Born and raised in
Kowloon, Benny Chan first accepted a job in 1981 at
Rediffusion Television working in
continuity. The following year, he joined
TVB, becoming a
production assistant to
Johnnie To. Chan had gained experience as an executive director for a couple of films between 1987 and 1988, and had also directed and produced a few television series for
Asia Television in 1989. During the 1990s, he directed films like
Big Bullet (1996),
Who Am I? (1998), and
Gen-X Cops (1999). For his work on
Big Bullet, which he co-wrote, directed, and produced, Chan was nominated for Best Director at the
1997 Hong Kong Film Awards. He also continued to work in television, directing episodes of the 1995 adaptation of
Fist of Fury starring
Donnie Yen. Working in exclusively the film industry since 1998's
Who Am I?, Chan continued to work on various projects. Since
Who Am I?, he continued to direct more of
Jackie Chan's movies, such as
New Police Story (2004),
Rob-B-Hood (2006), and
Shaolin (2011). He also directed
Heroic Duo (2003),
Divergence (2005),
Connected (2008), and
The White Storm (2013). Prior to his death, Chan was working on
Raging Fire, which he gave to a colleague to complete post-production work after his cancer diagnosis. == Illness and death ==