Sunny Chan (filmmaker)

Sunny Chan Wing San is a Hong Kong director and screenwriter best known for co-writing comedy film Love Undercover (2002) with Joe Ma, and directing drama films Men On The Dragon (2018) and Table for Six (2022), which earned him nominations for Best Director twice in the 38th and 41st Hong Kong Film Awards respectively.

Biography
Chan became interested in storytelling after reading the novels of Hong Kong fantasy writer Christopher Woo. He later attended the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts in 1997 and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in film and television in 2000. He began to write commercial screenplays after graduation and co-wrote romance film Funeral March (2001 film) with filmmaker Joe Ma in 2001. They received a nomination for Best Screenplay in the 7th Golden Bauhinia Awards. Chan then became an apprentice of Ma and the duo co-wrote more than ten films together, including the 2002 comedy film Love Undercover. In 2006, Ma decided to pursue a career in mainland China, while Chan, who had just gotten married and preferred a more stable life, chose not to join him. However, Chan did not receive any scriptwriting offers after Ma's departure. After being unemployed for two years, he found a job at Hong Kong Jockey Club and taught screenwriting part-time at Hong Kong Design Institute. He also acquired a Master of Arts in Chinese from Lingnan University.

In 2018, Chan was invited to join the production of fantasy comedy film Monster Hunt 2 by his APA classmate Jack Ng, as Ng found himself rather inexperienced in comedy writing, while Chan was well-versed in the field. Chan also made his directorial debut with drama film Men On The Dragon in the same year, and received nominations for Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best New Director in the 38th Hong Kong Film Awards. In 2022, Chan directed and wrote comedy film Table for Six. The film received widespread acclaim and became the third highest-grossing domestic film of all times in Hong Kong. Chan also received nominations for Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best New Director and Best Original Film Song (as lyricist) in the 41st Hong Kong Film Awards. Table for Six 2, a sequel also directed and wrote by Chan, was released in 2024.