Described by CNN as "a master at the art of visual story telling"[2]
He was born into an acting family: his father Bao Fong, his mother Liu Su and elder sister Nina Paw are actors[3][4]
Was sent by his father to study in Guangzhou during the mid-1960s[5][6]
After returning to Hong Kong in 1975, he worked as a banker for the Bank of China for two years; however, he grew increasingly bored with his job, and watched 200 movies to pass the time[6][4]
Pau was not Lee's first choice for cinematographer, but got the job by stating that he wanted to use classical Chinese watercolour paintings as a reference for shot composition[8]
Pau stated that Lee wanted the camerawork on Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon to show the choreography at eye level, which differed from other Hong Kong action movies[9]
However, he was so heavily involved with helping Zhao Tianyu (赵天宇) direct that executive producer Ann An Xiao-fen (安晓芬) gave him a co-director's credit