Many people struggle hard to earn their livings. But there are also people who dedicate all their efforts to chasing their dreams. Alumnus Fung belongs to the latter. He graduated from the School of Communication (Cinema and Television) when the local film industry was facing a downturn in end 1990. Fung did not give up and started his career as a deputy film director in a film production company soon after his graduation. He realized that the success of any movies lies with the script and the importance for a good director to fully understand the script so that the scenes can be enacted well in a movie. He therefore decided to sharpen his skills in screenwriting.
Perseverance Gives Hope
Fung recalled that there were many challenges to becoming a film director. Many of his classmates had changed their field of work due to the downturn of the film industry. With perseverance, Fung continued to pursue his dream as a film director as he believes that opportunities will always be around for those who never let go. After successfully developing the drama 《At the Threshold of an Era》 for TVB, Fung won the chance to work with famous actor and director Stephen Chow. He was involved with the screenwriting for Chow’s 《Shaolin Soccer》,《CJ7》 and《The Mermaid》. In 2012, he wrote and directed the film 《The Bounty》and was nominated as the Best New Director in the Hong Kong Film Awards. Among his various scripts, Fung is especially satisfied with《Hooked on You》 because of his strong involvement in preparing its script ever since the movie came into conception. Two prominent dialogues in the film “Romance can painstakingly be arranged while Move comes from bits of life” were written by Fung.
The Art of Film-making
Fung never confines himself to any particular genre. Indeed, his works have a great span of themes, including comedy, romance, action and so on. He loves to reflect real life in the characters of his works and display their sadness and joy through different comedic writing styles. However, he points out that writing comedy scripts is difficult as it requires close collaboration with actors. To play vividly, they must be creative and have a sense of rhythm on speaking and performing. Fung also advises that being observant to your surroundings could greatly help in film-making.
Inspiring the New Generation
Fung often comes back to his alma mater to share his experiences with young students. Recently he has also participated in the production of a micro-film with a group of young students, hoping they could learn more about filmmaking through this special project. The micro-film will be launched in June to celebrate the University’s 60th anniversary. Starring alumna Priscilla Wong, 《CTV6X10 C’est La Vie》, the unit that he directed, connotes a project done by a team of life-long learning alumni of HKBU. At the moment, Fung is busy with the post production of his upcoming movie 《Concerto of the Bully》, which is adapted from his first novel, a fantasy musical love story. The cast includes Mr. Ronald Cheng and alumna Cherry Ngan. Mr. Peter Kam is responsible for the original music.
Fung encourages students who would like to join the film industry to work hard and be optimistic about the future. It would certainly help if they could look at different types of films including Chinese and foreign ones to learn more about the art of film-making. There is no boundary in film-making and students should open their eyes to different styles of making movies. A good movie will gain applause by anyone regardless of country of origin or language. Fung restates that good screenwriting lays the foundation for a good movie. He adds, ‘In my opinion, it is the soul of any movie.’
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