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Profile | How Hong Kong star Francis Ng went from movie villain to top character actor
Francis Ng’s journey from background roles to Hong Kong cinema stardom showcases the actor’s versatility and enduring legacy
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This is the 57th instalment in a biweekly series profiling major Hong Kong pop culture figures of recent decades.
Francis Ng Chun-yu is a curious Hong Kong cinema statistic: despite being nominated six times for best actor at the Hong Kong Film Awards, the local industry’s highest honour, he has never won – even though he is one of the city’s most acclaimed and versatile performers in recent decades.
While his contemporaries like Tony Leung Chiu-wai and Lau Ching-wan have multiple statues to show for their efforts, Ng’s nominations for films that include the now-classic crime thriller sequel Infernal Affairs II (2003) have reaped no awards.
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Ng has built a fine career playing complex, often volatile characters. He is celebrated for his intense screen presence, and he is capable of stealing scenes with no more than an intimidating glare – as he did as a psychopathic gangster in the Young and Dangerous films in the 1990s.
His chameleonic range has seen him excel as everything from a conflicted police officer to a tender-hearted pilot to a homeless drug addict.
Born Ng Chi-keung in 1961, he had modest beginnings.
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