. Is alcohol the key to happiness, as Paul wonders; does it simply change peoples' personality, as Stella thinks; or, is it just there, as Candy's business sense tells her? Can Paul and Stella blend into something smooth?
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