Jimmy Heung Wa-shing was born in August 1950, a native of Lufeng in Guangdong, and became a Hong Kong film producer and presenter who also worked as director, screenwriter and occasional on-screen performer. His father, Heung Chin, was a former Nationalist major-general and founder of the triad Sun Yee On. The twelfth of the Heung family's thirteen brothers, he had two elder siblings active in show business, Heung Wa-bor and Charles Heung, and his original name, Heung Wa-shing, gave the Win's company part of its name. He debuted as an actor in 1974 in 'Tiger Fist, Iron Palm' and appeared again in a 1983 film before concentrating on studio administration. In the early 1980s he and Charles founded Win's Movie Productions, the forerunner of China Star, producing many box-office hits; the company began tiny, occupying only a few dozen square metres in Tsim Sha Tsui. He helped make stars of Stephen Chow and Sharla Cheung, and his productions such as God of Gamblers (1989) grossed HK$37.06 million and topped the 1989 chart; God of Gamblers II, the Fight Back to School series, Royal Tramp, Flirting Scholar and Hail the Judge repeatedly broke Hong Kong box-office records, making gambling films and comedies the mainstream of local cinema. In Win's heyday in the 1990s, of Hong Kong's roughly HK$1 billion annual box office the company took some HK$250 million. He collaborated for years with the director Wong Jing and was close to actors including Chow Yun-fat, Andy Lau, Jet Li and Stephen Chow. According to friends he actually preferred to make arthouse films. He stepped back from the industry from 1993, investing in stocks and Macao's gaming business, his fortunes easing after the Asian financial crisis, and he returned in late 1999. A low-profile figure, he personally denied being a triad member. In mid-2014 a medical check-up in Hong Kong confirmed oesophageal cancer, and he refused chemotherapy, seeking treatment in Beijing, where he died of organ failure at Peking Union Medical College Hospital on the evening of 20 November 2014 at the age of sixty-four; his wife was Duanmu Yingzi, two nephews stayed by his side, and he had long hoped to remake God of Gamblers. His body was cremated at Babaoshan on 24 November and his ashes returned to Hong Kong for burial in the family plot.
Heung and his brother's Win's Movie Productions was a major producer in Hong Kong cinema's golden age, making stars of Stephen Chow and Sharla Cheung. The gambling films and comedies he produced dominated early-1990s box offices, and his Win's-era pictures became collective memories for a generation.
Achievements
- 1974 · Made his debut as an actor in 'Tiger Fist, Iron Palm'
- 1980年代 · Co-founded Win's Movie Productions with his brother Charles Heung
- 1989 · Produced God of Gamblers, which took HK$37.06 million and topped the year's Hong Kong box office
- 2014 · Died of oesophageal cancer in Beijing at the age of 64