- 1st Chinese to win the Best Director Award at Cannes film Festival (1997)
- Loves Ingmar Bergman's films.
- Does not use detailed scripts for his films.
- He claims that his non-linear style of story-telling is inspired by the late Argentinian writer Manuel Puig's novel titled "The Buenos Aires Affair".
- Never went to a film school.
- He is fluent in English.
- Stated that one contemporary director he really likes is Danny Boyle.
- Profiled in "Films and Dreams: Tarkovsky, Bergman, Sokurov, Kubrick and Wong Kar-Wei" by Thurston Botz-Borsnstein. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2008.
- Dropped out of an art school and joined a screenwriter's program in 1980.
- Director with the most films (6, all directed between 1989 to 2000) among the Best 100 Chinese Motion Pictures, selected by Hong Kong Film Awards in celebration of 100 years of movies.
- Graduated from Hong Kong Polytechnic College in Graphic Design (1980).
- Did not speak Cantonese--the local dialect of Hong Kong--until the age of 13.
- President of the 'Official Competition' jury at the 63rd Berlin International Film Festival in 2013.
- Left Shanghai with his mother at the age of 5, when they emigrated to Hongkong, leaving his father, a hotel director, his brother and his sister behind.
- His son Qing, born 1994, along with his wife live in Hong Kong.
- President of the 'Official Competition' jury at the 59th Cannes International Film Festival in 2006.
- Considers Final Victory (1987) his best script.
- President of the 'Official Competition' jury at the 8th Beijing International Film Festival in 2018.
- His mentor is Patrick Tam.
- Made 7 films with cinematographer Christopher Doyle: Days of Being Wild (1990), Ashes of Time (1994), Chungking Express (1994), Fallen Angels (1995), Happy Together (1997), In the Mood for Love (2000) and 2046 (2004). After Doyle was forced to leave the latter two films due to their extremely long production periods, they have not worked together since.
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