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IMDbPro

Peter Ho-Sun Chan

  • Producer
  • Director
  • Actor
IMDbProStarmeterSee rank
Peter Ho-Sun Chan in The Love Letter (1999)
'5 hours, 13 blocks. To save a nation's future, they must protect one man from its past.'
Play trailer1:31
Bodyguards and Assassins (2009)
3 Videos
18 Photos
Peter Ho-Sun Chan is a Chinese film director, producer and screenwriter. Regarded as one of the most accomplished and successful Hong Kong filmmakers, Chan has directed 18 films, including the critically acclaimed Comrades, Almost a Love Story, Perhaps Love, The Warlords, and American Dreams in China.

Chan is the son of Hong Kong film director turned newspaper columnist Chan Tung Man and mother Lam Man Ying. He spent his childhood years in the Tsim Sha Tsui section of Hong Kong, his teen years in Bangkok, Thailand, and studied film in Los Angeles during the early 1980s.

After working on several films as assistant director, Chan made his directorial debut with the award-winning Alan and Eric: Between Hello and Goodbye in 1991. Chan followed Alan and Eric with a string of popular box office successes, including He Ain't Heavy, He's My Father (1993), Tom, Dick and Hairy (1993), and He's a Woman, She's a Man (1994).

In 1996, Chan received international acclaim for Tian Mi Mi (1997 international release: Comrades, Almost a Love Story), a film about two mainland Chinese immigrants who fall in love and drift apart in pre-handover Hong Kong. Tian Mi Mi was not only a box office success, but also swept the 16th annual Hong Kong Film Awards, winning an unprecedented nine awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Actress for Maggie Cheung. Time Magazine named Comrades one of the top ten films of 1997.

After Tian Mi Mi, Chan directed his first American production in coordination with DreamWorks SKG, 1999's The Love Letter starring Kate Capshaw, Tom Selleck and Ellen DeGeneres.

Chan's films of the nineties tend toward bittersweet romantic comedies that concern the hopes and struggles of Hong Kong Chinese couples on the cusp of the 21st century. At the advent of the 2000s, Chan expanded the scope of his creative projects to include both directing and producing a variety of films in new genres, including horror, war and a musical.

In 2000, Chan established Applause Pictures, a company dedicated to producing high quality Pan-Asian films intended primarily for Asian audiences. Films produced by Applause Pictures include Jan Dara (2001), One Fine Spring Day (2001), The Eye series (2002, 2004, 2005), Three (2002), Three...Extremes (2004), Golden Chicken (2002), Golden Chicken 2 (2003) and the animated McDull, The Alumni (2006).

In 2002, Chan directed Going Home, a segment of Three, a horror anthology showcasing three short features by prominent Asian directors. Notable directors featured in the Three anthologies include South Korea's Kim Jee-woon and Park Chan-wook, and Japan's Takashi Miike. Chan also produced the 2002 thriller The Eye, directed by Danny and Oxide Pang, a film later remade as an American production starring Jessica Alba.

Chan followed his exploration of the macabre with a turn in the opposite direction with 2005's Perhaps Love, a musical love story set in Shanghai and Beijing starring Takeshi Kaneshiro, Jacky Cheung and Zhou Xun. The film closed the 2005 Venice Film Festival, and was Hong Kong's official entry for the 2006 Academy Awards.

After Perhaps Love came the historical war epic The Warlords (2007), starring Jet Li, Takeshi Kaneshiro and Andy Lau. The gritty tale brotherhood and betrayal set during the Taiping Rebellion in 1860s China garnered 8 Hong Kong Film awards and 3 Golden Horse awards.

In contrast to the lavish production and epic scope of films like Perhaps Love and The Warlords, Chan's recent films are stories of hope, friendship and matters of the human heart, themes characteristic of his early work. With American Dreams in China (2013), a rags-to-riches story of three Chinese friends who achieve success teaching English to aspiring Chinese immigrants, and Dearest (2014), based on the true story of a divorced Chinese couple dealing with the abduction of their son, Chan demonstrates an ability to create socially-conscious, humanistic films that are also widely appealing to Chinese audiences.

Chan is one of the few Chinese filmmakers working today who can create popular entertainment that explores issues of social concern common to the ordinary Chinese citizen.
BornNovember 28, 1962
  • More at IMDbPro
    • Contact info
    • Agent info
    • Resume
BornNovember 28, 1962
IMDbProStarmeterSee rank
  • Unlock contact info on IMDbPro
  • Awards
    • 38 wins & 34 nominations

Photos18

Peter Ho-Sun Chan and Jing-Pin Yu
Peter Ho-Sun Chan and Jing-Pin Yu
Peter Ho-Sun Chan
Peter Ho-Sun Chan
Peter Ho-Sun Chan, Jianxin Huang, Wei Zhao, Dawei Tong, and Ying Chen in Dearest (2014)
Peter Ho-Sun Chan in Comrades, Almost a Love Story (1996)
Peter Ho-Sun Chan in Comrades, Almost a Love Story (1996)
Peter Ho-Sun Chan in Comrades, Almost a Love Story (1996)
Peter Ho-Sun Chan in Dragon (2011)
Peter Ho-Sun Chan and Wei Zhao in Dearest (2014)
Tom Selleck, Kate Capshaw, Ellen DeGeneres, and Peter Ho-Sun Chan in The Love Letter (1999)
Peter Ho-Sun Chan in The Love Letter (1999)

