Jason Kwan

Jason Kwan Chi Yiu (born 1964) is a Hong Kong cinematographer and film director. Debuting as a cinematographer in the Hong Kong cinema with the romance film All About Love (2005), Kwan was known for his collaboration with Pang Ho-cheung in the romantic comedy film Love in a Puff (2010) and its sequel Love in the Buff, the comedy film Vulgaria (both 2012), and the drama film Aberdeen (2014). He received seven nominations for Best Cinematography at the Hong Kong Film Awards, winning with the crime drama film Chasing the Dragon (2017) and the action film Project Gutenberg (2018).

Kwan also made his directorial debut with the fantasy romance film A Nail Clipper Romance (2017), an adaptation of Pang Ho-cheung's novella of the same name. He co-directed the crime films Chasing the Dragon (2017) and its sequel Chasing the Dragon II: Wild Wild Bunch (2019) with Wong Jing.

Early life and education
Kwan was born in 1964 in Hong Kong. He studied at Pui Ying Secondary School and joined the photography club in his first year, which sparked his interest in cinematography. Kwan moved to Japan in 1990 and attended the Tokyo College of Photography to study film production in the following year. He graduated in 1993 and returned to Hong Kong, beginning to work as a freelance cinematographer. He focused on filming advertisements and music videos, including the music video for Andy Lau's "Practice", directed by Daniel Yu.

Career
Kwan was recommended by Daniel Yu to join the production of the 2004 Malaysian drama film Puteri Gunung Ledang, directed by Saw Teong Hin, which marked his feature film cinematographic debut. He made his Hong Kong feature film debut with the 2005 romance film All About Love, which was also directed by Daniel Yu and starring Andy Lau. Paul Fonoroff, writing for the South China Morning Post, described Kwan's cinematography in All About Love as "truly breathtaking". He went on to cinematograph the drama film My Mother Is a Belly Dancer, produced by Andy Lau, in the following year. In 2010, Kwan served as the cinematographer for Pang Ho-cheung's romantic comedy film Love in a Puff, starring Shawn Yue and Miriam Yeung. Russell Edwards of Variety praised the film's intimacy, which was achieved through the combination between Pang's helming and Kwan's lensing. The film also marked the beginning of Kwan and Pang's close collaboration, with Pang describing that he thinks Kwan has a keen-eyed observation of acting performances. The same year, Kwan filmed the drama film Merry-Go-Round (2010 Hong Kong film) and the martial arts drama film Bruce Lee, My Brother, earning a nomination for Best Cinematography in the 30th Hong Kong Film Awards for his work on the former. In 2012, Kwan returned to cinematograph the romantic comedy film Love in the Buff, the sequel to Love in a Puff, and another Pang's comedy film Vulgaria. He also served as the cinematographer for Longman Leung and Sunny Luk's action thriller film Cold War and Wong Jing's period drama film The Last Tycoon, receiving another nomination for Best Cinematography in the 32nd Hong Kong Film Awards.

Kwan went on to film the 2013 horror film Tales from the Dark 1 and the 2014 disaster film As the Light Goes Out. He was once again nominated for Best Cinematography in the 33rd Hong Kong Film Awards for the latter, with Maggie Lee of Variety praising the film's "monumental sense of space" achieved through Kwan's wide-angle shots of the sets. Kwan also cinematographed Pang's drama film Aberdeen in 2014. Richard Kuipers, writing for the Chicago Tribune, acknowledged Kwan's cinematography with his "beautifully composed widescreen images" in the film. In 2015, Kwan participated in the sports comedy film Full Strike. He also served as the cinematographer for another crime thriller film co-directed by Leung and Luk, Helios, in the same year. James Marsh of Screen Daily praised Kwan's cinematography for capturing "the sheen and shadows of present-day Hong Kong" in Helios, while Maggie Lee of Variety described Kwan's lensing as "solid", although occasionally featuring unnecessary and flashy helicopter shots. The following year, Kwan collaborated with Leung and Luk once again in the action thriller film Cold War 2, the sequel to the 2012 film, which earned him another nomination for Best Cinematography in the 36th Hong Kong Film Awards. Lan Tsu-wei, writing for Liberty Times, referred to Kwan as the key person behind the scenes, whose ability to capture the actors' emotions enhanced the tension.

In 2017, Kwan made his directorial debut with the fantasy romance film A Nail Clipper Romance. Starring Zhou Dongyu and Joseph Chang in lead roles, the film was adapted from Pang Ho-cheung's novella of the same name, with Pang also serving as the film's producer. Edmund Lee of South China Morning Post appreciated Kwan's development of a "vibrantly colored film" with tones of both humor and sadness, while Lau Ying-tsz of HK01 noted that Kwan infused fresh romantic elements with absurdity in his debut film, resulting in an innovative and uniquely chaotic vibe. Kwan continued serving as the cinematographer for the drama film 29+1 and the Chinese fantasy action film Wu Kong. He also directed his second feature film in the same year, co-directing alongside Wong Jing and also serving as the cinematographer for the crime film Chasing the Dragon. Scott Clark of Starburst specifically praised Wong's choice of co-directing the film with Kwan as "a smart move", as it enhanced the film's visuals in terms of period details and action scenes through the camera work. Clarence Tsui of The Hollywood Reporter credited Kwan for the film's "lavish production design and strong camerawork". Kwan won Best Cinematography in the 37th Hong Kong Film Awards with the film. The following year, he took on the role of cinematographer in Felix Chong's action film Project Gutenberg, for which he once again won Best Cinematography in the 38th Hong Kong Film Awards.

In 2019, Kwan reprised his roles in Chasing the Dragon II: Wild Wild Bunch, the standalone sequel of the 2017 film, co-directing with Wong Jing and co-cinematographing with Jimmy Kwok. Edmund Lee of the South China Morning Post offered a rather negative review, criticizing Kwan and Wong for missing the suspense and emotional tones of the film and steering the story towards "a familiar parade of shoot-outs and car chases". Richard Kuipers, writing for Variety, also noted the film's lack of suspense but praised the slickly shot widescreen visuals. Kwan also filmed the action thriller film Line Walker 2: Invisible Spy in the same year. In 2024, Kwan made his second solo directing effort and cinematographed the action film I Did It My Way, featuring Andy Lau, Gordon Lam, and Eddie Peng. Kwan received another nomination for Best Cinematography in the 42nd Hong Kong Film Awards for the film.