Explainer | Wong Jing helped movie stars Stephen Chow and Jet Li reach the next level, and ruled the 1990s Hong Kong box office. Why is he special?
- Sex, violence and lowbrow humour were director Wong Jing’s recipe for success in box office hits from the God of Gamblers trilogy to Royal Tramp to Naked Killer
- From helping Jet Li’s rise to parodying Wong Kar-wai, we look at the prolific Hong Kong filmmaker’s career and his formula for making movies
Ultra-prolific film director and producer Wong Jing ruled the Hong Kong box office in the 1990s. But what made Wong, who is still active, so special?
What’s Wong Jing known for?
Wong, who worked as a director, producer and screenwriter, generally made crude, audience-pleasing movies which mixed lashings of soft porn, gory violence, and lowbrow adolescent comedy. His films had no artistic pretensions, and were solely geared towards doing well at the box office.
Wong was the undisputed Hong Kong box office champion of the 1990s.
Film academic David Bordwell summed up Wong’s films well.
“Nothing adolescent is off limits. We get love potions in Coke, itching powder in shorts, and scenes featuring drool and superglue. Royal Tramp includes a penis point-of-view shot,” Bordwell wrote.
Is it true he used to make pornographic films?
Wong excelled at making Category III films – adults-only movies consisting of a heady mixture of soft-core sex, violence and gore – in the early 1990s.
