Veteran entertainer Lawrence Cheng returns to directing after 20-year break
Lawrence Cheng has returned to directing after a 20-year hiatus, but the veteran producer, scriptwriter and TV personality tells Elaine Yau his first love will always be radio
After years of devoting his energies to managing a radio station and producing films, entertainment veteran Lawrence Cheng Tan-shui has been getting a lot of time on screen of late. Besides a role in recent TVB series , he can also be seen in , which opens in local cinemas today.
A romantic comedy, marks Cheng's first directorial work in two decades. The long break in directing reflected both Cheng's family priorities and a newfound penchant for producing.
"I used to think I loved directing ... My last directorial work in 1994 grossed more than HK$10 million. But it wasn't such a happy surprise for me," he says.
He subsequently emigrated with his family to Canada, where he and his wife focused on raising their daughters, Zaneta and Amanda. They returned to Hong Kong after four years as the girls entered university.
Nowadays, people say ‘let’s break up’ more than ‘I love you’. They break up in the morning and reconcile in the afternoon
In 2000 Cheng ventured into producing when director/producer Peter Chan Ho-sun invited him to produce a series of horror movies by brothers Danny and Oxide Pang. That led to a series of collaborations on movies by director Barbara Wong Chun-chun.
"The producer's job suits me as I can go to bed at 10pm. While working as the chief operating officer of Commercial Radio [1998-2004], I developed the habit of going to bed early and rising early."
