Christopher Doyle

For other people named Chris Doyle, see Chris Doyle (disambiguation).

Christopher Doyle
Doyle in 2005
Born	(1952-05-02) 2 May 1952 Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Nationality	Australian
Occupation(s)	Cinematographer, actor, photographer, and film director
Years active	1978–present (photographer); 1983–present (cinematographer)
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	杜可風
Simplified Chinese	杜可风
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Dù Kěfēng Yue: Cantonese Jyutping Dou6 Ho2 Fung1

Christopher Doyle, also known as Dù Kěfēng (Mandarin) or Dou Ho-Fung (Cantonese) (traditional Chinese: 杜可風; simplified Chinese: 杜可风) (born 2 May 1952) is an Australian-Hong Kong cinematographer. He has worked on over fifty Chinese-language films, being best known for his collaborations with Wong Kar-wai in Chungking Express, Happy Together, In the Mood for Love and 2046. Doyle is also known for other films such as Temptress Moon, Hero, Dumplings, and Psycho. He has won awards at the Cannes Film Festival and Venice Film Festival, as well as the AFI Award for cinematography, the Golden Horse award (four times), and the Hong Kong Film Award (six times).

Early life

Doyle was born in Sydney, Australia, in 1952. He left his native country on a Norwegian merchant ship at the age of eighteen. Doyle arrived in Taiwan for the first time in the 1970s, while his ship was docked in Keelung Harbor. Doyle met Stan Lai and Ding Nai-chu at Idea House, a restaurant in Taipei.

Career

Doyle receiving the Golden Horse Award for Best Cinematography at the 34th Golden Horse Awards in 1997

While living in other countries, he took on several odd jobs, such as being an oil driller in India, a cow herder in Israel, and a doctor of Chinese medicine in Thailand. In the late seventies, Doyle took an interest in Chinese culture and received the Chinese name Dù Kěfēng, which translates to "like the wind". After language studies in Taiwan, he started working as a photographer. A couple of years later, he became a cinematographer, working with Taiwanese director Edward Yang on the 1983 film That Day, on the Beach.

Doyle has worked on over 50 Chinese-language films. He is best known for his collaborations with Wong Kar-wai in Chungking Express, Fallen Angels, Happy Together, In the Mood for Love and 2046. He has collaborated with other Chinese filmmakers on projects including Temptress Moon, Hero and Dumplings. He has also made more than 20 films in various other languages, working as director of photography on Gus Van Sant's remake of Psycho, Liberty Heights, Last Life in the Universe, Rabbit-Proof Fence, Paranoid Park, and The Limits of Control, among others.

He also wrote, shot, and directed Warsaw Dark, Away with Words starring Asano Tadanobu, and Hong Kong Trilogy: Preschooled Preoccupied Preposterous, an experimental portrait of three generations of Hong Kong people. He co-directed The White Girl with Jenny Suen.

Filmography

Cinematographer

Film

Year	Title	Director	Notes
1983	That Day, on the Beach	Edward Yang	With Hui-Kung Chang
1984	A Fu de li wu	Chi-Hua Li Wei-Ming Lo Peter Mak	Credited as "Ko-Feng Tu" With Hui-Kung Chang and Chi-Ming Leung
1986	Lao niang gou sao	Kei Shu
	Noir et blanc	Claire Devers	With Daniel Desbois, Alain Lasfargues and Jean-Paul Rosa da Costa
1988	Burning Snow	Patrick Tam
1989	My Heart Is That Eternal Rose		With David Chung
	Her Beautiful Life Lies	Tony Au
1990	Days of Being Wild	Wong Kar-wai
1992	The Peach Blossom Land	Stan Lai
	Mary from Beijing	Sylvia Chang
1994	Chungking Express	Wong Kar-wai	With Andrew Lau
	Ashes of Time		With Pun-Leung Kwan
	Fei xia a da	Stan Lai
	Red Rose White Rose	Stanley Kwan
1995	The Peony Pavilion	Chen Kuo-fu
	Fallen Angels	Wong Kar-wai
1996	Dai sam yuen	Tsui Hark	With Arthur Wong
	Temptress Moon	Chen Kaige
	Si mian xia wa	Kwok-Leung Gan Eric Kot Jan Lamb
1997	Happy Together	Wong Kar-wai
	Motel Seoninjang	Ki-Yong Park
	Choh chin luen hau dik yi yan sai gaai	Eric Kot
1998	Psycho	Gus Van Sant
1999	Away with Words	Himself
	Liberty Heights	Barry Levinson
2000	In the Mood for Love	Wong Kar-wai	With Pun-Leung Kwan and Ping Bin Lee
2001	Made	Jon Favreau
2002	Rabbit-Proof Fence	Phillip Noyce
	The Quiet American
	Hero	Zhang Yimou
2003	Last Life in the Universe	Pen-Ek Ratanaruang
	Green Tea	Zhang Yuan
2004	2046	Wong Kar-wai	With Pun-Leung Kwan
	Dumplings	Fruit Chan
2005	The White Countess	James Ivory
2006	Invisible Waves	Pen-Ek Ratanaruang
	Lady in the Water	M. Night Shyamalan
2007	Paranoid Park	Gus Van Sant	With Rain Li
2008	Downloading Nancy	Johan Renck
2009	The Limits of Control	Jim Jarmusch
	Ondine	Neil Jordan
2010	Ocean Heaven	Xue Xiao-Lu
	Yong xin tiao	Stanley Kwan	With Rain Li
	Passion Play	Mitch Glazer
2011	Underwater Love – A Pink Musical	Shinji Imaoka
	Love for Life	Gu Changwei	With Changwei Gu and Tao Yang
	Tormented	Takashi Shimizu
2013	Magic Magic	Sebastian Silva	With Glenn Kaplan
	American Dreams in China	Peter Chan
	Bends	Flora Lau
	Lanse gotou	Jian Cui
2014	Ruined Heart! Another Love Story Between a Criminal and a Whore	Khavn
2015	Beijing, Niuyue	Rain Li	With Rain Li and Sion Michel
	Port of Call	Philip Yung
	Fundamentally Happy	Tan Bee Thiam Lei Yuan Bin
	Enishi: The Bride of Izumo	Hiroshi Horiuchi
2016	Endless Poetry	Alejandro Jodorowsky
	Stockholm, My Love	Mark Cousins	With Mark Cousins
2017	You Mean The World To Me	Saw Teong Hin
	The White Girl	Himself Jenny Suen	With Kubbie Tsoi
2018	Love Only	Charine Chan
2019	Aru sendo no hanashi	Joe Odagiri
	Tezuka's Barbara	Macoto Tezuka	With Kubbie Tsoi
2020	Love After Love	Ann Hui
2021	Gei wo 1 tian	Erica Li	With Kubbie Tsoi

