by Ryan Law

Films at Udine: Beyond Hypothermia, Born Wild, La Brassiere, Somebody Up There Likes Me, Task Force

Born Leung Pak-kin in 1959, Patrick Leung graduated in journalism and communication from Hong Kong Baptist University in 1982. While still a student he was script supervisor on John Woo's To Hell with the Devil and after three months at an advertising agency returned to the
industry, working as an assistant director under Woo, Ann Hui, Stephen Shin, Benny Chan, Johnnie To and Teddy Chen, also serving as second unit director on Woo's later films, co-scripting Bullet in the Head.

During his time he began a long-term collaboration with scriptwriter Chan Hing-ka and producer Amy Chin before making his directorial debut in 1995 with Somebody Up There Likes Me. The action scenes already pronounce a confident visual style receiving nominations at the Hong Kong Film Awards for Arthur Wong's cinematography and David Wu's editing. Though he worked with other directors, his inspiration of Woo can be clearly felt with emotion driving the plot as much as the story.

His next two projects, Beyond Hypothermia and Task Force, have an interesting point in common. Both feature performers cast against type in roles they're not favoured in: Wu Chien-lien plays a trained assassin and Leo Ku a police officer, albeit not a hardened one. Leung has clearly developed his visual style with a new confidence that cannot be explained purely from his collaboration with the newly formed Milkyway Image Productions. In both films, Leung gets great performances from
his supporting cast of characters.

Last year he returned to the industry in new collaborations with regular scriptwriter Chan Hing-ka and producer Amy Chin. Leung's own style has clearly developed in new directions. Five years after Somebody Up There Likes Me, Born Wild brings multiple dimensions of the protagonist to the mix, blurring fiction and reality. There is a more adult understanding
of relationships while the action scenes are more experimental and dynamic. The noirish world of Beyond Hypothermia is revisited without the romance.

With La Brassiere, Leung has made another change to direction with his first all-out comedy, reminiscent of Hollywood at its most classic. It is tempting to say that there is an influence here from producer Amy Chin who takes co-scripting credit. With these two most recent films, Leung shows a maturity in directing that proves not only his position as one of Hong Kong's leading directors, but a very bankable one too. He's currently preparing a sequel to La Brassiere, provisionally titled What Babies Want, featuring Lau Ching-wan out of ladies underwear and into an
oversized nappy.