Andrew Lau belongs to a new generation of Hong Kong action filmmakers comfortable with drawing out their characters' psyche and personality as much as choreographing wire stunts and deploying CG techniques.
His breakthrough movie was "Infernal Affairs" (remade in Hollywood by Martin Scorsese and starring Matt Damon and Leonardo Di Caprio), a brooding but fast-paced Asian film noir that blended hard action with ultra-stylish visuals. Who would have thought that he would be handpicked to direct "Daisy," a Korean love story with unrequited passion as its central theme? But 46-year-old Lau, who speaks no Korean and wasn't familiar with the workings of the Korean film industry, shrewdly decided to remove "Daisy" from an East Asian context and set it in the Netherlands. There is a large Korean community in Amsterdam (many Korean orphans were adopted by Dutch parents during the Korean War) and Lau has always loved the city's liberal, cosmopolitan atmosphere.
"We could have taken the story to some other European city, like Prague, which is the most popular film location destination at the moment. But I find Asians just don't blend in with the cityscape, you know? Whereas in Amsterdam, it's OK. We don't stand out or look strange. That's so important."