Profile | ‘Every day I’m striving’: Hong Kong filmmaker Sandra Ng’s evolution from playing the ‘funny hag’ to lauded producer

Ng broke through in the late 1980s acting alongside Stephen Chow. Success followed with a string of comedies in the 90s, but she was typecast in ugly roles

She started producing films and taking on more serious roles, and awards followed – paving the way for a career that is very much alive today

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Sandra Ng at an interview with the Post in 2014. The respected Hong Kong actress and producer started out playing minor, unattractive roles in the 1980s, but carved a path to success through hard work and humility. Photo: SCMP

Ashlyn Chak

Published: 7:15am, 12 Apr 2024

This is the 22nd instalment in a biweekly series profiling major Hong Kong pop culture figures of recent decades.

Sandra Ng Kwan-yue has been a respected film actress and producer for so long, it may be easy to forget that she started as a comedian who was used to playing “unattractive” supporting roles on TV in the 1980s.

Ng was born in 1965 the daughter of actor and TV presenter Kenneth Ng Kam-tsun (better known as Ha Chun Chau), and attended the prestigious St Stephen’s Girls’ College, one of the oldest schools in Hong Kong. However, she was never very invested in school and flopped in her HKCEE high-school leaving exams.

With her father’s encouragement, the 17-year-old Ng joined Hong Kong terrestrial broadcaster TVB’s one-year drama training programme as part of the 1983 class, alongside other future stars including Lau Ching-wan and Carina Lau Ka-ling.

(From left) Philip Chan, Ng and Eric Tsang host the Miss Hong Kong beauty pageant in 1993. Photo: SCMP

Upon graduation, Ng quickly signed with TVB and made an impression on the variety show Enjoy Yourself Tonight. She took on mostly minor and background roles in TV dramas in the mid-1980s before switching to film at the end of the decade. But her hard work and patience were not for nought.

Her part in the 1988 action comedy The Inspector Wears Skirts earned Ng a best new performer nomination at the Hong Kong Film Awards the following year. Her first leading role arrived soon afterwards, alongside Stephen Chow Sing-chi in Jeffrey Lau Chun-wai’s Thunder Cops II (1989).

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Hong Kong’s pop culture icons

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Profile | ‘Every day I’m striving’: Hong Kong filmmaker Sandra Ng’s evolution from playing the ‘funny hag’ to lauded producer

Ng broke through in the late 1980s acting alongside Stephen Chow. Success followed with a string of comedies in the 90s, but she was typecast in ugly roles She started producing films and taking on more serious roles, and awards followed – paving the way for a career that is very much alive today