Tai-Lee Chan on Hong Kong action cinema and finding creative freedom as director

Before Tai-Lee Chan began directing his own films, he spent years shaping the narrative backbone of some of Hong Kong’s most successful modern action cinema.

As a writer on several entries in the Ip Man franchise, Chan helped craft the emotional and dramatic beats behind what became one of the most influential kung fu series of the past 20 years. Filmmaking had always been his intended path after studying the craft, yet it took time for him to step behind the camera.

When he visited Dubai for the Hong Kong Film Festival at Cinema Akil this month, where he screened his third feature Fight For Tomorrow, Chan reflected on the long road from writer to director and the creative freedom he finally felt he had earned.

At the screening, he says he was taken aback by the quality of questions posed by audience members, many of whom were filmmakers themselves.

“They asked about everything – equipment, action staging, my process,” he says. “Some of them even sent me their work afterwards. We exchanged ideas across cultures. That was very special.”

A writer who always wanted to direct

Tai-Lee Chan is credited as the writer of several films in the martial arts franchise Ip Man, starring Donnie Yen. Alamy

Chan’s career didn't begin behind a camera but at a desk. Despite studying directing in film school, he spent two decades writing screenplays, most of them action films. The choice was strategic.