Patrick Tam Kar-Ming

Directing

Patrick Tam Kar-Ming

Born 1948-01-01 · Hong Kong, British Crown Colony [now China]

Patrick Tam Kar-Ming is a Hong Kong film director and editor. Part of Hong Kong's New Wave of film directors in the late 1970s and 1980s, Tam's works have enjoyed great acclaim. He is also known as the mentor of Wong Kar-Wai, and worked as an editor on Days of Being Wild (including Tony Leung Chiu-Wai's appearance in the last scene) and Ashes of Time. Tam has worked as an academic since 1995, and now serves as an Associate Professor in the School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong.

Acting credits

Behind the camera

Nomad poster
6.9

Four carefree lovers in Hong Kong enjoy their youth while danger looms on the edges.

Nomad

1982

Nomad poster
6.9

Four carefree lovers in Hong Kong enjoy their youth while danger looms on the edges.

Nomad

1982

The Sword poster
7.1

Swordsman Li Mak-Jan is on a quest to duel the powerful and reclusive Hua Qian Shu. But will a cursed sword and the intrigues of the martial world bring him fame or tragedy?

The Sword

1980

The Sword poster
7.1

Swordsman Li Mak-Jan is on a quest to duel the powerful and reclusive Hua Qian Shu. But will a cursed sword and the intrigues of the martial world bring him fame or tragedy?

The Sword

1980

Burning Snow poster
4.7

A young woman is forced to marry an older man who runs a roadhouse saloon. She is constantly being raped by her husband, a drunken loutish brute. She harbors a young man wanted by the police in a murder case, and soon the fugitive and the young wife have a torrid affair as she continues to hide him from the authorities.

Burning Snow

1988

Burning Snow poster
4.7

A young woman is forced to marry an older man who runs a roadhouse saloon. She is constantly being raped by her husband, a drunken loutish brute. She harbors a young man wanted by the police in a murder case, and soon the fugitive and the young wife have a torrid affair as she continues to hide him from the authorities.

Burning Snow

1988

Septet: The Story of Hong Kong poster
6.9

A seven-part anthology film exploring the history of Hong Kong from the 1940s to present day.

Septet: The Story of Hong Kong

2022

Septet: The Story of Hong Kong poster
6.9

A seven-part anthology film exploring the history of Hong Kong from the 1940s to present day.

Septet: The Story of Hong Kong

2022

My Heart Is That Eternal Rose poster
7.3

The fallout resulting from a botched Triad gang smuggling job forces a young couple to separate - she becomes a kingpin’s unwilling moll and he travels to the Philippines to work as a contract killer. Six years later, the two are reunited in a chance encounter, but their rekindled emotions and people from their past lead them into extreme danger.

My Heart Is That Eternal Rose

1989

After This Our Exile poster
5.7

After his mother flees the family home, a son turns to thieving in order to support his father, an abusive sort who is addicted to gambling.

After This Our Exile

2006

After This Our Exile poster
5.7

After his mother flees the family home, a son turns to thieving in order to support his father, an abusive sort who is addicted to gambling.

After This Our Exile

2006

Cherie poster
6.0

The beautiful Cherie Chung plays the title character, an exercise teacher who is wooed by a rich, older businessman and a young photographer. You watch Cherie as she bounces between these two, not really liking the businessman, while the photographer is more in love with her image as his model than as a true love.

Cherie

1984

Cherie poster
6.0

The beautiful Cherie Chung plays the title character, an exercise teacher who is wooed by a rich, older businessman and a young photographer. You watch Cherie as she bounces between these two, not really liking the businessman, while the photographer is more in love with her image as his model than as a true love.

Cherie

1984

Final Victory poster
6.8

Shy and timid Hung is asked by his jailbird brother to look after his mistress and his unsuspecting wife. Chaos and many hilarious situations arise when Hung is caught between the two women.

Final Victory

1987

Love Massacre poster
5.9

Set in San Francisco, Love Massacre follows college student Ivy as she tries to help her friend Joy recover from a breakup. Ivy soon becomes involved with Joy's married brother Chu Chung, who spirals into senseless violence as he breaks into Ivy's dormitory and goes on a delirious killing spree.

