Louis Sit, born in Hong Kong in 1947, graduated from the University of Hong Kong and, through an introduction from a secondary-school teacher, Chow Ting-au, the brother of Raymond Chow, joined Golden Harvest (Hong Kong), where he was soon appointed studio manager. When Enter the Dragon went into production in 1973 he was moved to assistant producer and began working directly on films — a picture starring Bruce Lee and directed by the American Robert Clouse, co-produced by Golden Harvest and Warner Bros. and the last film Lee completed in his lifetime. He stayed close to the producer Leonard Ho and in 1979 was made Golden Harvest's production manager. The films he planned and produced at Golden Harvest include Michael Hui's Games Gamblers Play (1974), The Contract (1978) and Teppanyaki (1984); John Woo's Princess Chang Ping (1976), Money Crazy (1977) and Eight-Colour Lin Ah-chun (1982); Sammo Hung's Warriors Two (1978) and Encounters of the Spooky Kind (1980); and more than thirty titles in all, among them director Chung Kwok-yan's 633 (1979) and The Hell Scorpion (1981). Games Gamblers Play opened in October 1974 to HK$6.25 million, beating Bruce Lee's pictures and Shaw Brothers' releases of the day to set a new local box-office record, launching the Hui brothers' comedy boom and marking the founding of the Hui brothers' own company. He also wrote scripts for The Last Message (1975) and Ah Mau's Story (1976), co-wrote and co-directed the three-part comedy Hello, Late Homecomers (1978) with John Woo and Lau Tin-chi, and wrote lyrics for film songs. One of Golden Harvest's core production staff from its early days through the 1980s, he worked closely with Raymond Chow and Leonard Ho and handled the production coordination and scheduling of many pictures. He left Golden Harvest in 1985, emigrated to Canada and later stepped away from the film industry.
Rising from studio manager to production manager at Golden Harvest, Sit oversaw comedies and action films by Michael Hui, John Woo and Sammo Hung and was one of the studio's main planners during its prolific 1970s and 1980s output; he also wrote scripts and film lyrics, making him an important behind-the-scenes figure in Golden Harvest's growth.
Achievements
- 1973 · Joined the production of Enter the Dragon, moving from studio manager to assistant producer.
- 1974 · Planned Michael Hui's Games Gamblers Play, which set a new Hong Kong box-office record.
- 1979 · Became production manager at Golden Harvest.