Lau Kok Rui

Malaysian director and screenwriter

Lau Kok Rui

劉國瑞

Lau in December 2022

Born|

Lau Kok Rui

1990

Muar, Johor, Malaysia

Education|

* City University of Hong Kong (BBA)

Occupations|

* Director
* Screenwriter

Years active| 2017–present

Lau Kok Rui (Chinese: 劉國瑞; born 1990) is a Hong Kong-based Malaysian film director and screenwriter best known for his feature film debut The Sunny Side of the Street (2022), for which he won Best New Director and Best Original Screenplay in the 59th Golden Horse Awards.

## Biography[edit]

Lau was born in 1990 in Muar, Johor, Malaysia.[1] He is of Chinese descent with ancestral roots from Fujian, China, and has an elder brother and sister who later pursued studies in Taiwan.[1][2] Lau, describing his hometown as lacking in entertainment, spent most of his childhood immersed in reading and watching movies, including books beyond his age owned by his siblings and Chinese films owned by his classmates.[3][4] He later attended and graduated from Chung Hwa High School [zh] in 2008.[3][4] Upon graduation, Lau intended to studying abroad. However, since he didn't want to follow his siblings and found Singapore too similar to his home country, he sought for places that are unpopular for Malaysian graduates.[3] He was then informed by his high school teachers about a full scholarship program offered by City University of Hong Kong,[5] and he applied despite not knowing Cantonese and having only a limited knowledge of Hong Kong through films like Infernal Affairs.[3] He subsequently moved to Hong Kong alone at the age of 18 and resided in Kowloon Tong.[3] He studied marketing at CityU and graduated with a Bachelor of Business Administration in 2011.[1][5] After graduation, he became a research assistant at Chinese University of Hong Kong for a year.[3] Initially considering postgraduate studies in political science, he eventually found himself lacking interest in the extensive essay writing involved.[3][6] During that time, he attended a filmmaking workshop at the University of Hong Kong and became interested in film production.[6] He then applied for a documentary directing course organised by Tammy Cheung and was mentored by Cheang Pou-soi and Steve Yuen [zh].[3][6] In 2013, he entered the film industry and began producing documentaries.[1] He became a permanent resident of Hong Kong in 2015, and began working in advertisement production and as a volunteer at Pathfinder International in 2017.[1][2]

In 2017, Lau marked his television series debut as a writer for ViuTV drama series Afterlife Firm [zh].[7] He then produced an RTHK documentary The Sea Gypsies,[8] and made his directorial debut in 2019 with the ViuTV romance series Till Death Do Us Part [zh].[7] He started to pen a screenplay which later evolved into The Sunny Side of the Street in the same year,[1] which themes about South Asian ethnic minorities in Hong Kong that was influenced by his own experiences as an outsider residing in Hong Kong.[4][9] The screenplay was enlisted in the 2019 Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum [zh], and went into production with Lau serving as the director and scriptwriter.[3] Lau was originally admitted for a postgraduate program at Columbia University in 2020, but he rejected the offer to focus on the film project.[1] Lau's debut feature film was theatrically released in 2022 and received numerous awards,[8] with Lau himself winning Best New Director and Best Original Screenplay in the 59th Golden Horse Awards and received nominations for Best New Director and Best Screenplay in the 41st Hong Kong Film Awards.[10][11] Lau is currently working on a second feature film project which is based in Malaysia.[2]

## Personal life[edit]

Lau is married to a Hong Kongese woman.[12]

## Filmography[edit]

### Film[edit]

Year  | Title  | Writer  | Director  | Notes

|
|
|
|

2022  | The Sunny Side of the Street | Yes  | Yes  | [13]

### Television[edit]

Year  | Title  | Writer  | Director  | Notes

|
|
|
|

2017  | Afterlife Firm [zh] | Yes  | No  | [7]
2019  | Till Death Do Us Part [zh] | Yes  | Yes  | [7]
Showman's Show [zh] | Yes  | No  | [14]

## Awards and nominations[edit]

Year  | Award  | Category  | Work  | Result  | Ref.