Love Massacre

1981

Seven Women: Miu Kam-Fung poster
NR

Miu Kam-fung, who plays the film’s titular character, addresses her identity as housewife and actress in Patrick Tam’s commentary on the dangers of rampant consumerism, seen as a defining moment for contemporary Hong Kong. In its studied references to Godard, Tam’s work buzzes with modern life—supermarkets, billboards, television—and juxtaposes these references with questions about marital infidelity, middle-class morality, and even political sentiment.

Seven Women: Miu Kam-Fung

1976

Seven Women: Miu Kam-Fung poster
NR

Miu Kam-fung, who plays the film’s titular character, addresses her identity as housewife and actress in Patrick Tam’s commentary on the dangers of rampant consumerism, seen as a defining moment for contemporary Hong Kong. In its studied references to Godard, Tam’s work buzzes with modern life—supermarkets, billboards, television—and juxtaposes these references with questions about marital infidelity, middle-class morality, and even political sentiment.

Seven Women: Miu Kam-Fung

1976

CID: Two Teddy Girls poster
7.0

"Breaking the constraints of traditional television storytelling, Tam and Chan give a surprisingly in-depth exploration into the modern female psyche, exposing their fears and their desires. In their later attempts in CID: Two Teddy Girls, the pair uses a seemingly typical cat-and-mouse chase story between a cop (Mark Cheung Lui) and two criminal "teddy girls" (Ban Ban and Marysia Lam) to portray the lives of Hong Kong's different social classes.

CID: Two Teddy Girls

1976

CID: Four Moments of Life (Dawn, Noon, Dusk, Night) poster
8.0

Four episodes combined. Dawn: the first cop goes to interrogate the parents of a babygirl who got burnt by an iron. These, eventually admit to be the one responsible but they state it was an accident. Going back on a bus, he reads a newspaper article reporting another case of violence against minors. Noon: the moustached cop cop collects the report of a mother regarding the presence of perverts in her building. A thirteen-year-old girl is spotted with a man in equivocal acts: when she is interrogated she shows no signs of anxiety. Dusk: in a nursing home a guest kills another old man with an axe. He is interrogated by the older cop who, once back home, talks with his wife and daughter while watching sadly TV. Night: the fourth cop is in a disco when he gets the call that a collegue’s wife was the victim of a hit and run. The following morning he goes back to the office.

CID: Four Moments of Life (Dawn, Noon, Dusk, Night)

1976

CID: Four Moments of Life (Dawn, Noon, Dusk, Night) poster
8.0

Four episodes combined. Dawn: the first cop goes to interrogate the parents of a babygirl who got burnt by an iron. These, eventually admit to be the one responsible but they state it was an accident. Going back on a bus, he reads a newspaper article reporting another case of violence against minors. Noon: the moustached cop cop collects the report of a mother regarding the presence of perverts in her building. A thirteen-year-old girl is spotted with a man in equivocal acts: when she is interrogated she shows no signs of anxiety. Dusk: in a nursing home a guest kills another old man with an axe. He is interrogated by the older cop who, once back home, talks with his wife and daughter while watching sadly TV. Night: the fourth cop is in a disco when he gets the call that a collegue’s wife was the victim of a hit and run. The following morning he goes back to the office.

CID: Four Moments of Life (Dawn, Noon, Dusk, Night)

1976

Seven Women: Meg Lam poster
NR

The sixth episode of Patrick Tam’s anthology series “Seven Women” (1976), which adapted from Pat Flower’s “The Tape Recorder”

Seven Women: Meg Lam

1976

Seven Women: Meg Lam poster
NR

The sixth episode of Patrick Tam’s anthology series “Seven Women” (1976), which adapted from Pat Flower’s “The Tape Recorder”

Seven Women: Meg Lam

1976

Seven Women: Liu Wing-Sheung poster
NR

The first episode of Patrick Tam’s anthology series “Seven Women” (1976)

Seven Women: Liu Wing-Sheung

1976

Seven Women: Liu Wing-Sheung poster
NR

The first episode of Patrick Tam’s anthology series “Seven Women” (1976)

Seven Women: Liu Wing-Sheung

1976