Milkyway Image
| Production Company | |
| Industry | Film |
| Founded | 1996 |
| Founder |
Johnnie To Wai Ka-Fai |
| Headquarters | Hong Kong, China |
|
Key people
|
Johnnie To Wai Ka-Fai Dennis Law Ding Yuin-Shan Yau Nai-Hoi Au Kin-Yee Yip Tin-Shing Catherine Chan Elaine Chu |
| Website | http://www.milkywayimage.com |
Milkyway Image (Hong Kong) Ltd. (Chinese: 銀河映像(香港) 有限公司) is a production company based in Hong Kong. The company was established in 1996 by prolific director Johnnie To in joint partnership with frequent collaborator Wai Ka-Fai. The company is known best for producing dark crime films inspired by the work of French director Jean-Pierre Melville and the genre of Film noir. Milkyway Image's productions have been repeatedly praised as a bold move against the slapdash commercialism found in post-handover Hong Kong cinema, and have also attracted a significant international fan base.
Milkyway Image is principally engaged in providing comprehensive film production services for film companies, such as pre-production, shooting, and post-production services. Milkyway Image's films are not only box office hits, but they are also produced with cost-effectiveness and efficiency, bringing film investors promising revenue.
Johnnie To founded Milkyway Image (HK) Ltd. in 1996, together with his longtime partner Wai Ka-Fai. The early years proved to be difficult for the company, as its first productions were unsuccessful at the Hong Kong box office. Hong Kong audiences did not appreciate the bleak and intellectual tone of the films - later to become the company's signature style - which was very different from the highly commercialized productions usually present in cinemas at the time.
After more works in the same style and Johnnie To's first official directorial outing with A Hero Never Dies, neither of which managed to make a significant impact at the box office, the company shifted its focus to producing lighter films for the first time in 1999. This year saw the release of Running Out of Time, followed up by Needing You... in 2000. Both films became box-office hits and likely saved Milkyway Image from bankruptcy. Recognizing the surprising success, the company continued to produce films in a similar vein during the most critical years of the Hong Kong film industry, which - while already in decline by that time - was further wounded by the SARS crisis in 2003.
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Wikipedia