
Leung Ming-kai
Camera
Biography
As a cinematographer, Kai has shot numerous features in Hong Kong and other parts of the world. He won Best Cinematography at the 2025 Taipei Golden Horse Awards for Mother Bhumi, won Best Cinematography at the 2026 Hong Kong Society of Cinematographers Awards for Ciao UFO, and is also nominated for Best Cinematography at the upcoming 2026 Hong Kong Film Awards for Ciao UFO. In 2025, two of the Best Film nominees at the Hong Kong Film Awards were shot by Kai. They are Berlin Teddy-Award winner All Shall Be Well and NYAFF Audience Award winner The Way We Talk. He also shot the opening film of the 2025 Hong Kong International Film Festival, Pavane for an Infant. Kai’s other feature works include The Sunny Side of the Street; Drifting; Krabi, 2562; Suk Suk; Old Stone; Ek Hazarachi Note; Murmur of the Hearts; By the Time It Gets Dark; and Mundane History. Festivals including Berlin, Locarno, Rotterdam, and New Directors/New Films have selected features he shot. Kai has previously been nominated for national awards for Best Cinematography in Thailand, Canada, and at the Taipei Golden Horse Awards, and at festivals in Malaysia, India, and the Philippines. As a director, Kai’s short film “Three Boys” represented the Philippines in competition at Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival and won the top-prize Gold Award at the Hong Kong Independent Film & Video Awards. It also screened at Sao Paulo, Austin, and Jecheon. “Lock” was in competition at the Tribeca Film Festival. Memories to Choke On, Drinks to Wash Them Down was his feature debut as co-director and co-writer. Memories premiered internationally at Rotterdam and won the Best Screenplay Award from the Hong Kong Film Critics Society.
Known For

In a community of farmers living on the Malaysia-Thailand border, Hong Im recently lost her husband under mysterious circumstances. Hong Im uses black magic to address villagers’ everyday issues until she encounters a ghost that reveals a secret about her husband’s death.
Mother Bhumi

Wolf, born into a deaf family, embraces sign language with confidence despite obstacles in life; Sophie, having received a cochlear implant at a young age, continuously strives to be seen as "normal" despite having a "deaf accent." Alan, with a cochlear implant like Sophie, is capable of both spoken language and sign language; he advocates for diverse modes of communication within the deaf community. Bound by love and friendship, the three embark on a self-discovering journey that is not without its moments of pain.
The Way We Talk

Accomplishing her late husband's wish of remaining a mysterious neon sign, a depressed middle-aged widow and the neon signmaker's protégé discover surprises and bitterness amidst the city's vanishing glow.
A Light Never Goes Out

Just out of jail, Fai finds a spot on a street corner where other homeless people welcome him. But he doesn’t get much time to settle in. The police soon chase them away, and their possessions disappear into a garbage truck. Young social worker Ms. Ho thinks it’s time to fight this in court. In the meantime, Fai and his friends have other concerns.
Drifting

Angie and Pat are a couple living in Hong Kong who have been together for over four decades. After Pat's unexpected death, Angie finds herself at the mercy of her extended family as she struggles to retain both her dignity and the home that they shared for over thirty years.
All Shall Be Well

Wah Fu Estate in Aberdeen is the home of many urban legends, but few were as outlandish as the one that happened in the 1980s: One night, residents turned their heads to the sky and saw a giant UFO hovering above them for five minutes. No one else could prove or explain the odd phenomenon, but it becomes the pivotal event for three young people.
Ciao UFO

Mei falls for an underachieving boxer, and begins years of soul searching in the city, where she reunites with her estranged brother under unexpected circumstances. What was remembered and forgotten are lessons that have profound consequences.
Murmur of the Hearts

One day Pak, a taxi driver who refuses to retire, meets Hoi, a retired single father, in a park. Although both are secretly gay, they are proud of the families they have created through hard work and determination. Yet in that brief initial encounter, something is unleashed in them which had been suppressed for so many years. As both men recount and recall their personal histories, they also contemplate a possible future together.
Twilight's Kiss

Film-maker Ann has an upcoming project about the 1976 massacre of Thai students. She interviews Taew, a survivor, at a mountain retreat only to have her perspective change as the project progresses.
By the Time It Gets Dark

Lin Jin, a passionate dancer held back by his father's disapproval, struggles to find creative inspiration. When he meets the confident and cheerful Xiao Zi, her influence helps him rediscover his passion and the true spirit of youth.
Live For Real

While trying to keep his struggling business afloat, a chef goes on a dating app in search of Zelda, his crush from his chatroom days as a teenager. For each Zelda he meets, he makes a tailor-made meal to fit their story. Putting a spotlight on the city’s struggling restaurant sector, indie filmmaker Amos WHY and his co-director Frankie Chung’s unconventional and bittersweet road movie follows a rootless man who turns to his memories to avoid confronting his unknown future. Is it better to drift with uncertainty, or to stay in your comfort zone whilst tethered to a sinking ship?
The Dating Menu

A confrontation between two Hong Kong immigrants – one a cab driver from Mainland China, the other a lawyer and refugee from Pakistan – spells disaster for their families, especially the lawyer's young son.
The Sunny Side of the Street

A friendship develops between a young paralysed man from a wealthy Bangkok family and his male nurse from Isan in the North of Thailand.
Mundane History

In multicultural Malaysia society, the mere existence of a baby hatch remains a whispered taboo, condemned and branded as an enabler of moral decay, punishable by God. Three committed employees of a Kuala Lumpur baby hatch facility navigate a maze of societal opposition to empower women from diverse backgrounds grappling with the complex notion of bodily autonomy.
Pavane For An Infant

A man and his dog traverse a cold, barren climate and discover some disturbing things along the way.
Off Season

This anthology film, whose Chinese title begins with a romantic name for human excrement, premiered internationally at Rotterdam and won Best Screenplay from the Hong Kong Film Critics Society. A variety of Hong Kong people wrestle with nostalgia when facing an uncertain future. Their stories give way to a documentary featuring a young barista turned political candidate.
Memories to Choke On, Drinks to Wash Them Down

Surprise parties rarely go well. This one is no different, as a group of 30-somethings head through life, love and a day in New York City.
Mutual Friends

Following the death of their estranged father, Joni and Wes Carver travel to Arkansas to deal with their inheritance: a rundown house in a rural town, arriving just in time for Decoration Week-end - wherein former residents return to celebrate their ancestors. It is here, in a sea of strangers living and dead, that Joni and Wes finally find their place in the story of their own lives.
My Good Man's Gone

A 28-year-old I.T. geek suddenly finds himself the object of affection for five attractive women within the same year. The quintet share virtually no similar traits except one quirky thing: they all live in remote corners of Hong Kong.
Far Far Away

When a drunken passenger causes taxi driver Lao Shi to swerve and hit a motorcyclist, he stops to help the victim. As no ambulance arrives he drives him to the hospital, but soon has to face the rules of today's Kafkaesque China. With his family and life endangered, he desperately seeks a way out.