Early life
Chan was born in British Hong Kong to Chinese-Thai parents. He and his family moved to Thailand and settled down in Bangkok when he was 11, where he grew up amongst the international Chinese community in Bangkok.[2] He speaks Thai as fluently as a Thai person.
He later studied in the United States where he attended film school at UCLA, with a minor in accountancy. He returned to Hong Kong in 1983 for a summer internship in the film industry. Chan never returned to UCLA to complete his studies.
Career
He served as second assistant director, translator, and producer on John Woo's Heroes Shed No Tears (1986), which was set in Thailand.[2] He then was a location manager on Wheels on Meals (1984), The Protector (1985) and Armour of God (1986), all of which were shot overseas.[2]
He joined Impact Films as a producer in 1989, guiding projects such as Curry and Pepper (1990) to completion.[2]
His directorial debut, Alan and Eric: Between Hello and Goodbye, was crowned best film at the Hong Kong Film Directors' Guild in 1991. It also won best actor at the Hong Kong Film Awards for Eric Tsang, who would become a frequent collaborator with Chan.
Chan was a co-founder of United Filmmakers Organization (UFO) in the early 1990s, which produced a number of box-office and critical hits in Hong Kong, including his own: He Ain't Heavy, He's My Father. Other critical and commercial successes followed, including He's a Woman, She's a Man and Comrades, Almost a Love Story.
In the late 1990s, Chan worked in Hollywood, directing The Love Letter, which starred Kate Capshaw, Ellen DeGeneres and Tom Selleck.
In 2000, Chan co-founded Applause Pictures with Teddy Chen and Allan Fung. The company's focus was on fostering ties with pan-Asian filmmakers, producing such films as Jan Dara by Thailand's Nonzee Nimibutr, One Fine Spring Day South Korea's Hur Jin-ho, Samsara by China's Huang Jianxin, The Eye by Danny and Oxide Pang.
Chan's 2005 film, the musical Perhaps Love closed the 2005 Venice Film Festival and was Hong Kong's entry for an Academy Awards nomination in the best foreign film category. Perhaps Love became one of the year's top-grossing films in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, and received a record 29 awards. Chan next directed The Warlords (2007) and produced Derek Yee's Protégé (2007). The two films were the two highest grossing Hong Kong-China co-productions of 2007. The Warlords grossed a record RMB220 million in China and over US$40 million across Asia, and garnered 8 Hong Kong Film Awards and 3 Golden Horse Awards, including Best Director and Best Feature Film.
In 2009, Chan produced Teddy Chen's Bodyguards and Assassins, which has garnered RMB300 million in China box office alone, accumulating over US$50 million Asia-wide. It has scored 8 awards in the Hong Kong Film Awards, including Best Film. It also won Best Actor awards for Wang Xueqi in the Asian Film Awards and the HK Film Critics Society Awards, adding up to 146 awards out of 231 nominations for Chan's awards track record.
In a survey conducted by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council during the 2010 Hong Kong Filmart, Chan was voted "the most valuable filmmaker", which was strongly backed by his box-office track records.
Personal life
Chan dated Kathleen Poh for a brief period in 1993 before Poh moved to Singapore permanently. Chan currently has a daughter Jilian Chan (born in 2006) with Hong Kong actress Sandra Ng, although the two have no intention of getting married.[3]