Known for

Jet Li, Takeshi Kaneshiro, and Andy Lau in The Warlords (2007)
The Warlords
7.0
  • Producer(as Peter Chan)
  • 2007
Takeshi Kaneshiro and Donnie Yen in Dragon (2011)
Dragon
7.0
  • Producer(as Peter Ho-sun Chan)
  • 2011
Takeshi Kaneshiro in Perhaps Love (2005)
Perhaps Love
6.8
  • Producer(as Peter Chan)
  • 2005
Wei Zhao, Dawei Tong, and Bo Huang in Dearest (2014)
Dearest
7.6
  • Producer(as Peter Chan)
  • 2014

Credits

Edit
IMDbPro

Producer

  • Tale of the Night
    • executive producer
    • 2023
  • Li Na: My Life
    • producer
    • Completed
  • Fang Yin, Haoran Liu, and Yuchang Peng in Coffee or Tea? (2020)
    Coffee or Tea?
    • executive producer
    • 2020
  • Jackson Yee and Dongyu Zhou in Better Days (2019)
    Better Days
    • executive producer
    • 2019
  • Last Letter (2018)
    Last Letter
    • executive producer
    • producer (as Peter Chan, produced by)
    • 2018
  • Goldbuster (2017)
    Goldbuster
    • producer
    • 2017
  • This Is Not What I Expected (2017)
    This Is Not What I Expected
    • producer
    • 2017
  • Soulmate (2016)
    Soulmate
    • producer
    • 2016
  • Wei Zhao, Dawei Tong, and Bo Huang in Dearest (2014)
    Dearest
    • producer (as Peter Chan)
    • 2014
  • The Truth About Beauty (2014)
    The Truth About Beauty
    • executive producer
    • producer (as Peter Chan)
    • 2014
  • American Dreams in China (2013)
    American Dreams in China
    • producer (as Peter Chan)
    • 2013
  • The Guillotines (2012)
    The Guillotines
    • producer
    • 2012
  • Takeshi Kaneshiro and Donnie Yen in Dragon (2011)
    Dragon
    • executive producer
    • producer (as Peter Ho-sun Chan)
    • 2011
  • San kei hap lui (2011)
    San kei hap lui
    • executive producer
    • producer (as Peter Chan)
    • 2011
  • Bodyguards and Assassins (2009)
    Bodyguards and Assassins
    • producer (as Peter Chan)
    • 2009
  • Sam hoi tsam yan (2008)
    Sam hoi tsam yan
    • producer (as Peter Chan)
    • 2008
  • Jessica Alba in The Eye (2008)
    The Eye
    • executive producer (as Peter Chan)
    • 2008

Director

  • Murder of the Husband
    • Director
  • Li Na: My Life
    • Director
    • Completed
  • Leap (2020)
    Leap
    • Director
    • 2020
  • Three Minutes (2018)
    Three Minutes
    • Director
    • Short
    • 2018
  • Wei Zhao, Dawei Tong, and Bo Huang in Dearest (2014)
    Dearest
    • Director (as Peter Chan)
    • 2014
  • Venice 70: Future Reloaded (2013)
    Venice 70: Future Reloaded
    • Director (as Peter Chan)
    • 2013
  • American Dreams in China (2013)
    American Dreams in China
    • Director (as Peter Chan)
    • 2013
  • Takeshi Kaneshiro and Donnie Yen in Dragon (2011)
    Dragon
    • Director (as Peter Ho-sun Chan)
    • 2011
  • Jet Li, Takeshi Kaneshiro, and Andy Lau in The Warlords (2007)
    The Warlords
    • Director (as Peter Chan)
    • 2007
  • Takeshi Kaneshiro in Perhaps Love (2005)
    Perhaps Love
    • Director (as Peter Chan)
    • 2005
  • 3 Extremes II (2002)
    3 Extremes II
    • Director (segment Going Home)
    • 2002
  • The Love Letter (1999)
    The Love Letter
    • Director
    • 1999
  • Maggie Cheung and Leon Lai in Comrades, Almost a Love Story (1996)
    Comrades, Almost a Love Story
    • Director (as Peter Chan)
    • 1996
  • Who's the Woman, Who's the Man (1996)
    Who's the Woman, Who's the Man
    • Director (as Peter Chan)
    • 1996
  • The Age of Miracles (1996)
    The Age of Miracles
    • Director (as Peter Chan)
    • 1996
  • Fu shi yuan qu (1994)
    Fu shi yuan qu
    • Director (as Peter Chan)
    • 1994
  • He's a Woman, She's a Man (1994)
    He's a Woman, She's a Man
    • Director (as Peter Chan)
    • 1994

Actor

  • Twenty Something (1994)
    Twenty Something
    • (as Peter Chan)
    • 1994
  • Ching Wan Lau and Anita Yuen in C'est la vie, mon chéri (1993)
    C'est la vie, mon chéri
    • Man at Party (as Peter Chan)
    • 1993
  • Jackie Chan, Maggie Cheung, and Nina Li Chi in Twin Dragons (1992)
    Twin Dragons
    • Party Guest (as Peter Chan)
    • 1992
  • Couples, Couples, Couples (1988)
    Couples, Couples, Couples
    • Man in Lounge (as Peter Chan)
    • 1988
  • Duo ming ke (1973)
    Duo ming ke
    • (Guest star) (as Chan Ho Sun)
    • 1973

Videos4

A Child's Cry For Help
Clip 1:26
A Child's Cry For Help
Warlords
Trailer 2:08
Warlords
Three Extremes II
Trailer 1:08
Three Extremes II
Bodyguards and Assassins
Trailer 1:31
Bodyguards and Assassins

Personal details

Edit
  • Alternative names
    • Ho-Sun Chan
  • Born
    • November 28, 1962
    • Bangkok, Thailand
  • Spouse
    • Sandra Kwan Yue Ng? - present (1 child)
  • Publicity listings
    • 1 Interview

Did you know

Edit
  • Trivia
    Attended UCLA film school and began working for John Woo as an assistant director.

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