Michael Hui Koon-man (born 3 September 1942) is a Hong Kong actor, director, screenwriter and producer known as the deadpan comedian. Of Panyu, Guangdong ancestry and born in Guangzhou, he moved to Hong Kong with his family at the age of eight in 1950 and grew up in a squatter area. He attended a Buddhist primary school and La Salle College, then trained at the Sir Robert Black College of Education and studied social science at United College of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, graduating in 1969. He taught briefly at secondary level and worked in advertising, an experience that later sharpened his ear for everyday dialogue. In 1968, still an undergraduate, he joined Television Broadcasts as the host of quiz and variety programmes; in 1971 he teamed up with his younger brother Sam for the variety show Hui's Double Stars, whose deadpan situational gags won him wide acclaim. He made his film breakthrough in 1972 in Li Han-hsiang's The Great Warlord, followed by Li's comedies of 1973 and 1974. In 1974 he wrote, directed and starred in Games Gamblers Play, a story of working men gambling for a way out; it took HK$6 million, broke Hong Kong's box-office record for both Chinese and Western films, and launched the comedy of ordinary life associated with the Hui brothers. The Last Message (1975), The Private Eyes (1976), The Contract (1978) and Security Unlimited (1981) were successive box-office champions: The Private Eyes satirised an exploitative boss, The Contract mocked unfair artiste contracts, and Security Unlimited, a comedy of working-class security guards, grossed about HK$18 million. Security Unlimited won Hui Best Actor at the first Hong Kong Film Awards in 1982. He directed and starred in Teppanyaki (1984); Chicken & Duck Talk (1988) was directed by Clifton Ko and was his first investment as a producer. In 1992 he wrote, directed and starred in The Magic Touch, which took over HK$36 million. In 2016 he starred in Chung Mong-hong's Godspeed and was nominated for Best Actor at the 53rd Golden Horse Awards. In 2022 he received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 40th Hong Kong Film Awards, and in 2023 he won Best Supporting Actor at the 41st Hong Kong Film Awards for Where the Wind Blows. His comedy satirises snobbery and the drudgery of work, and he is a founding president of the Hong Kong Performing Artistes Guild. The four Hui brothers remain Hong Kong's best-known entertainment family.
Michael Hui turned the daily grind and the snobbery of ordinary Hong Kong life into comedy, setting the tone of Cantonese film comedy through the 1970s and 1980s. By writing, directing and starring in his own films he showed that comedy could combine box-office power with social observation, and he remained a box-office guarantee before Stephen Chow emerged. His films are still widely rerun and his lines have passed into the collective memory of Hong Kong audiences, while the Hui brothers showed what a family creative team could achieve.
Achievements
- 1974 · Games Gamblers Play broke Hong Kong's box-office record
- 1982 · Security Unlimited won him Best Actor at the first Hong Kong Film Awards
- 2023 · Won Best Supporting Actor at the 41st Hong Kong Film Awards for Where the Wind Blows