- Michelangelo Antonioni is one of his favorite directors.
- Applied, and got admitted to Harvard's Architecture School, The Harvard University Graduate School of Design, but decided not to go.
- Attended USC Film School for awhile, before going to Seattle to work as an engineer.
- Received a Masters Degree in Electrical Engineering at the University of Florida.
- Taught Theatre and later Film at The Taipei National University of The Arts.
- Member of jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 2001
- Likes to cast Chang Chen, Elaine Jin, and Nien-Jen Wu in his films. He even cast fellow auteur and filmmaker Hsiao-Hsien Hou as one of the leads in his 1985 film Taipei Story.
- Uses a variety of interesting nicknames for his characters: "Sly", "Honey", "Threads" as the name of various gang members in A Brighter Summer Day (1991), "Birdy" and "Akeem" in A Confucian Confusion (1994), "Hong Kong" and "Red Fish" in Mahjong (1996), and "NJ", "Yang-Yang" and "Fatty" in Yi Yi (2000).
- The first Taiwanese and second Chinese to win Best Director Award at Cannes (2000) after Wong Kar-Wai (HK).
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content
