Hook, line and sinker

Yet, he was inspired to make a feature about marine rescue long before he signed up to make the two blockbusters, which made him one of the most sought-after Hong Kong filmmakers on the Chinese mainland.

The night before the interview, Lam had just finished the final edit of his latest action blockbuster, The Rescue, marking the culmination of a five-year-long aspiration.

As one of the most widely-anticipated releases and a likely box-office pillar for the upcoming Spring Festival holiday, The Rescue will open on Jan 25, the first day of Lunar New Year.

With a budget stretching to some 700 million yuan, the movie starring actor Eddie Peng and actress Xin Zhilei follows an elite team from China Rescue and Salvage tasked with saving survivors trapped in disaster situations and accidents, ranging from an oil rig that catches on fire and a natural gas explosion, to rescue efforts in a mountainous region hit by an earthquake.

As the largest-scale Chinese film to feature marine rescue and salvage operations, the crew built a vast film set on the beach in Xiamen, Fujian province, and traveled over 12,500 kilometers to shoot the main water scenes at Mexico's Baja Studios.