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Richard James Havis

It sounds impossible, but it happened.
Chinese-American actor Michael Wong Man-tak arrived in Hong Kong in the early 1980s unable to speak Cantonese and with no knowledge of martial arts, yet managed to forge a durable and long-lasting film career.
Wong achieved this despite facing constant derision from international fans of Hong Kong films and being treated like a foreigner by the city’s film industry – which referred to him as “the gweilo” – because of his inability to speak the local dialect.
The actor’s most recent big-screen outing was in 2023 film A Guilty Conscience, currently the highest-grossing local film in Hong Kong cinema history, in which he plays the villain – a slimy lawyer.

We look back at the early films of Wong, who became just as well known for being a playboy as a performer.
Royal Warriors (1986)
Wong had small parts in the actioner City Hero and the romance Devoted to You before signing with Dickson Poon and Sammo Hung Kam-bo’s D & B Films, which gave him his first big break in 1986 film Royal Warriors.
Michelle Yeoh’s mentor, Jackie Chan’s boss – the many sides to Sammo Hung
D & B Films was known as the “middle class” film company, and Wong’s clean-cut American looks fitted nicely with that concept.
Royal Warriors was Michelle Yeoh’s second action movie, and Wong was given a meaty supporting role as an irritating police officer who wants to romance her policewoman character.
Wong’s character is written to be annoying and bratty, and that image stuck with him throughout his early career.


“Michael’s acting in his early films was a bit wooden and uninspired, showing little potential beyond having just a pretty boy, MTV look,” says film historian Frank Djeng.
“The fact that we didn’t get to hear his own voice – he had to be dubbed – hurt his on-screen persona as well,” Djeng says.
The Final Option (1994)
The Final Option, a police actioner directed by Gordon Chan Kar-seung in 1994, thrust Wong centre stage, and he delivered a tough performance which elevated his professional standing. Wong showed that if he was given the right material and good direction, he was able to shine.


He played Stone, the head of an armed police unit called the SDU who takes his recruits through training and then out into dangerous situations in the field.
The crime element of the film is intercut with scenes of the domestic lives of the policemen, and this gave Wong the opportunity to show that he had a greater dramatic range than he had previously exhibited.
Chan said he went out on a limb with the casting, as Wong’s career was suffering from his starring appearance in a relatively explicit Category III – adults-only – film called Fatal Love (1993).

“I really took a gamble with Michael,” Chan told this writer in an interview in 1998. “At the time, people mainly associated him with that Category III film he did, which was a bit bizarre.
“I asked around in the industry, and everyone told me that his career was finished. But I saw him in an advertisement for Chivas Regal [whisky], and it seemed like he had turned over a new leaf.
“We met and talked about the film, and I saw the good qualities in him. The gamble paid off and he worked out well,” Chan said.
The unusual thing about The Final Option was that Chan asked Wong to speak most of his lines in English, sometimes crossing over into Cantonese.

“When I said I was going to try that, everyone in the industry said it would be a big mistake,” Chan told this journalist. “But I said I thought they were wrong, noting that, as everyone liked watching Hollywood films and that English was part of our culture, why would anyone think it was odd? In the end, audiences loved it.”
While disciplining his squad of recruits, Wong’s character utters what would become his most memorable line: “Don’t call me gweilo [foreigner].” The actor has said the line sums up how he has felt for the duration of his career in the Hong Kong film industry.
The Final Option was followed by the confusingly titled prequel The First Option in 1996. It was different in style from the original but equally good, and Wong’s performance was praised.


“Wong has charisma, blasting baddies and still finding time to deliver speeches on the nature of police work and justice”, this journalist wrote in the Post’s review of the film.
The Case of the Cold Fish (1995) and The Log (1996)
Wong appeared in a few good independent-style films, including Jamie Luk Kim-ming’s The Case of the Cold Fish and Derek Chiu Sung-kei’s The Log.
The former is an unusually gentle police drama that downplays the action. The film is set in a remote police station in Tai O, on Lantau Island.


