Michael Hui
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Michael Hui Koon-Man (許冠文 pinyin: Xǔ Guànwén) (born September 3, 1942) is a Hong Kong film comedian, scriptwriter and director.
A sociology degree holder with quiz spells in TVB, Hui first gained popularity in the Hong Kong entertainment circle with his variety show stints in the Hui Brothers Show. Thereafter he moved from television to film. Hui's first work in film was in a movie by Taiwanese director Li Han-Hsiang called The Warlord, (大軍閥 or "The Great Regime", 1972), where he played a farcical warlord in post-revolutionary China.
In 1974, he set up his own film company, the Hui Brothers Company, with Golden Harvest, together with his brothers Ricky and Sam. During this time till the end of the century he contributed some 20 comedy films, mostly as actor and scriptwriter. Games Gamblers Play (1974), The Private Eyes (1976), The Contract (1978) and Security Unlimited (1981) - the last of which won him the first Hong Kong Academy Best Actor - are often seen as the quintessential, highly popular comedies made by the company. Games Gamblers Play was a huge success when first released and paved the way for Cantonese movies to hold their own against the colonial trend of Mandarin production.
The earliest Hui comedies combined episodic gags with the comedic appeal of Michael and his brothers. This usually involves the trio of actors -- Michael, Sam and Ricky -- who pit their wits against the odds to earn quick bucks and their livelihood. Set in modern-day Hong Kong, with upbeat soundtracks performed by Sam himself, it is not hard to see these works became wildly popular amongst the working classes in the 1970s and early 1980s.
After the breakup with his brothers in the early 1980s, Hui developed a new brand of satiric comedy, one which capitalizes on his deadpan comic timing and a character-driven storyline.
Some of his more renowned works came during this period in the 1980s, where he frequently acts out the archetypal "ne'er-do-well" who is sometimes driven on by a cash-mad Hong Kong society. Equally caustic and funny, they now focus more fully on himself and the plot, against the backdrop of present-day Hong Kong consumerism. In Inspector Chocolate (1986), he plays a chocolate-eating inspector who must solve a kidnap case while his subordinate is involved in a Miss Hong-Kong pageant. In Chicken and Duck Talk (1988), opposing restauranteurs come to blows to secure profits. Front Page (1990), which reunites the three brothers, lampoons the Hong Kong press, while The Magic Touch (1991) builds on the Chinese knack for fortune-telling and satirizes the their obssession with wealth. Always on My Mind (1993) continues on this vein of self-deprecating humour, where Hui plays the head of a family who would stoop at nothing to grab money.
Hui has continued acting and producing his own comedies, albeit at a less prolific rate, where he is regarded as the veritable predecessor comedian before Stephen Chow. Chinese Box (1997), directed by Wayne Wong, remains Hui's only film in the West.
See also: Cinema of Hong Kong
External link
- IMDB filmography (http://imdb.com/name/nm0401201/).
- Official Michael Hui Website (http://www.michaelhui.com.hk/man.htm)