Mui Yee (1923–1966), born Kong Tuen-yee in Beijing to a Nanhai family, was a Hong Kong actress. Her grandfather Kong Hung-yan was a Guangdong scholar-official and her uncle Kong Yu-lau was the Cantonese playwright known as Nam Hoi Sap-sam Long. At six she made a guest appearance in Great Wall Film Company's A Clever Fool (1929) under the stage name Jiang Lili, beginning a lifelong association with the cinema. She came to Hong Kong in 1937 and joined Nanyang Film Company, debuting in War and Survival (1937), written and directed by her uncle. Moving to Grandview Film Company, she established herself with The Little Tiger (1941), Shadow over Shanghai (1941) and Love in the Schoolyard (1941). During the Japanese occupation she fled with other film workers to Guangzhouwan and then Guilin, performing on stage to survive. She returned to Hong Kong after the war with a wide range that let her play both heroines and villains. In 1952 she helped found the Union Film Enterprise with fellow filmmakers, appearing in its first production, Family (1953), as well as In the Face of Demolition (1953), Sworn Sisters (1954) and An Orphan's Tragedy (1955). She also acted in Sunrise (1953), The Bachelor Girl (1954), The Chair (1959) and Feast of a Rich Family (1959). Over more than two decades on screen she starred in more than seventy films, and her memoir A Life of Drama appeared in 1956. A Christian from her early years, she was diagnosed with tongue cancer in 1960 and left the screen in the early 1960s to devote herself to missionary work in Southeast Asia. She died of tongue cancer on 17 August 1966.
Mui Yee's versatility made her convincing as both heroines and villains across more than seventy films from the 1930s to the 1950s. A founding member of the Union Film Enterprise alongside Ng Cho-fan, Pak Yin and Cheung Ying, she helped steer Cantonese cinema towards a more serious, realist style, later devoting herself to Christian missionary work in Southeast Asia.
Achievements
- 1929 · Made her screen debut at six as a guest in Great Wall Film Company's A Clever Fool under the stage name Jiang Lili
- 1937 · Came to Hong Kong to join Nanyang Film Company, debuting in War and Survival written and directed by her uncle
- 1952 · Co-founded the Union Film Enterprise with Ng Cho-fan, Pak Yin and others, appearing in its first production Family the following year