Patrick Tam (film director)

Patrick Tam Ka-ming (Chinese: 譚家明; pinyin: Tán Jiāmíng; born 25 March 1948) is a Hong Kong film director and film editor. He is known as the seminal figure of Hong Kong New Wave[1]

Patrick Tam
譚家明
Born
Patrick Tam Kar-ming

(1948-03-25) 25 March 1948 (age 76)
Occupations

Career

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Patrick Tam was born in 1948. As a teenager, he was avid film goer and wrote reviews and made film shorts on 16mm cameras. Like many of the other members of Hong Kong New Wave films, Tam began in television. He worked at TVB starting out as a prop assistant in 1967. By 1975, he was directing the stations tops programs like Superstar Special. When he was offered a sabbatical to study filmmaking in San Francisco, he spent most of the time at the Pacific Film Archive watching films.[2]

He returned to Hong Kong in 1976 directing episodes of the Hong Kong cop show C.I.D. and then the series he was most known for with Seven Women. His last major television production was the 10-part series titled 13 in 1977.[2]

His first film was The Sword (1980), a wuxia film.[2]


Tam directed the 1987 film Final Victory, scripted by Wong Kar-wai. He edited Wong Kar-wai's Days of Being Wild, contributing the cameo appearance of Tony Leung Chi-wai in the last scene, and Ashes of Time, as well as Johnnie To's Election.

As part of Hong Kong's New Wave of film directors in the late 1970s and 1980s, Tam's work enjoys great acclaim. According to the Hong Kong film critic Perry Lam, writing in Muse magazine, "[Tam's] unpredictable digressions and swift changes of scene can evoke a dreamer's logic, but his sound and images are always sharp and particular."[3]

As of 2006, Tam was an assistant professor at the School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong.[4]

Filmography

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Films

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Wong Kar Wai". Artificial Eye. Archived from the original on 10 July 2015. Retrieved 5 September 2021.
    - Mardhiah Osman (27 July 2012). "Wong Kar-Wai: An exploration of a director's obsession with lost time and love by Shane Mok". Archived from the original on 6 July 2015. Retrieved 5 September 2021.
    - Artemisia Ng (10 August 2007). "Patrick Tam's Exile: Before and After". UCLA Center for Near Eastern Studies. Retrieved 5 September 2021.
  2. ^ a b c Möller 2008, p. 14.
  3. ^ Lam, Perry (September 2008). "Eye-openers". Muse (20): 116.
  4. ^ Chung, Audrey (13 November 2006). "Award-winning filmmaker Patrick Tam nurtures talent for the creative media industry". City University of Hong Kong. Retrieved 10 September 2023.

Sources

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  • Möller, Olaf (March–April 2008). "Unreconciled". Film Comment. Vol. 44, no. 2.
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Awards and achievements
Preceded by Hong Kong Film Award for Best Director
2007
for After This Our Exile
Succeeded by
Awards suspended
Preceded by Hong Kong Film Award for Best Screenplay
2007
for After This Our Exile
Succeeded by
Awards suspended