Hong Kong director Derek Tsang made history with his film Better Days, landing a historic nomination—the first Oscar nod for any Hong Kong film in 28 years
Hong Kong director Derek Tsang recently made history as the first Hong Kong-born director to have his work nominated for the Oscars. Better Days (2019) is the first film to bag a Best International Feature Film nomination in 28 years, and only the third ever Hong Kong submission to be acknowledged following Zhang Yimou's Raise the Red Lantern (1991) and Chen Kaige's Farewell My Concubine (1993), while Wong Kar-wai's The Grandmaster (2013) made it to the shortlist.
Tsang's name may not have been on everyone's radar prior to his nomination, but it's now the time to put this rising director on your list. We break down five things to know about the director and his Oscar-nominated film, Better Days.
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1. Directing runs in the family
Tsang is the son of Hong Kong comedian, actor and director Eric Tsang with his second wife, Rebecca Chu. Tsang, his younger brother and his mother later moved to Toronto but Eric chose to remain in Hong Kong. Tsang eventually returned to Hong Kong after finishing his studies. Speaking to South China Morning Post, he said that he wasn't particularly interested in cinema until he was 16 when he started watching Wong Kar-wai films.
His father was initially worried when Tsang got into directing, thinking he was not able to make a living. But when his debut feature, Soul Mate (2016), came out with high praises from critics, Eric finally believed that Derek was heading in the right direction.
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