We need to look to the future. You can't come up with new things unless you constantly forget the past. There's no reason to keep wearing the same pair of pants.
Andrew Lau
In mainland China, there are many good theaters - sometimes better than Hong Kong.
Beijing is my favorite city in China.
When I have a chance to make some movies, I am 200 percent to concentrate about my works.
You need to make certain decisions to expand your market.
When I go on the set, I'm so rushed. When I see the actors at rehearsal, when I love it, I want to keep the mood - my mood and the actors' mood also. So I have to push the crew faster. I don't want to lose the mood.
In primary school when I was 6-7 years old, I always go to theater with my uncle, and I don't know why I like the atmosphere, dark only. The screen has some lighting, that kind of things, you can see the movie star and so that's why I like movies.
I go to universities to talk to the students and teach them how to watch movies. Movies have so many elements - acting, music, art direction, costumes. I also tell them not to watch pirated movies. At the cinema, they can enjoy the big screen and the surround sound.
I still remember 1997 when I made the movie 'Storm Riders;' that moment, a lot of American producers want to hire me to make movies in the States.
I was able to make many different kinds of movies. They enriched me on many different levels.
When I on set as a director I crazy. My temper is not that good.
You don't want a movie to have a lot of awards and no audience.
With every movie, I try to do something different, whether it's action, comedy or drama.
Shooting in Hong Kong, you can do whatever you want, even change the script every day. In Hollywood, you have to have a lot of meetings.
I don't care about the critics.
My visuals are typically very powerful. The rhythm is fast. The cuts are fast.
So many people ask me, 'Do you like 'Departed?' I say, '50/50.'
Everybody want famous, like me to be a famous director.
I still remember 2002. It's a very hard time for Hong Kong industry, no movies in Hong Kong, and also at this moment I start my new company, so many people said, 'You're crazy.'
I don't want to repeat myself. I don't want to shoot 10 installments of 'Infernal Affairs.'
After making a movie, maybe you weren't able to shoot many of your ideas, because a movie is only 1 1/2 or two hours long, but TV gives you space to film a lot of things.
I want to put elements from movies into TV to raise the quality of TV.
There are lots of good producers out there.
Media Asia has great partners in China, Japan and Hollywood.
In Hong Kong, the directors are the idea men.
After 'Chen Zhen,' I wanted to make an emotional, touching story.
Audiences in mainland China know how to discuss movies.
