What a view | How Hong Kong movie producer, screenwriter and lyricist Saville Chan wants to add feature film director to his résumé
- Saville Chan has directed documentaries, short films and TV commercials in the past, but has his heart set on directing full-length feature films
- Best known for his award-winning scores and original film songs, he was at the Berlin film festival recently to promote a subsidised film collaboration scheme
Attentive film-goers will know Saville Chan Sum-yiu from the numerous best original film song honours he has won, and the nominations he has garnered, at the Hong Kong Film Awards and the Golden Horse Awards in Taipei. But in the next couple of years or so, his name is likely to be much further up the screen as the credits roll.
In a video call, the Hong Kong native refers to himself as a “veteran lyricist”, having co-written songs for The Way We Dance (2013), She Remembers, He Forgets (2015) and Weeds on Fire (2016), among other productions.
But his influence, in film and on streaming platforms, easily exceeds the boundaries of the recording studio. He is also a producer and screenwriter and can see himself in the director’s chair – again.
“I’ve directed short documentaries, TV commercials and a music video,” he says, “but I’ve not yet made my feature-film debut. I hope to do that in the next few years.
“In the Hong Kong film industry I don’t classify myself [other than] as a filmmaker,” he says. “I can be a producer, screenwriter – recently I’ve been writing film scripts by myself and in collaboration with others. I’ve spent a long time studying the screenwriting of other writers and writer-directors.”
