Michael, Samuel and Ricky Hui dominated the box office from the mid seventies to the mid eighties. The most popular films the trio made together were The Private Eyes, The Contract and Security Unlimited. The recipe was the same for the three movies: no real story, gags one after another, and the brothers jokingly denounced the HK society shortcomings.

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From Shaw Brother to Golden Harvest
Employed by the Shaw Bros., Michael Hui, a former teacher, started in TV shows in 1971. He was quickly joined by his brother Sam, one of the most popular singers in Hong-Kong in the sixties with his band The Lotus. They both hosted the 'Hui Brother Show', a programme mixing sketches and songs performed by Sam. It was a tremendous success and they did over 50 episodes of the show.

In 1972, Michael developed some interest in the cinematic world. He participated to a few Shaw Bros. productions and worked with the comedy specialist Li Han-hsiang (The Warlord by Li Han-hsiang, 1972, being the most noticeable). But he realised quickly that the rigid and strict system of the Shaw studios didn't let him enough freedom to express himself.

Meanwhile, Sam left the Shaw Bros. Company to work with Golden Harvest, where Bruce Lee, very fond of his songs, taught him some martial art moves. Sam did a few action films for Golden Harvest. Michael joined him at the Golden Harvest and they were immediately successful with the Game Gambler Play (1974), a comedy about HK people number one hobby, i.e. gambling. This was written and directed by Michael. They carried on with The Last Message released in 1975. It's a comedy taking place in a mental hospital, where Michael and Sam always try to perform the best con.

Sam and Michael's first movies made huge hits because they integrated a social satire to Cantonese sense of humour, a novelty in the local cinema. They allowed then the Golden Harvest to stand up after the lost of Bruce Lee. It's worth noting that these successes have contributed to rehabilitate films in Cantonese language and to outdo movies in Mandarin language. But if Game Gambler Play and The Last Message grossed a lot of money in HK, the sense of humour displayed was mainly verbal and very much full of Cantonese jokes. Full of typical HK features, these first films worked for locals. But the Hui Bros. had to find a way to conquer South East Asian markets.

Success for the trio and its recipe
At that time, Ricky was a correspondent for the French Press Agency (AFP) in HK. He joined his brothers and made with them The Private Eyes in 1976, the story of a tight and grumpy private detective who investigates various adultery cases. The film was again written and directed by Michael, the brain of the trio, and it was a huge success all over Asia and in Japan in particular. To achieve this result, Michael polished the most typical aspects of the Cantonese humour and made mostly visual gags, which were more universal. The trio made another couple of movies together, The Contract (the trio in TV shows, 1978) and Security Unlimited (the trio in a security company, 1981).
The recipe was the same for the three movies. There was no a real story, gags were numerous and followed on one after another, and the Hui Bros. denounced the HK society shortcomings.

On top of that, each one played very typical characters. With his handsome face and force, Sam was the playboy and the man of action. Ricky always in a daze was usually the scapegoat ending up the laughing stock, but he sometimes could energetically rebel. Ricky was more of a second role compared to his brothers. As for Michael, he portrayed an egoistic and cunning guy whose tactics to get what he wants weren't very honest and sometimes backfired on him.

The marketing was already very sophisticated, since before each film release they launched the movie soundtrack with the theme song generally performed by Sam Hui. The audience knew already the songs by heart before watching the movies. The Hui Brothers were soon considered as the 'fathers of comedy', and Sam the 'father' of Canto-pop mixing western Pop to lyrics inspired of life in HK.

To understand the success of the Hui Brothers first three movies, let's refer to Michael Hui's theory about comedy based on the frequency of gags: "In general, in current comedy people don't laugh a lot. In my movies, I try to have a really funny gag every minute. The story is only there to tie them together."

Mr Boo
These three movies together were huge hits, especially in Japan where they were gathered with other Michael's comedies under the 'Mr Boo' series. Mr Boo was the Japanese name of the deadpan character portrayed by Michael Hui. But these movies aren't actually sequels at all of The Private Eyes, and Michael Hui's characters are different from a movie to another.

