| His parents were originally from Zhejiang Province. As a child he would go to the movies everyday and at age 9 he began learning photography. When he was 16, Chang bought his first 8 mm. camera and started directing home movies using his friends as actors, which led to his interest in directing films. In 1973, he entered an experimental film competition organized by the Hong Kong Federation of Students (HKFS). Entering four of his films, he walked away with 3 of 5 awards, the other two awards were won by Huang Guo-Shao, and a household name now, John Woo. Chang worked for three TV Broadcasting companies (TVB, RTHK and Redifusion TV) and making TV commercials. He left TVB in January of 1979 and directed his first feature film "Cops and Robbers", which received rave reviews and did well at the box-office. His mature approach to filming and mastery of cinematic structure, which proved to be successful in controlling the audience's emotions, quickly made Chang a popular director. Chang admitted that his most satisfying work was the 1981 film "Men On the Brink" (1981) and earned Chang Best Film and Best Screenplay Awards. In 1983, Shaw Brothers invited Chang to direct what became a landmark sci-fi film in Hong Kong cinema, "Twinkle Twikle Little Star", with a budget of over HK $10 million, the film took over two years to make and because of its extensive use of special effects, it won Chang international acclaim. After "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star", many of his films projects never came to pass so Chang returned to shooting commercials. In 1985 he helmed "Danger Has Two Faces", and was the special effects director for the 1987 classic "The Legend of Wisely". "Made in Heaven" (1997) was his latest project.
From the Celestial DVD release of "Danger Has Two Faces".
Father of Ashley Cheung Yin-Kei.
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