After a murder, a local police officer, played by Dicky Chow Man-kin, tries to solve the case in the slow way he normally works. But the arrival of a cocky city inspector, played by Wong, leads to conflict.
Wong gets the tonality of his abrasive “foreigner” character just right. “It’s British versus Chinese, city versus country, as the two cops gradually learn how to work together and solve the case,” Post critic Paul Fonoroff wrote.
The Log is a similarly sensitive piece of work. In it, Wong plays one of three very different police officers trying to solve a case.


“Ever since The Final Option, Michael Wong has become typecast as an English-speaking smart-a** cop. The Log is a variation of that,” wrote Fonoroff.
Although some of the scenarios were unlikely, “Wong plays his role with sincerity,” Fonoroff noted.
Beast Cops (1998)
The 1998 film Beast Cops, directed by Gordon Chan with his former assistant Dante Lam Chiu-yin, was a cut above the usual Hong Kong policier, and secured the prestigious opening slot at the Hong Kong International Film Festival.


Wong is paired with Anthony Wong Chau-sang in a story set amid triad life in Mong Kok. Anthony Wong plays a detective who has worked in the area for so long he has become indistinguishable from the criminals he is meant to be policing.
Into this ambivalent melee comes Michael Wong, playing a police officer who wants to do everything by the book – “The world is black and white and I am white,” he tells his partner. But as the story progresses, it becomes clear that everyone is, in fact, a muddy shade of grey.
Chan has said that he had Michael Wong in mind for the character when he was writing the script, and noted that he tried to reflect some elements of the actor’s personality.

Michael Wong has good memories of Beast Cops. “That was a well-directed film. The script brought out all the cultural nuances of Hong Kong, and all these groups of people in conflict with law enforcement in the underground,” he reminisced to the Post in 2017.
“I also vividly remember some of the action scenes, and running through the streets being whacked by a group of gangsters. It was very dramatic. It was a great film of its time,” he said.
In this regular feature series on the best of Hong Kong cinema, we examine the legacy of classic films, re-evaluate the careers of its greatest stars, and revisit some of the lesser-known aspects of the beloved industry.
Want more articles like this? Follow SCMP Film on Facebook


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Michelle Yeoh film gave him his first break, but typecast him too: Hong Kong actor Michael Wong’s early roles and how he rose above his critics

Michael Wong and Michelle Yeoh in a still from “Royal Warriors” (1986), in which Wong got his first big break. Because of the film, the Chinese-American was typecast as a police officer. Unable to speak Cantonese, the Hong Kong film industry treated him like a foreigner. Photo: Eureka Entertainment

Michael Wong (left) in a still from “A Guilty Conscience” (2023).

Wong in an interview with the Post in 2017. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

Michael Wong in a still from “The Final Option” (1994).

(From left) Anthony Wong, Kathy Chow and Michael Wong in a still from “Beast Cops” (1998).

Ann Hui’s Ah Kam, starring Michelle Yeoh and Sammo Hung, and the accident Yeoh suffered on set that left director fearing she had broken her neck

Actress Michelle Yeoh at an interview with the Post about “Ah Kam” in 1996. Photo: SCMP

Michelle Yeoh (right) in a still from “Ah Kam”. The film, directed by Ann Hui and starring Michelle Yeoh as a stuntwoman and Sammo Hung as her boss, was seen as somewhat experimental for its mix of realistic drama, melodrama and triad action.

Michelle Yeoh at an interview with the Post in 1996. Photo: SCMP

(From left) Sammo Hung, Mang Hoi, Michael Lam, Michelle Yeoh and Nick Cheung in a still from “Ah Kam”.

Director Ann Hui at a press conference for her film “Ah Kam” in 1996. Photo: SCMP

Michelle Yeoh in a still from “Ah Kam”.

Mang Hoi (centre) and Sammo Hung (right) in a still from “Ah Kam”.

How Hong Kong embraced movies about a cartoon pig, McDull, that celebrated the city and the never-say-die spirit of its people

A still from “My Life as McDull” (2001).

McDull the comic strip pig hit the big screen in 2001’s “My Life as McDull” (above), charming Hongkongers with his hard work and persistence. The film spawned sequels of varying quality and success.

Alice Mak, creator of the McDull character, at an interview with the Post in 2003. Photo: SCMP

Toe Yuen, director of “My Life as McDull” and “McDull, Prince de la Bun”, with his son Yuen Chi, four, pictured in 2007. Photo: SCMP

A screen grab from “My Life as McDull”. Its realistic portrayal of run down Tai Kok Tsui struck a chord with viewers. 

