Leung Ming-kai

Leung Ming-kai

History

Leung Ming-kai is a cinematographer and filmmaker from Hong Kong. As a cinematographer, Kai has shot more than 20 celebrated features in different parts of the world. These include Sylvia Chang's Murmur of the Hearts, Johnny Ma's Old Stone, and Anocha Suwichakornpong's By the Time It Gets Dark. Festivals including Cannes, Berlin, Locarno, New York, Rotterdam, and New Directors/New Films have selected films he shot. Kai was nominated for Best Cinematography in the Philippines for Ang Nawawala, in Canada for Old Stone, and in Thailand for By the Time It Gets Dark. Recently, Kai shot Ray Yeung's Suk Suk, which was selected by Berlin 2020 and nominated for Best Picture at the Hong Kong Film Awards. He also shot Jun Li's 2021 film Drifting, which was nominated for Best Cinematography at the Golden Horse Awards and Best Picture at the Hong Kong Film Awards. Kai also directs. His short film Three Boys represented the Philippines in competition at Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival and won the top prize at the Hong Kong Independent Film & Video Awards. It also screened at Sao Paulo, Austin, and Jecheon. Lock was in competition at the Tribeca Film Festival. Kai directed and wrote omnibus film Memories to Choke On, Drinks to Wash Them Down with Kate Reilly, and together, they won Best Screenplay and Film of Merit at the Hong Kong Film Critics Society Awards.

