Po-Chih Leong

 ( Living People ) 

Leong Po-Chih (born 31 December 1939) is a British-Chinese film director. He has worked in England, Hong Kong, and the United States.

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Early life On 31 December 1939, Leong was born in England to parents from Taishan, Guangdong. His father was a seaman who opened a Chinese restaurant in London's West End.

Robert Murphy (2026). 9781838715335, Bloomsbury. . ISBN 9781838715335

Leong has two siblings; his younger brother is sculptor Po Shun Leong, and his nephew is photographer Sze Tsung Leong.

Leong attended Leighton Park School. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from the University of Exeter and studied at the London Film School.

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Career Leong began his career as a trainee film editor at the BBC. Leong worked on a variety of productions, including the long-running series Panorama. In 1967, Leong joined TVB and set up its film unit in British Hong Kong. As an executive producer he also directed a number of entertainment programmes, including The Star Show. He left TVB in 1969 to form Adpower, one of the first commercial production companies in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong. Urban Council (1989). 9789627040279, Urban Council. . ISBN 9789627040279

In 1976, Leong co-directed his first Hong Kong film Jumping Ash, an action film set in a drug underworld, where he also appeared in this film as Tiger's man.

Ching-Mei Esther Yau (2026). 9780816632343, U of Minnesota Press. . ISBN 9780816632343

It was one of the two top-grossing films of the season.

(2026). 9781841501482, Intellect Books. . ISBN 9781841501482

At the 23rd Hong Kong Film Festival, it was described as "the advance guard of the (Hong Kong) New Wave".

(1999). 9789627040675, 臨時市政局. . ISBN 9789627040675

He went on to direct a range of genres from drama to action movies, comedies, horror and satire, in both English and Chinese. Banana Cop (1984)

(1994). 9780345390271, Ballantine Books. . ISBN 9780345390271

was the story of a British–Chinese policeman who returns to Hong Kong to seek help with a case. It was the genesis for his first British film Ping Pong (1986), made for UK's Channel 4, the first English feature film set in Soho's Chinatown.

(1986). 9780851701929, British Film Institute. . ISBN 9780851701929

After Banana Cop, Leong turned to history for inspiration and made the award-winning movie Hong Kong 1941 (1984), starring Chow Yun Fat,

Daniel O'Brien (2026). 9781900486316, Headpress. . ISBN 9781900486316

set in Hong Kong during the early days of the Japanese invasion.

R R Bowker Publishing (1988). 9780835227995, Garland Pub.. . ISBN 9780835227995

(2026). 9781841502748, Intellect Books. . ISBN 9781841502748

Hong Kong 1941 was an oblique comment on the 1984 deal between Britain and China about Hong Kong's future.

(1997). 9780851704968, BFI. . ISBN 9780851704968

Edmond Grant (1999). 9780933997431, CineBooks. . ISBN 9780933997431

Leong and his film maker daughter, Sze Wing Leong,http://www.documentary.org/users/cuckoohk directed and filmed the effect of this deal up to and beyond the handover in Riding the Tiger (1997-1998), an eight part, observational documentary series for the UK's Channel 4.

(2005). 9780719068997, Manchester University Press. . ISBN 9780719068997

Further pursuing his interest in history, Leong made a Hong Kong English-language movie, Shanghai 1920 (HK, 1990), set in Shanghai and starring John Lone,

about the rise of the legendary Shanghai gangster Du Yuesheng.

(1997). 9780851704968, BFI. . ISBN 9780851704968

His second British feature film, was the award-winning 1998 movie, The Wisdom of Crocodiles, starring Jude Law, Timothy Spall, and Kerry Fox, with notable references to opus, especially Rashomon, and to Jean-Pierre Melville's Le Samouraï.

In recent years Leong has made action films starring Steven Seagal,

Arnaud Niklaus (2012). 9782322004867, BoD - Books on Demand France. . ISBN 9782322004867

Wesley Snipes,

Robert Cettl (2026). 9780786454426, McFarland. . ISBN 9780786454426

Judd Nelson,

Tracy Stevens (2026). 9780900610721, Quigley Publishing Company. . ISBN 9780900610721

Joe Mantegna,

(2026). 9780900610813, Quigley Publishing Company. . ISBN 9780900610813

and Oscar-winning Marcia Gay Harden.

Otto Penzler (2012). 9781936661190, BenBella Books. . ISBN 9781936661190

He has directed films for US network television and AMC. In 2012, he reunited with Hong Kong producer Raymond Wong Bak Ming to direct the 3D movie, Baby Blues.

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Personal life Leong is married to Mary Leong. His son James Leong is also a filmmaker.

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Filmography

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Films

1979
1981
Nominated – Hong Kong Film Award Best Director
Nominated – Chicago International Film Festival Best Feature
Brussels International Festival of Fantasy Film Grand Prize of European Fantasy Film in Silver Gérardmer Film Festival Special Jury Prize Valenciennes International Festival of Action and Adventure Films Audience Award Nominated – Sitges - Catalan International Film Festival Grand Prize of European Fantasy Film in Gold
2013

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Television series

Episode Excitable Boy

Episode: If a Tree Falls...

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Awards His movies have won multiple awards and have been shown at the Venice, London, Toronto, Locarno, Hong Kong and Edinburgh film festivals, amongst others.

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External links

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