75岁 veteran Hong Kong film producer Shi Nansheng passed away on July 13. Ex-partner Tsui Hark returned to Hong Kong to see her off. Her estate goes to none of Tsui per her prior plan, sparking public discussion.
Late on the night of July 13, in a hospital room at Hong Kong’s Sanatorium & Hospital, 75-year-old Shi Nansheng breathed her last.
The passing of this award-winning producer came as a sudden shock. As the news spread, many people realized for the first time that she hadn’t been seen in public for quite some time.
In the 1970s and 1980s, the Hong Kong film industry was in the midst of a burgeoning boom. Shi Nansheng joined Tsui Hark in diving headfirst into the industry—from raising production funds to coordinating with theater chains for distribution, from handling the day-to-day logistics of the film crew to overseeing the entire project workflow—she single-handedly relied on sheer determination to help the then-unknown Tsui Hark transform a small, workshop-style production team into a film studio that would later become renowned throughout the Chinese-speaking film industry.
During the heyday of Hong Kong cinema, behind the scenes of classic films like *A Better Tomorrow* and the *Wong Fei-hung* series, she was always there, running back and forth and mediating.
To help Tsui Hark build his career, she voluntarily gave up her plans to have children when she was young and remained childless her entire life.
The two later divorced amicably, and their lives have long since had little overlap. Tsui Hark has started a new family, while she continues to work as a producer in Hong Kong on her own, still the same decisive and energetic Shi Nansheng.
When news of her serious illness spread, Tsui Hark, who had been living in Beijing for a long time, made a special trip back to Hong Kong to stay by her side outside her hospital room during the final days of her life.
After the news of his death was announced, a photo of Tsui Hark with reddened eyes circulated online. Some felt he was merely putting on an act to capitalize on the attention, while others remarked that he had finally made up for a debt he had owed for many years.
Public attention quickly turned to the distribution of the estate. The final settlement came as no surprise to most people—Tsui Hark, who had long since divorced, received no share of the estate.
Coming from a wealthy family himself, he didn’t need to worry about such things in the first place. Six years ago, Shi Nansheng had already drawn up her final arrangements; everything was taken care of perfectly, without a single misstep.
In the course of a lifetime, we inevitably find ourselves weighing others’ feelings time and again, and the feelings we failed to express in time may never truly have a chance to be made whole. By the end of our lives, what truly constitutes the sense of security we can hold onto—that’s a question to which each of us has our own answer.