The character of McDull, a not very clever pig who never gives up, appealed to Hong Kong cinema-goers.

A still from “McDull, Prince de la Bun” (2004), a successful sequel to the 2001 film. Photo: Lunchtime Production

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?

Stephen Chow Sing-chi (left) and Ng Man-tat in a still from Royal Tramp.

Wong Jing in 1998. The prolific Hong Kong filmmaker worked with Jet Li, Stephen Chow and Chow Yun-fat, among others, and had hit after hit with his often crude movies. So what was the secret to his box office success? Photo: SCMP

Shu Qi in a still from “Sex and Zen II” (1996), a Category III erotic comedy directed by Chin Man-kei and produced by Wong Jing.

(From left) Andy Lau, Chow Yun-fat and Ronald Wong in a still from “God of Gamblers” (1989), written and directed by Wong Jing.

(From left) Andy Lau, Nick Cheung, Li Yuchun and Chow Yun-fat in a still from “From Vegas to Macau III” (2016), directed by Wong Jing and Andrew Lau.

Stephen Chow (left) and Ng Man-tat in a still from “Royal Tramp” (1992), written and directed by Wong Jing.

Jet Li in a still from “Last Hero in China” (1993), written and co-directed by Wong Jing with Yuen Woo-ping.

Donnie Yen (right) and Andy Lau in a still from “Chasing the Dragon” (2017), directed by Wong Jing and Jason Kwan.

Wong Jing at an interview with the Post in 2017. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Stephen Chow (left) and Ng Man-tat in a still from “Hail the Judge” (1994), written and directed by Wong Jing.

How Woody Allen fan Joe Ma channelled John Hughes and Peter Chan for Feel 100%, 1990s Hong Kong youth romance starring Ekin Cheng, Gigi Leung and Sammi Cheng

(From left) Eric Kot, Gigi Leung, Sammi Cheng and Ekin Cheng in a still from “Feel 100%“. Woody Allen fan Joe Ma’s 1996 movie that launched the film career of Cantopop star Sammi Cheng, turned fellow singer Ekin Cheng into a heartthrob and became one of the most popular Hong Kong movies of the 1990s. 

From left: Jordan Chan, Michael Tse, Ekin Cheng, Jason Chu and Jerry Lamb in a still from “Young and Dangerous” (1996). Photo: Golden Harvest

Film director Joe Ma at an interview with the Post in 2001. Photo: SCMP

Ekin Cheng in a still from “Feel 100%” (1996).

Hongkong Post issued “Feel 100%” stamps in 2021, designed by illustrator Jeffrey Lau Wan-kit. Photo: May Tse

Why Michelle Yeoh’s Hollywood movie career was full of false starts, and Tomorrow Never Dies and Memoirs of a Geisha brought fame but no fortune

Michelle Yeoh in a still from “Tomorrow Never Dies“.

Pierce Brosnan as Bond and Michelle Yeoh as Bond girl Wai Lin in a still from the James Bond 1997 movie “Tomorrow Never Dies”. Yeoh’s debut Hollywood film did not yield any good offers after it was released. Photo: AP Photo/BMW

Michelle Yeoh and Pierce Brosnan attend the “Tomorrow Never Dies” Hong Kong premiere in January 1998. Photo: SCMP

Michelle Yeoh in a still from “Tomorrow Never Dies”.

(From left) Zhang Ziyi, Michelle Yeoh and Gong Li in a still from “Memoirs of a Geisha” (2005).

Yeoh (third from right) in a still from “Memoirs of a Geisha”.

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Early in his career, Chinese-American actor Michael Wong was treated like a foreigner in the Hong Kong film industry because he did not know Cantonese
Dubbed over in Royal Warriors, starring Michelle Yeoh, and called ‘wooden and uninspired’, Wong went on to impress in subsequent crime movies such as Beast Cops


Michael Wong’s early films in Hong Kong saw the Chinese-American actor treated like a foreigner, and typecast as a cop after starring as one in the Michelle Yeoh vehicle Royal Warriors.
