Hong Kong's film industry is famous for churning out a large volume of movies. Sometimes scripts are written at the last minute _ or not at all. But veteran director Patrick Tam doesn't work that way.

He waited 17 years before releasing his latest movie, the family drama "After This Our Exile." It's only the eighth film for the director who was part of Hong Kong's "New Wave" of the 1980s.

Tam is a perfectionist who strives for total preparation.

"When you make a movie, if your script isn't complete, it's a dangerous thing for the actors and others working on the film because I think everyone should know exactly what they're doing," Tam said at a recent public talk.

The son of a piano teacher and a government administrator who loved films, Tam grew up in a cultured environment. European film and existentialist writers were among his teenage hobbies.

Tam said his father dispensed movie criticism, telling him he appreciated the symmetry in the 1954 Western "Vera Cruz," which started with a shot of a lone horse rider and ended with a character leaving the scene alone.

Passionate about movies, he skipped university with his family's blessing, and joined Hong Kong TV station TVB in 1967 after graduating from secondary school.

Tam directed and produced dramas and comedies at TVB before moving on to the big screen, where he established a reputation as one of Hong Kong's most talented directors.

Tam's early work was stylishly shot but was often thin on content, a characteristic he acknowledges. The director beautifully captures the carefree lifestyle of Hong Kong's youth with blurred cinematography showing a group of youngsters lounging in a mosquito net-covered bed outdoors in "Nomad" (1982), but the movie has little in the way of a plot and ends with a bizarre massacre sequence.

Tam says the emphasis on form over content was partly a reflection of his youth, when he was more experimental, and partly the result of rushed shooting schedules that prevented him from writing complete scripts.

He wasn't happy with the compromises, and after releasing "My Heart Is That Eternal Rose" in 1989, decided it was time to regroup.

"I exhausted much of my creative energy, but I wasn't that satisfied with my output. I thought maybe it was time to take a break, reflect a bit to see what direction I should take."

Tam started to chart his movie career at his own pace. He became more selective, turning down projects when he disagreed with investors. In the meantime, he taught and edited movies for other directors, including Cannes winner Wong Kar-wai.

"The most important thing is whether all the elements are mature ... there's no point in casually making a movie," he said, adding, "you don't make movies for the sake of making movies. You make movies to make a movie that's meaningful or a good movie."

He said he also wants to make sure he has enough say in any project he takes on.

The key is "whether there are people who are willing to believe in the project, to invest in it, if there are actors who are willing to execute the project and willing to execute on my terms. That's very important," Tam said.

Control and organization are major themes of Tam's personality. His look is ultra-neat. He wears his gray hair short and cropped, favors thin rimmed glasses and plain blue or white dress shirts, khakis and black leather loafers.

While nearby cubicles are cluttered with video tapes, on Tam's desk at the creative media school of the City University of Hong Kong, where he teaches film, papers are neatly stacked in piles.

Aaron Kwok, the star of "After This Our Exile" said in a recent interview with City Entertainment magazine Tam is so meticulous he even monitors the performance of extras.

"He won't take a 98 percent performance. He'll only accept 100 percent," Kwok said.

Ultimately, it took 17 years until Tam felt the timing and circumstances were right for his eighth movie, but the patience and perfectionism has paid off.

"After This Our Exile," a product of script writing classes he taught at a Malaysian production company, dominated this year's Golden Horse Awards in Taiwan, the Chinese equivalent of the Oscars, winning best film, best actor for Kwok and best supporting actor.

In a stark contrast to his visually driven work in the past, the film painstakingly portrays the downfall of a hot-tempered cook, who pimps and forces his son to steal after losing his job, his home and his wife. The director's cut is 160 minutes long.

Tam finally feels his work has met his own high standards.

"In the past, my technique, my form were in the foreground. The narrative was in the background. The narrative was weaker because I didn't have enough time to prepare. Now the two elements are 50-50. They are very well integrated," he said.