|
|
|
|
|

2022  | 59th Golden Horse Awards | Best New Director | The Sunny Side of the Street | Won  | [10]
Best Original Screenplay | Won
2023  | 41st Hong Kong Film Awards | Best New Director | Nominated  | [11]
Best Screenplay | Nominated

## References[edit]

1. ^ a b c d e f g 梁皓兒 (March 18, 2023). "專訪《白日青春》導演劉國瑞：留下與否不是最重要，最重要是生命如何找到出路" (in Chinese). Hong Kong Inmedia. Archived from the original on June 17, 2023. Retrieved March 28, 2024.
2. ^ a b c 張子月 (April 2, 2023). "專訪｜《白日青春》導演劉國瑞，怎樣拍出最真實的香港難民故事？" (in Chinese). Wavezine. Archived from the original on December 3, 2023. Retrieved March 28, 2024.
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i 丘瑞欣 (December 20, 2022). "【《白日青春》導演劉國瑞專訪】勇奪金馬獎最佳新導演及原著劇本獎 居港大馬導演劉國瑞用電影說異鄉人的故事：想呈現流動、飄浮的香港" (in Chinese). Ming Pao. Archived from the original on March 1, 2024. Retrieved March 28, 2024.
4. ^ a b c 杜晉軒 (October 27, 2022). "香港電影《白日青春》入圍金馬六項大獎，專訪來自馬來西亞的導演劉國瑞" (in Chinese). The News Lens. Archived from the original on November 20, 2022. Retrieved March 28, 2024.
5. ^ a b "劉國瑞" (in Chinese). City University of Hong Kong. Archived from the original on February 25, 2024. Retrieved March 28, 2024.
6. ^ a b c 郭振宇 (March 30, 2023). "專訪《白日青春》導演劉國瑞——在沒有父親的彼岸，展開異鄉人的逃亡" (in Chinese). Verse.com. Archived from the original on April 3, 2023. Retrieved March 28, 2024.
7. ^ a b c d "【開箱】《白日青春》 黃秋生深刻演繹父子情 香港難民哀詩" (in Chinese). Ming Pao. April 3, 2023. Archived from the original on June 2, 2023. Retrieved March 28, 2024.
8. ^ a b 賈選凝 (April 21, 2023). "《白日青春》劉國瑞專訪：為什麼有的人能被當成「香港人」，有的人不行？" (in Chinese). Initium Media. Archived from the original on November 28, 2023. Retrieved March 28, 2024.
9. ^ 金寶 (April 9, 2023). "專訪｜《白日青春》導演劉國瑞：香港人血液裡一直帶著飄泊的基因" (in Chinese). HK01. Archived from the original on April 23, 2023. Retrieved March 28, 2024.
10. ^ a b Ng, Scott (November 23, 2022). "Malaysian filmmaker wins Best New Director award at Golden Horse Awards for 'The Sunny Side Of The Street'". NME. Archived from the original on December 8, 2022. Retrieved March 28, 2024.
11. ^ a b Lai, Kaitlyn (April 16, 2023). "See All The Winners At The 2023 Hong Kong Film Awards". Vogue Hong Kong. Archived from the original on February 8, 2024. Retrieved March 28, 2024.
12. ^ "專訪《白日青春》導演劉國瑞：無論如何艱難，我們都可以走在有陽光的那一邊" (in Chinese). Spill HK. March 23, 2023. Archived from the original on December 2, 2023. Retrieved March 28, 2024.
13. ^ Lee, Edmund (March 29, 2023). "The Sunny Side of the Street movie review: Anthony Wong, Sahal Zaman represent refugees from different eras in intriguing Hong Kong drama". South China Morning Post. Archived from the original on February 13, 2024. Retrieved March 28, 2024.
14. ^ "第59屆金馬獎 香港電影橫掃9獎 黃秋生張艾嘉封影帝影后" (in Chinese). Hong Kong Inmedia. November 19, 2022. Archived from the original on June 6, 2023. Retrieved March 28, 2024.

## External links[edit]

* Lau Kok Rui at IMDb