Trivia

He won three Golden Horse Awards for Best Cinematography for "The Duck Farmer," "The Stars Gather," and "Autumn Finale,".

Lai Cheng-ying was a Taiwanese cinematographer who received the Golden Horse Lifetime Achievement Award in 2022.

In 2022 he received the Golden Horse Lifetime Achievement Award. When he accepted the award at the age of 91, he said, "Although I am old and my physical strength is not as good as before, I love movies as much as everyone else, and I will continue to work with everyone to move forward for movies.".

When Lai began directing films, he hired Hou Hsiao-hsien as his screenwriter and assistant director.

He entered the film industry in the 1950s, working his way up from camera assistant to cinematographer and then to director.

He was one of the first generation of film technology talents in Taiwan trained by the "Agricultural Education" Film Company, the predecessor of the Central Motion Picture Corporation.

Lai Cheng-ying was also sent to Japan to study color photography and developing, bringing the latest technology back to Taiwan.

He graduated from Taiwan Provincial Taichung First Senior High School (now Taichung Municipal Taichung First Senior High School ) in 1950.

In 1963, Lai Cheng-ying began a long-term collaboration with director Li Hsing while filming "Street Corner.".

In 1983, Lai Cheng-ying went to the United States to take over as the director of the New York branch of Shih Hua Television. In 1985, he returned to Taiwan and served as the deputy general manager of Era Film and Television Company, in charge of the advertising production departmen.

Lai Cheng-ying left Central Motion Picture Corporation in 1977 to work independently, directing art -house romance films such as "Where the Seagulls Fly", "Sea Rhyme ", and "Blue Sky", mostly produced by Popular Film Company.

He has a total of over sixty cinematographic works and nearly twenty directorial works.

In 1956, he served as a cinematographer on "Journey to the Mountain Pass" ( directed by Yi Wen ), and used a background projector for the first time.

After graduating from high school, he entered the Agricultural Education Film Company (abbreviated as Agricultural Education, the predecessor of today's Central Motion Picture Corporation ) to study photography through the introduction of Principal Jin Shu-rong .

Lai is regarded as a pioneer of color filmmaking in Taiwan and has won the Golden Horse Award for Best Color Cinematography in 1965, 1970, and 1972, for Beautiful Duckling, Stardust, and Execution in Autumn, respectively.