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Every Man for Himself
After Security Unlimited, the Hui's biggest success, Michael Hui wanted to have a change, to try a more personal approach of the comedy and to do it alone.
"I wanted to make a film on my own to have some kind of freedom. With my brothers I always had to do the same things. As I am the elder, I am the one who speaks loud and leads the others. Now I can do what I want, I can be a young man chatting up girls. It's all new for me."

Michael Hui made Teppanyaki alone in 1984, which was more ambitious because it had a well-written story. "I have a new theory. I am more careful on the quality of my gags. I tend to rank them from 'A' to 'D', 'D' being a poor joke. I found that my jokes become more and more 'B'. It's very hard to get an 'A'. An 'A' gag is meaningful, moving, and memorable and has to be tightly linked with the plot. The script has to be good. In this new theory, I have to get a really good story first and then I can add comical elements to it".

Even though the movie did well at the box office, it didn't convince the audience. Since then Michael tended to play in movies directed by others and he directed only a few films on his own. Some of his most memorable film in solo were Happy Ding-Dong (1986), Inspector Chocolate (1986), Front Page (1990) and Always on my mind (1993). He delivered his last big movie in 1988, Chicken And Duck Talk, a culinary comedy directed by Clifton Ko, with Ricky and a guest appearance of Sam. But his sense of humour wasn't that successful anymore. Tsui Hark showed in The Banquet (1991) Michael Hui sharing his meal with Cantonese comedy new sensation Stephen Chow Sing-chi. The old generation gave way to the young one.

As for Sam, considered as the father of Canto-pop in the seventies, he became early eighties one of the biggest comic stars, ahead of Michael. He starred with Karl Maka in the Cinema City productions, the Aces Go Places series (aka Mad Mission), a sort of cheesy James Bond spoof with comedy, action, stunts, romance, gadgets and Canto-pop. This buddy movie between a funky swindler called King Kong (Sam Hui) and an inept detective Kadojak (Karl Maka) was the most famous series of the eighties. Sam provided obviously the theme songs for each episode.
Apart from five Aces Go Places films between 1982 and 1989, Sam made very few other noticeable movies. Dragon From Russia and Legend Of Wiseley are worth watching though. However, Sam had to stop his activities for a while due to an accident during the production of the Legend Of Wiseley.
His last noticeable movie appearance was in Tsui Hark's Swordsman (1990). His acting was however not exceptional. The production being late, it was said that Sam Hui was hard to convince to carry on his role after the alleged date of last photography written in his contract. He had actually nothing to prove anymore. Since then, he seldom appeared on the Silver Screen. He made a guest appearance as an old and reformed conman in the 2000 comedy Winners Take All starring Nicholas Tse, Joey Yeung and… Karl Maka.

Ricky Hui carried on playing second role sometimes by Michael side, but also in various John Woo's comedies Money Crazy (1977), From Riches To Rags (1980), Plain Jane To The Rescue (1982), To Hell With The Devil (1982) and other ghost and vampire films such as Haunted Cop Shop 1 & 2 (1987 & 1988) and Mr Vampire (1985).

Conclusion
As always, the HK film industry is pitiless with its forces, even the most famous ones. The Wheel of Fortune turns fast there. Early nineties, the Hui Bros. were only shadows of an obsolete era. Stephen Chow is the new King of comedy and Andy Lau is the new pop singer very much present in local comedies and action films.

You can still catch up with this 80's nostalgia and Sam's catchy tunes with the DVDs of The Private Eyes, The Contract and Security Unlimited released by Universe.

Laurent Henry, November 1999.
Freely translated and updated by Thomas, December 2002.

Sources for quotations:
Interview: "Rencontre avec Michael Hui, Il Fait Rire Toute L'Asie" by Olivier Assayas, Tony Rayns & Charles Tesson, in 'Hong Kong Cinéma', from Les Cahiers du Cinéma special issue, Sept. 1984, Editions de L'Etoile.

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Bonus:
- Read an exclusive interview with Michael Hui from the Dragon's Den site:  http://www.dragonsdenuk.com/articles/michael_hui_interview.htm
- See also the Canto Pop Queens & Kings page.

 

 

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