Joe Ma first started as a scriptwriter and he is still a master of the story writing process. He wrote famous scripts not only for his own movies but also for other famous directors, e.g. Black Mask for Daniel Lee, Victim for Ringo Lam and Big Bullet for Benny Chan. He went on to work as a director on Rich Man (1992) a category 3 about three men called in Cantonese 'guo wak tsai' or wise guys. From there, he has produced, written and directed more than 30 films.

As a producer, he has always tried to give a chance to local young directors such as Soi Cheang with Horror Hotline… Big Head Monster, and Wilson Yip with Juliet In Love and the 1999 summer hit Bullets Over Summer. Joe Ma is very known as well in the HK movie industry for having developed the yuppie film genre. They are movies about a bunch of young people more worried about their sex life and love affairs than about struggling to make a living in HK. Most of these films are actually from Japanese comic books: for instance, the Feel 100 % series (three movies so far) and First Love Unlimited (aka Touch).

(Source: HKCM) Edit Biography