Wong Jing
AKA: Wong Ching, Wang Jing
Gender: male
Born: 1956 (Hong Kong)
Biography: As primarily a writer and director of Hong Kong action and comedic films, Wong Jing is regarded as both a shrewd marketer who knows his audience and a purveyor of shamelessly irreverent and low brow cinema. Despite tabloid tales of female liaisons, Triad entanglements, and the highly critical opinions of his peers in the film community, Wong has remained a successful filmmaker with movies that guarantee sales.
Born and raised in Hong Kong, Wong developed an early interest in filmmaking. His father was a television director and he was a great fan of classic Cantonese film. After dropping out of college, Wong hung around studios, working as an assistant director. With his knowledge of film history and an uncanny ability to adapt to the fast-paced world of Hong Kong filmmaking, Wong was able to get his break in 1978 by writing Cunning Tendency. Only three years later, he would have his first directing credit on Challenge of the Gamesters (1981).
Over the years, Wong wrote and directed dozens of films that received little critical success, but were successful regardless. He developed a formula combining action, sex, parody, and crude jokes in popular films like Naked Killer (1992), Last Hero in China (1993), and High Risk (1995). Yet some of the real action was taking place behind the camera. Naked Killer starred Chingmy Yau Suk-Ching who Wong briefly had an affair with. Later on, he would end up in the hospital after a beating from Triads in retaliation for remarks he made about an actress associated with them. Even Jackie Chan was not immune to Wong's aura of off screen troubles. High Risk was essentially an extended and not-so-subtle jab at Chan after the two had squabbled over creative differences on the set of City Hunter (1993).
Regardless of critical opinion, Wong Jing has had a tremendous influence on the Hong Kong film industry. He nearly single-handedly spawned two genres including gambling films with the well received release of God of Gamblers in 1989 and Naked Killer which created a boom in category III (equivalent to NC-17) female action films. In the 21st century, Wong continues to direct, write, and act in films that draw as much money at the box office as they do derision from critics.