Profile

Leung Ming-kai
Leung Ming-kai
Leung Ming-kai

Movies

All Shall Be Well
Director of Photography
When her partner Pat unexpectedly dies, Angie is left to worry about the flat in which the couple lived together for over 30 years. Supported by her chosen family, Angie begins a later-life journey into emancipation.
A Light Never Goes Out
Director of Photography
Accomplishing her late husband's wish of remaining a mysterious neon sign, a depressed middle-aged widow and the neon signmaker's protégé discover surprises and bitterness amidst the city's vanishing glow.
The Sunny Side of the Street
Director of Photography
Hassan is a Hong Kong-born Pakistani kid waiting for refugee status to Canada. His father died in a car accident that Yat is involved in, who himself was a refugee from China in the 1970s. When Hassan joins a refugees' gang and gets entangled with the police, Yat decides to help him flee, but Hassan finds out the truth about his father's death. Can their journey continue?
The Black Wall
Director of Photography
On stage, senior Cantonese opera singer Sam Chan is bright and well-received. Yet at backstage, how could she deal with her fear and difficulties and a complaint against her regarding National Security Law in Hong Kong?
Far Far Away
Director of Photography
A 28-year-old I.T. geek suddenly finds himself the object of affection for five attractive women within the same year. The quintet share virtually no similar traits except one quirky thing: they all live in remote corners of Hong Kong.
Drifting
Director of Photography
Just out of jail, Fai finds a spot on a street corner where other homeless people welcome him. But he doesn’t get much time to settle in. The police soon chase them away, and their possessions disappear into a garbage truck. Young social worker Ms Ho thinks it’s time to fight this in court. In the meantime, Fai and his friends have other concerns.
Come Here
Director of Photography
Four young travelers embark on a trip to Kanchanaburi to see the museum, but pass the time in other ways when they find out it's closed for refurbishment.
Twilight's Kiss
Director of Photography
One day Pak, a taxi driver who refuses to retire, meets Hoi, a retired single father, in a park. Although both are secretly gay, they are proud of the families they have created through hard work and determination. Yet in that brief initial encounter, something is unleashed in them which had been suppressed for so many years. As both men recount and recall their personal histories, they also contemplate a possible future together.
Memories to Choke On, Drinks to Wash Them Down
Producer
This anthology film, whose Chinese title begins with a romantic name for human excrement, premiered internationally at Rotterdam and won Best Screenplay from the Hong Kong Film Critics Society. A variety of Hong Kong people wrestle with nostalgia when facing an uncertain future. Their stories give way to a documentary featuring a young barista turned political candidate.
Memories to Choke On, Drinks to Wash Them Down
Screenplay
This anthology film, whose Chinese title begins with a romantic name for human excrement, premiered internationally at Rotterdam and won Best Screenplay from the Hong Kong Film Critics Society. A variety of Hong Kong people wrestle with nostalgia when facing an uncertain future. Their stories give way to a documentary featuring a young barista turned political candidate.
Memories to Choke On, Drinks to Wash Them Down
Director
This anthology film, whose Chinese title begins with a romantic name for human excrement, premiered internationally at Rotterdam and won Best Screenplay from the Hong Kong Film Critics Society. A variety of Hong Kong people wrestle with nostalgia when facing an uncertain future. Their stories give way to a documentary featuring a young barista turned political candidate.
Krabi, 2562
Director of Photography
Explores the landscape and stories within the community of Krabi, Southern Thailand. A major tourist destination in Thailand, the filmmakers want to capture the town in this specific moment where the pre-historic, the more recent past and the contemporary world collide, sometimes uneasily.
Live For Real
Director of Photography
Lin Jin loves to dance, but his father does not understand why. Because of the problems with his father, Lin Jin can't create any original dance choreography. When he has lost his way, a sunny and confisent woman named Xiao Zi appeared. In the process of getting along with her, Lin Jin gradually understoods what youth is all about...
By the Time It Gets Dark
Cinematography
A film director and her muse who was a student activist in the 1970s, a waitress who keeps changing jobs, an actor and an actress, all live loosely connected to each other by almost invisible threads. The narrative sheds its skin several times to reveal layer upon layer of the complexities that make up the characters’ lives.
Old Stone
Cinematography
When a drunk passenger distracts him, cabbie Lao Shi collides with a motorist on a scooter. Amid concern that the young man will die before the ambulance arrives, Shi transports him to the hospital. But when insurance information is not located for the victim, now in a coma, Shi gets stuck with the hospital bills. So begins a sequence of personal hardship, as Shi is pushed to the brink of destitution by a system of bureaucratic indifference. Soon, he's forced to make an unthinkable decision. The outcome will be life or death.
My Good Man's Gone
Colorist
Following the death of their estranged father, Joni and Wes Carver travel to Arkansas to deal with their inheritance: a rundown house in a rural town, arriving just in time for Decoration Week-end - wherein former residents return to celebrate their ancestors. It is here, in a sea of strangers living and dead, that Joni and Wes finally find their place in the story of their own lives.
Murmur of the Hearts
Director of Photography
Mei falls for an underachieving boxer, and begins years of soul searching in the city, where she reunites with her estranged brother under unexpected circumstances. What was remembered and forgotten are lessons that have profound consequences.
Invisible Spaces
Director of Photography
In this Palme d'Or nominated minimalist drama, a seemingly calm family morning falls apart revealing hidden tensions.
Mutual Friends
Director of Photography
Surprise parties rarely go well. This one is no different, as a group of 30-somethings head through life, love and a day in New York City.
Keep the Change
Director of Photography
A young man is forced to attend a support group that leads to an unexpected connection.
What Isn't There
Director of Photography
Gibson Bonifacio stopped speaking when he was a child. Now twenty, he returns home to Manila for Christmas. While always festive in the Philippines, for his family it is tinged with sadness, marking the anniversary of his twin brother’s death.
In April the Following Year, There Was a Fire
Director of Photography
Nuhm is a construction foreman working in Bangkok. The political instability in Thailand has making its presence felt in all business sectors. Nuhm suddenly finds himself out of jobs. He decides to leave Bangkok to go back to his hometown in the northeast of Thailand to attend his high school friend’s wedding during the Thai New Year in April which also happens to be the hottest month of the year. Nuhm reunites with his old friends at the wedding in Khon Kaen.
Off Season
Director of Photography
A man and his dog traverse a cold, barren climate and discover some disturbing things along the way.
Mundane History
Director of Photography
Explores the relationship between Ake, a young man who is paralyzed from the waist down after an accident, and Pun, the male nurse who takes care of him, and of course Ake's father. Ake is at first cold towards his nurse Pun, but as Pun continues to earnestly take care of him he starts to open up his heart through candid conversations. The physical contact with Pun makes him rethink physical desires that he wants to forget. The grudge he held against his father slowly abates. All of this slowly becomes the motivating factor to confirm that he is alive, albeit with physical problems.