Barry Wong Ping-yiu (1946–1991) was born in Wuzhou, Guangxi. After graduating from the Chinese University of Hong Kong's fine arts department he worked in a government health department and as a schoolteacher. He began writing for Commercial Television and entered films in the early 1980s, writing Bao Bao Chuang Ba Guan (1980) and Lao Shu Jie (1981) for Jackie Chan's Authority Films and scripting Chan's Dragon Lord (1982). He then partnered with Sammo Hung, writing such hits as The Prodigal Son (1981), Carry on Pickpocket (1982) and The Dead and the Deadly (1982), and his script for Winners and Sinners (1983) launched the Lucky Stars series, while his planning of Mr Vampire (1985) began the Mr Vampire cycle. Known as a gold-medal screenwriter for his comedy and his close collaboration with Hung, he was highly prolific, with credits including The Family Strikes Back (1984), School on Fire (1988), Curry and Pepper (1990), Alan and Eric: Between Hello and Goodbye (1991) and Fight Back to School (1991); he was nominated several times for the Hong Kong Film Awards' Best Screenplay. He also acted occasionally, most memorably as Superintendent Wong in Fight Back to School. He died of a cerebral haemorrhage in Germany in October 1991, aged forty-four, and was posthumously given the Professional Achievement Award at the 11th Hong Kong Film Awards in 1992.
Barry Wong's scripts for Winners and Sinners and Mr Vampire launched the Lucky Stars and Mr Vampire series respectively, making him a key comedy writer of 1980s Hong Kong cinema; he wrote a stream of hits for Sammo Hung and Jackie Chan and was familiar to audiences as Superintendent Wong in Fight Back to School.
Achievements
- 1980 · Wrote Bao Bao Chuang Ba Guan for Jackie Chan's Quanwei Film Company
- 1983 · Wrote Qi Mou Miao Ji Wu Fu Xing for Sammo Hung, launching the Lucky Stars series
- 1991 · Wrote and acted in Tao Xue Wei Long, and died of a cerebral haemorrhage in Germany that October