Profile of Sam Hui on Famous Like Me

Samuel Koon-kit Hui (許冠傑, pinyin: Xǔ Guànjié; born September 4, 1948) was a star in Cantopop and movie industry in Hong Kong's 1960s to 1990s. He and his brothers Michael and Ricky made several comedy blockbusters in the 1970s. Many credited Sam for popularizing Cantonese music into Cantopop that we are familiar with today, incorporating a hitherto then unknown practice of blending Western music and instrumental treatment into the Cantopop mainstream.

He started his career as a host to a youth music TV show on TVB. At the time, he was the lead musician of his band named The Lotus. In the early years of his career, he sang Western songs from Britain and the US. He started on Cantonese songs when he wrote and sang the theme songs for the comedy movies produced by his brother Michael Hui.

His music appealed to the Hong Kong masses and working class people with its simple lyrics and easy-on-the-ears nature which was the rage in Hong Kong music in the late 1970s. His style was undoubtedly unique as he penned most of the compositions and personally wrote most of the humorous lyrics that generally encompassed current issues in Hong Kong such as the song 话知你97 (Could Not Care Less About 1997) which literally encourages the Hong Kong public to throw caution to the wind and enjoy their life instead of worrying about the imminent takeover from China in 1997.

On a personal note, he was more closer to elder brother Ricky Hui as opposed to Michael Hui as they were said to have parted in high dudgeon since falling out with each other after their pre-1985 successes and have thereafter not featured together in any more films. The last film in which they both collaborated was 'Chicken and Duck Talk' in 1988 where Michael had only a short 3-minute cameo appearance.

Sam also collaborated with several popular singers like Leslie Cheung both musically and on the silver screen culminating in the hit single co-written by both Sam and Leslie Cheung titled 沉默是金 Silence is Golden which Leslie Cheung also sung in solo form and is a track in his album Hot Summer.Sam also starred in the Aces Go Places series of Hong Kong action–comedies in the 1980s, with Karl Maka.

He had a farewell concert in 1993 where he invited many other music celebrities and officially declared that he would not be active in the movie industry nor in Cantopop in the future.He was once seriously injured while filming an action movie in Tibet due to lack of oxygen, thereafter falling very ill and many of his fans pointed out that this near fatal accident may have a large bearing on his decision to call it quits as they believed that he was haunted by a spirit.

Despite all of these 'retirement' reiterations, Sam came back for a short stint in the movie Winner Takes All co-starring Nicholas Tse and Ruby Lin. This, he maintained then, was a result of desiring to do something which was closer to his heart and was something not easy to ignore.

Apparently, the life as a retiree from the entertainment industry in Hong Kong proved to be too uncomfortable for someone who was widely acknowledged as the "God of Song" in Hong Kong. He decided to come out of his retirement recently in 2004 and held many concerts where he was still warmly received from musically fickle Hong Kong public where every concert had a sold-out turnout. In these concerts, he cited the recent deaths of close colleagues, Leslie Cheung and Anita Mui in 2003 influenced his decision to retract his earlier retirement affirmation.

He recently performed in a concert in Kuala Lumpur on February 19 and February 20, 2005 with his sons and his brother Ricky Hui but has not made active plans for any follow-ups.

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