Allen Fong Yuk Ping

"My films deal with realism and humanism, no glamorous stars, no sweeping drama - the people play themselves. I will not release a film I'm not personally satisfied with..." (as expressed in an interview conducted by John Lent, 1986)







     Allen Fong Yuk Ping's body of work is an anomaly within the lexicon of Hong Kong cinema. Unlike his contemporaries Tsui Hark, Yim Ho, Ann Hui On Wah, Mabel Cheung Yiu Yeung, Patrick Tam Kar Ming, Alex Law Kar Yiu, Leong Po Chih, and Eddie Fong Ling Ching, Yuk Ping bypassed commercial investment and major studio backing in lieu of smaller, personal films. Like Tsui Hark and Ann Hui, Fong discovered his aesthetic while attending University in the west, later developing his narrative skills through RTHK television as one of the directors of BELOW THE LION ROCK. In 1981, Fong ventured into feature filmmaking with the independently financed, semi autobiographical, FATHER AND SON (winner of the first annual Hong Kong Film Awards "Best Picture."), and over a decade crafted but a handful of films (a startling juxtaposition to the prodigious Tsui Hark).
   Much of his work, due to commercial constraints, was shot on 16mm film, and later blown-up to standard 35mm film. Unlike similarly serious peers Ann Hui and Mabel Cheung, Fong's devotion and care to each project immediately excluded him from major studio distribution. A great deal of his acclaimed work received funding via the Mainland-connected "Sil-Metropole Organization" (the studio behind: all of Jet Li Lien Ji's mainland pictures, T. F. Mous' MEN BEHIND THE SUN, and Lam Ching Ying's GREEN HORNET - to name but a few). The fact that his films received acclaim (and great subtitling via British critic Tony Rayns) but made little money, coupled with his independent spirit, ultimately forced Fong into  directorial stasis in the early 1990s.
   While we may never see another film by Fong, he remained active via performances in films like Joe Ma Wai Ho's THE GOLDEN GIRLS, and as an object of discussion in Stanley Kwan Kam Ping's 1996 documentary, YANG+YIN: GENDER IN CHINESE CINEMA. Regardless as to how many people may talk the merits of Hong Kong cinema in typical (and tired) western hyperbole, few of the S. A. R.'s films, and creative personalities, can lay claim that in the perpetual gamble that is filmmaking - they avoided compromise in their work in the manner which Allen Fong Yuk Ping did. Rather than compromise his vision, he folded his cards and walked away from the table with his head held high, and his work able to speak for itself.

Selected Works By Allen Fong:
(click on the title for a review)

FATHER AND SON
AH-YING