About The Wrong Workshop
The Wrong Workshop is an independent film production initiative based in Berlin, specializing in bold, thought-provoking cinema. Our films have premiered at the Berlinale and Rotterdam, among other international festivals.
Led by filmmaker Lawrence Philip Wong, we collaborate with established and emerging artists to create work that challenges conventions and explores complex human experiences.
Lawrence Philip Wong
Writer • Director • Producer
Hong Kong-born, Berlin-based filmmaker with over two decades in international independent cinema. Columbia University MBA.
Origin
Wong's debut feature Cross Harbour Tunnel (2000), made at 25 with no formal film training and a micro-budget, was officially selected for the Berlinale (Forum) and International Film Festival Rotterdam, launching an international career that defied conventional paths.
Journey
Unable to fit his vision within an industry increasingly beholden to Mainland Chinese censorship, Wong spent the following decades in a nomadic exploration across India, America, Europe, and Africa—years in ashrams and monasteries, deep study of Eastern philosophy (Tao, Advaita) and Western thought (Nietzsche, Schopenhauer). This journey, combined with the 2019 Hong Kong freedom movement and subsequent political upheaval, crystallized into a mandate: to synthesize every struggle, every philosophical insight, and every artistic lesson into cinema.
Industry Leadership
As a producer, Wong has overseen multiple award-winning films premiering at major international festivals. He served as chairman of Ying E Chi, Hong Kong's most prominent independent cinema organization, championing innovative voices in Asian cinema until its forced dissolution in 2020. Through The Wrong Workshop, he continues fostering international collaborations between filmmakers, visual artists, musicians, and performers.
Current Focus
Wong is actively developing several feature projects while producing films by acclaimed directors including Simon Chung and collaborating with award-winning producer Philip Yung. His work spans narrative features, documentary, and experimental animation.
IMDB →Director's Statement
My work begins from a fundamental philosophical stance: that all perceived opposites—good and evil, creation and destruction—are not truly opposed but two faces of a single reality. This is the ancient insight of the Tao Te Ching, where heaven and earth regard all things as "straw dogs."
I am drawn to forms that estrange the familiar: comedy that turns tragic, puppets that feel more human than actors, philosophical questions disguised as genre entertainment. The gap between how we present ourselves and what moves beneath the surface—the autonomous forces that shape us despite our conscious intentions—is where my stories live.
The Opera of the Phantom Hand is the synthesis of decades of inquiry. It asks: If creation and destruction spring from the same source, what does that mean for the creator? For the audience? For anyone who has ever felt their life was not entirely their own?
Selected Filmography
The Opera of the Phantom Hand (2027)
Feature-Length Animated Musical — Currently in Production
Writer/Director: Lawrence Philip Wong
A sung-through musical opera rendered in wooden puppet animation. When a man's left hand develops autonomous will—first creating art and healing the sick, then committing murders—he must confront the Taoist collapse of apparent opposites into unified reality: that creation and destruction are not enemies but a single force wearing different masks.
Classical orchestration, Latin Gregorian chant, and hand-painted European backgrounds create a visual and sonic world unlike anything in contemporary animation. The most ambitious undertaking from The Wrong Workshop.
Rustling in the Wind (2026)
Feature-Length Drama — Currently in Pre-Production
Director: Simon Chung
Producers: Philip Yung, Lawrence Philip Wong
A sensitive exploration of guilt, redemption, and the transformative power of human connection. Directed by Simon Chung, whose previous feature End of Love premiered in Berlinale Panorama, and produced by Philip Yung, one of Hong Kong's most celebrated contemporary filmmakers.
Yung's recent film Papa garnered widespread acclaim, winning Best Actor at the Asia Film Awards and Best Director at the Hong Kong Film Critics Society Awards. His previous work Where the Wind Blows was Hong Kong's official Oscar submission, while Port of Call swept three of four major acting categories at the Hong Kong Film Awards.
Hongkongers (2022)
Feature-Length Documentary
Director: Lawrence Philip Wong
A meditative inquiry into urban identity and belonging in a city undergoing profound transformation. Completed with support from the Hong Kong Arts Development Council prior to 2020.
Distribution impossible under current Hong Kong censorship laws following the 2020 National Security Law. The film documents a city and a freedom that no longer exist in the same form.
I Miss You When I See You (2018)
Feature-Length Drama
Director: Simon Chung
Producer: Lawrence Philip Wong
Simon Chung's follow-up to his Berlinale Panorama selection End of Love. This intimate coming-of-age story traces the evolution of a relationship from adolescence to adulthood. The film stars Jun Li, whose most recent film as director (Queer Panorama) was selected for Berlinale Panorama and won Best Director at the Golden Horse Awards.
IMDB →
Out of Frame (2016)
Feature-Length Drama
Director: William Kwok
Producer: Lawrence Philip Wong
Awards: NETPAC Award for Best Asian Film (Warsaw International Film Festival), Best Film (Focus on Asia Fukuoka International Film Festival), multiple festival awards
Set against Beijing's contemporary art world, this darkly satirical drama follows an iconoclastic artist navigating the intersection of commercialism and authoritarianism. Directed by William Kwok, whose previous film Darkness Bride premiered at the Berlinale and who went on to direct To My Nineteen-Year-Old Self, winner of Best Picture at the Hong Kong Film Awards.
IMDB →
Cross Harbour Tunnel (2000)
Feature-Length Comedy
Writer/Director: Lawrence Philip Wong
Festival Selections: Berlinale (Forum), International Film Festival Rotterdam, plus numerous international screenings
Wong's debut feature—made at 25 with no formal training and a micro-budget—secured prestigious festival berths and launched an unconventional filmmaking career spanning directing, producing, and distribution leadership. Twenty-five years later, The Opera of the Phantom Hand represents the return to directing with the full weight of that journey behind it.
IMDB →