Short film

Year	Title	Director	Notes
1996	wkw/tk/1996@7′55″hk.net	Wong Kar-wai
1998	Motorola
2002	Goin Home	Peter Chan	Segment of Three
2004	The Hand	Wong Kar-wai	Segment of Eros
	Dumplings	Fruit Chan	Segment of Three... Extremes
2006	The Madness of the Dance	Carol Morley	With Rain Li
2007	Meeting Helen	Emily Woof
2012	Linda Linda	Tsien-Tsien Zhang
2013	Eine gute Geschichte	Martin-Christopher Bode
2014	The Boy and the Bus	Simon Pitts
	Sha chen bao	Jason Wishnow
	I Am Here	David Holmes
2016	Wind	Tiong Guan Saw	Also producer
2018	To Heaven, to Gather	Li-Yue Chang

Television

Year	Title	Director	Notes
2018	Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown	Asia Argento	Episode "Hong Kong"; With Frederic Menou
2020	Ouverture of Something that Never Ended	Alessandro Michele Gus Van Sant	7 episodes

Documentary works

Film

Year	Title	Director
2015	I Am Belfast	Mark Cousins
	Hong Kong Trilogy: Preschooled Preoccupied Preposterous	Himself
2017	Human Flow	Ai Weiwei
2019	The Rest

Short film

Year	Title	Director	Notes
2019	Cuba	Peter H. Chan	With Peter H. Chan and Justin Henning

Television

Year	Title	Director	Notes
1996	Century of Cinema	Stanley Kwan	Segment Yang ± Yin: Gender in Chinese Cinema

Director

Year	Title	Director	Writer	Notes
1999	Away with Words	Yes	Yes
2006	Paris, je t'aime	Yes	Yes	Segment "Porte de Choisy"
2008	Izolator aka "Warsaw Dark"	Yes	No
2014	Beautiful 2014	Yes	No	Segment "HK 2014 - Education for All"
2015	Hong Kong Trilogy: Preschooled Preoccupied Preposterous	Yes	No	Documentary film
2017	The White Girl	Yes	Yes	Co-directed with Jenny Suen
2018	Love Only	Yes	No	Creative and visual director

Awards and nominations

Year	Title	Award/Nomination
1994	Ashes of Time	Osella d'Oro for Best Cinematography
2000	In the Mood for Love	Grand Technical Prize at the Cannes Film Festival New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Cinematographer National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Cinematography Nominated- Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Cinematography
2002	Hero	New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Cinematographer Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Cinematography Nominated- National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Cinematography
2004	2046	New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Cinematographer National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Cinematography

On 26 May 2017, Doyle was honoured during the 70th Cannes Festival with the “Pierre Angénieux ExcelLens in Cinematography” award, in tribute to his successful and influential career.

Bibliography

• Angel Talk (1996) – Behind the scenes photo book covering Fallen Angels – ISBN 978-4-7952-8069-4
• Backlit by the Moon (1996) – Japanese photography monograph – ISBN 978-4-947648-39-6
• Photographs of Tamaki Ogawa (1996) – Japanese photography monograph – ISBN 978-4-947599-45-2
• Doyle on Doyle (1997) – Japanese photography monograph – ISBN 4-9900557-1-3
• Buenos Aires (1997) – Behind the scenes photo book covering Happy Together – ISBN 978-4-7952-8066-3
• Don't Cry for Me, Argentina (1997) – Photographic journal account of filming Happy Together – ISBN 962-8114-24-7
• A Cloud in Trousers (1998) – Gallery exhibition monograph – ISBN 978-1-889195-33-9
• There Is a Crack in Everything (2003) – Photography monograph
• R34g38b25 (2004) – Behind the scenes photo book covering Hero – ISBN 978-962-86177-0-8
• Talking White - Behind-the-scenes photobook covering The White Girl (co-written with Jenny Suen)

See also

• Cinema of Hong Kong

External links

• Official website
• Christopher Doyle at IMDb
• Doyle, Christopher (6 August 2004). "The Legend of Drunken Master". Village Voice (Interview). Interviewed by Dennis Lim.
• Doyle, Christopher (7 January 2005). "'If you call me, you know what you're in for'". The Guardian (Interview). Interviewed by Steve Rose.
• Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3, interview with Christopher Doyle in three parts by Andreas Pousette, February 2005.
• Doyle, Christopher (17 July 2005). "'His eyes have seen the glory...'". The Guardian (Interview). Interviewed by Gaby Wood.
• Video: Christopher Doyle talks about Hong Kong for CNN and Nokia’s feature series "The Scene".
• Doyle, Christopher (21 March 2006). "Interview" (Interview). CNN.