David Lam Tak Luk

Biography

David Lam Tak Luk is a Hong Kong film director, actor, screenwriter, and producer, specializing in police crime films and films about sex workers. He was born in Macau in 1954, the seventh of ten siblings, and spent his early years near Jinghu Hospital before moving to Shau Kei Wan on Hong Kong Island at age eleven. He studied at Macau Baptist College before attending a private school in Hong Kong. His childhood was marked by solitude due to his father's absence for work and his distance from his mother. He learned martial arts at age fourteen at the Hong Kong Chinese YMCA and later joined the youth center drama troupe, encouraged by Xie Yuemei. In 1971, he enrolled in the first TVB Artist Training Course. After graduation, he was assigned to behind-the-scenes work by Chung King-fai. He began his directing career with the TV drama Shantamon (巫山盟), then worked at Radio Television Hong Kong and the Independent Commission Against Corruption, where he directed the ICAC Vanguard series (廉政先鋒 and 廉政先锋II). He left the ICAC in 1985 to join the film industry at the invitation of Eric Tsang. He also served as deputy director of the TVB Artist Training Course and was a founding member and first chairman of the Art-Tune Alumni Association.