How Hong Kong comedy legend Michael Hui and his films, such as The Private Eyes, made him the first local cinematic hero of post-war generation
- Michael Hui grew up poor in Hong Kong, and was the first truly ‘local’ star to make it in the 1970s. His films, such as The Private Eyes, broke box office records
- With influences ranging from Peter Sellers to Mel Brooks and the Three Stooges, Hui’s comedies were influential in the rebirth of Cantonese cinema
Cantonese-speaking comedy was conservative in the 1960s, but that changed with the arrival of Michael Hui Koon-man, and his brothers Sam and Ricky, on the film scene in the 1970s.
Hui, who had made his name on television, directed and starred in several hilarious films that broke box office records, connected with Hong Kong cinema-goers, and laid the groundwork for a resurgence of Cantonese-medium cinema in a market dominated by films shot in Mandarin Chinese.
“His spectacular progress … had important ramifications for the development of Hong Kong cinema from the mid-1970s onwards,” wrote academic Stephen Teo.
“Hui was viewed as the first truly ‘local’ star from his generation to make it in the 1970s, typifying the rise of a generation which had grown up in Hong Kong in the 1950s and 1960s.”
His hits in the 1970s included Games Gamblers Play, which was rooted in the Hong Kong obsession with gambling; The Private Eyes, about a mean-spirited private detective; The Contract, set around a performer trying to get out of his contract with a TV company; and Security Unlimited, about a domineering sergeant in a security organisation.
