In the 1960s he became one of Shaw Brothers' main choreographers and had a strong working relationship with director Chang Cheh, working on many of Chang's films as a choreographer (often alongside Tong Gaai) including "The One-Armed Swordsman", as well as other Shaw Brothers wuxia films, such as "The Jade Bow". After a split with Chang on the set of "Marco Polo", Lau evolved into a director during the sudden boom of martial arts films in the early 1970s. He occasionally did choreography work for non-Shaw films as well, such as "Master of the Flying Guillotine".