Born into a family that was about to break up in Saigon, Vietnam, his father worked in a pastry shop and his mother took care of her young children. The family was not wealthy, and his father's salary was only enough to support the family of six.
However, after the outbreak of the Vietnam War, they were forced to flee their homeland and come to a foreign land, Hong Kong.
The relocation of his family was a huge blow to Mak Dajie's young mind. However, it was in Hong Kong, the Pearl of the Orient, that ignited his boundless passion for cinema.
He would often skip school and go to the adjoining movie theater to watch DVDs. The alternating black and white images captivated him like magic, and he found himself in another world.
Years later, when Mak Dajie walked into TVB to start his first job with his film school diploma in hand, he knew he had finally found his own stage.
He wants to use movies to depict the thrilling scenes of life, and to infect everyone's heart as they touched him in his youth.
In the 80s of the 20th century, it was the golden age of the Hong Kong film industry, and Oriental Hollywood gathered countless film talents here. Mak Dajie is fortunate to be one of them, and here, he has paid sweat and harvested infinite possibilities.
Over the decades, he has served as a screenwriter, assistant director, art director and other positions, accumulating rich experience in film production. His adventurous and daring spirit was also tempered, which laid the foundation for him to become a first-class director.
After the handover of Hong Kong's sovereignty in 1997, many filmmakers left one after another, and Mak Dajie also set foot on the island of Taiwan in the first spring of the new century. Compared to Hong Kong, Taiwan's film industry is still in its infancy.
But there's no shortage of movie dreamers on the island, and Mak quickly settled in and directed his first TV series. When "Meteor Garden 2" hit the air in Taiwan, he knew he had made the right choice.
This youth idol drama is not only popular all over the country, but also imprints his name in the memories of countless youths.
The living Xi and film style of the two places and two systems have made Mak Dajie gain more rich accumulation, which has made him a director in his heyday. It's a pity that the good times didn't last long, when Mak Dajie was still immersed in the joy of career success, death ruthlessly took his life.
However, the world he created through the film will live forever in thousands of stories.
"Monster City" is the pinnacle of Mak Dajie's directorial career. This sci-fi action movie tells the story of a future world in the year 2075 AD, when human civilization is highly developed.
However, the good times did not last long, and the genetic mutation created a group of new creatures with high intelligence - monsters. Not only do they have intelligence, but they also have great destructive power.
As a result, a bloody battle between humans and new creatures is about to begin.
The film portrays a cold and cruel future through the technique of interspersing science fiction elements with realistic elements. Unlike traditional science fiction films, which usually depict the future as materially rich and technologically advanced, Mak Dajie's cannibalistic social rules in 2075 still exist, but the confrontation between monsters and humans replaces the confrontation between people.
This style of black humor and McDajie's bold and innovative cinematic language make this film unique. It has not only won the favor of many film festivals, but also has been praised by science fiction fans as "the most imaginative science fiction masterpiece of the new century".
In stark contrast to the dark future of "Monster City", the youth idol drama "Meteor Garden 2" presents a bright and warm tone. The play mainly tells the romantic and moving love story between the hero and heroine Gu Xi and Dada.
In the process of finally coming together in the face of many obstacles, the play presents the vigor of youth, the sincerity of friendship and the sweetness of love. The simple plot and a large number of dialogues have made the show a classic, and at the same time, it has also allowed countless post-80s generations to find time.
The memories of a generation are condensed on this innocent smiling face.
Mak Dajie comes from a large family of four brothers, and the brothers have always been close and cared for each other. The eldest brother Mai Hao chose to be an actor, relying on his figure, he has starred in many movies and TV series, and is a well-known star in Hong Kong.
The second brother is an introvert who immigrated to the United States after high school and worked for a technology company in Silicon Valley. Mak Dajie was the most cynical person in his family, and his unusual way of thinking led him to the path of film.
However, the good times did not last long, and the Mai family, who was in the middle of the road, soon experienced great changes. In 1982, the third brother Mai Dacheng was killed in a flight crash on a mission at the age of 25.
This had a huge impact on the whole family, the mother almost collapsed, and the father's temperament changed dramatically. The brothers have been inseparable since childhood, and the death of the third brother has brought an insignificant wound to Mai Dajie.
Years later, whenever he thought of his third brother, tears would burst out of his eyes.
In 2022, the eldest brother Mai Haowei, who settled in the United States, also passed away due to illness at the age of 65. After the death of both parents, he was the only spiritual sustenance for this divided family.
His departure made the Mai family, a once happy and warm port, finally exist in name only. A year later, Mai Dajie himself closed his eyes in a foreign land. In the end, the brothers were not able to reunite in their hometown of Hong Kong.
The ups and downs of this family are the epitome of this new century immigrant family.
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On March 27, 2023, the news of Hong Kong director Mak Dajie's death spread all over the country in a blink of an eye, and countless people were shocked and mourned - a week ago, he also posted a photo of himself playing with a cat on social networking sites, looking full of energy, optimistic and cheerful.
No one expected that the scythe of death had been raised high, and it was about to harvest the life of this filmmaker.
It is reported that Mai Dajie died in a hospital in Taiwan in the early morning of March 26. Unlike his eldest brother, who suffered from Alzheimer's disease before his death, Mak Dajie has never disclosed any physical discomfort before.
For a 66-year-old man, his sudden death was undoubtedly a bolt from the blue. This also made him unable to say goodbye to his relatives and friends when he was alive and confessed his last wishes to them, which was the biggest regret of his life as a man of arrogant nature.
After the obituary came, the Hong Kong and Taiwan film and television circles were shocked. Friends who have worked with Mak Dajie have posted on social media to remember and mourn, and have expressed their shock and reluctance to pass away.
For a while, it seemed that the entire Chinese film industry was immersed in mourning. As a filmmaker, Mak Dajie records the bits and pieces of the world with his lens, and his film works have become the spiritual wealth he has left to the world, they will tell a story, this story has youth, blood, tears, and brilliant colors.
And these will become a way for people to remember Mai Dajie.
Born into an ordinary family, Mak Dajie experienced family changes and migrations as a teenager, but these unfortunate encounters opened the door to the world of cinema. It can be said that Mai Dajie relied on perseverance and courage to work hard in the industry step by step.
Every success on his film road was earned by his best efforts.
Having developed in Hong Kong and Taiwan for decades, Mak Dajie has constructed worlds with his unique film style and language. He is good at detaching himself from the mainstream value system and maintaining independent judgment.
This kind of personality and persistence allowed him to constantly try to reform and break through the film language, and also gave birth to such eye-catching innovations as "Monster City".
And "Meteor Garden 2" has achieved his peak in business, and it carries the memories of a generation.
It can be said that McDajie used his films to depict the best possibilities in this world. Although his life script is full of joys and sorrows, he has never given up the pursuit of beauty.
Movies have made his life extraordinary, and he has also rendered the lives of countless people with movies. Therefore, when people remember Mak Dajie, they should not only watch the ups and downs in his life, but also rejoice that in his short 66 years, because of movies, the world has become more colorful and bizarre.
McDajie's departure was sudden, but behind him, there were countless fans and Cain who would still celebrate his films and his spirit. As long as people are watching, discussing and thinking about his work, McDajie is an eternal stroke in the history of cinema.