Hong Kong producer Nansun Shi, whose credits include John Woo’s A Better Tomorrow, Andrew Lau and Alan Mak’s Infernal Affairs and multiple films with Tsui Hark, has died aged 75. 

Film Workshop, the iconic Hong Kong production house she co-founded with director-producer Tsui Hark, sent out this statement: 

“We are deeply saddened to announce the passing of Ms. Nansun Shi, who died peacefully at Hong Kong Sanatorium & Hospital on Monday, 13 July 2026, at 20:51. She was 75. 

Ms. Shi had been in declining health since 2022 due to complications affecting her immune system. In recent months, recurrent infections resulted in multiple organ dysfunction. She was surrounded by her family and loved ones in her final moments. 

Details regarding memorial and funeral arrangements will be announced in due course.”

One of the leading producers of Hong Kong cinema’s golden era in the 1980s, Shi was also one of the architects of its revival in the early 2000s, spearheading the first film in the Infernal Affairs trilogy, which was remade by Martin Scorsese as The Departed. Her early credits include such seminal Hong Kong movies as Woo’s A Better Tomorrow and The Killer and Tsui’s Once Upon A Time In China. Most recently she produced Tsui’s 2025 Lunar New Year hit Legend Of The Condor Heroes: The Gallants. 

Born in Hong Kong and educated there and in the UK, Shi started her career working for broadcasters TVB and Rediffusion Television in the mid-1970s before becoming one of the founding members of the Cinema City production collective alongside Raymond Wong, Karl Maka and Dean Shek in 1981. Affectionately known as “Housekeeper”, Shi quickly established her strengths in development strategy, production management and international distribution. Her credits during this time included classic Hong Kong comedies Till Death Do We Scare (1982), Aces Go Places II (1983), The Trail (1983) and Merry Christmas (1984).

In 1984, Shi launched Film Workshop with Tsui Hark, through which she produced Tsui’s Shanghai Blues and Once Upon A Time In China series, along with Woo’s A Better Tomorrow, one of the major classics of Hong Kong action cinema, starring Chow Yun-fat and produced with Tsui.

Renowned as a trailblazer and innovator in the Hong Kong film industry, Shi was one of the first local producers to set up international distribution networks as well as one of the first to shoot in mainland China when the two film industries had little contact with each other. 

In 2002, Peter Lam invited her to join Media Asia Group as Vice President, where she produced the first film in the Infernal Affairs trilogy, starring Andy Lau and Tony Leung Chiu-wai. Shi also worked with Beijing-based Bona Film Group on films including the Overheard series, The Great Magician and Venice award-winning film A Simple Life. From 2007, she also headed up international sales agency Distribution Workshop, backed by Bona Film Group and co-founded with Jeffrey Chan. 

While working with other companies, Shi kept Film Workshop running as a separate entity, producing several films directed by Tsui over the years, including the Detective Dee series, Flying Swords Of Dragon Gate, Seven Swords and The Legend Of Zu. Shi and Tsui were married between 1996 and 2014. 

A member of the main competition jury at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, Shi was honored by France’s Ministry of Culture which made her an Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters in 2013. 

Among the many other honors received, Shi was presented with Locarno Film Festival’s Premio Raimondo Rezzonico for Best Independent Producer in 2014; the Golden Mulberry Life Achievement Award from Udine Far East Film Festival in 2015; the Berlinale Camera Award in 2017; the International Contribution to Chinese Cinema Award at Pingyao International Film Festival in 2019; and the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Hong Kong Film Awards in 2025. 

Tributes are starting to come in, and we will update this story regularly as we receive them… 

The UK’s Culture Secretary has publicly signaled that she backs an expansion of the BBC license fee to include subscribers to streamers like Netflix, Disney+ and Prime Video.

Lisa Nandy floated a range of ways in which the £180 ($240) annual fee could be revamped to more strongly incorporate the SVoDs, a plan that has already drawn the ire of the Motion Picture Association representing U.S. streamers and studios.

With charter renewal and a new BBC funding model approaching imminently, the BBC has argued the license fee could be expanded to cover households that watch non-live content via streaming services. At present, only those who watch live output like Netflix’s WWE coverage or the Champions League on Prime Video have to pay, and collection rates for this group are low.

Nandy suggested to the Culture, Media and Sport Committee for the first time that those who watch both the BBC and streamers could pay the license fee, while those who only watch the streamers may pay a smaller charge, while there could be “targeted concessions for people who need them.”

If the license fee scope expanded, Nandy said there is even potential to “cut the cost of the license fee for everybody.” She stressed that many ideas remain in play and those she is floating are “not a secret plot.” “We are having an open conversation with the pubic, parliament and the BBC about this,” she added.

Going into the charter renewal negotiations, the BBC has repeatedly stressed that while 94% of the UK population use its services every month, fewer than 80% pay the £180, leading to a loss of hundreds of millions of pounds per year.

Nandy’s thinking is that the streamers in the UK benefit massively from BBC shows, infrastructure and staff, an argument that vaguely echoes the “Netflix TV tourists” debate from last year’s Edinburgh TV Festival. “At some point everything comes back to the BBC in this country and they should be shouting about that,” she added.

Nandy has had conversations with the streamers over all of these ideas and “they can speak for themselves” regarding a response,” she said, while stressing that the government continues to rule out a streamer levy in the UK, an idea taken up by several other nations that would see the SVoDs pay a small amount of their UK subscription revenue to a cultural fund for British content.

“[The streamers] would be reluctant to see additional charges on their consumers, but I think they would be more reluctant to see additional charges on their businesses,” she added. “We don’t want to deter investment to the UK. Some of the biggest streaming companies are here investing in very big numbers right across the country partly because of British creativity, partly because of the BBC but also because everyone is on the hunt for locally rooted stories with universal appeal and the UK is brilliant at that.”

While the BBC provides advantages to the U.S. giants in the UK, Nandy backed concerns that the corporation is spending too much on American acquistions like Scooby Doo, a practice that new Director General Matt Brittin said last week is being reviewed.

Layoffs announcement was “somewhat strange”

Nandy also addressed the thousands of BBC layoffs that are being implemented at present, which have led her to have conversations with BBC leadership, unions and workplace reps.

She said it is “somewhat strange” that the mega cuts were announced by the interim Director General prior to Brittin taking up his post in May.

Her concern is that the plan to slash costs by £500M over the next three years will damage the work that was done by Brittin’s predecessor Tim Davie to devolve power outside of London.

EXCLUSIVE: Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS), the Japanese company behind the Ninja Warrior format, and A. Smith & Co. Productions, which produces the U.S. version for NBC, have teamed up again on another competition series.

The two companies are developing Dumb Luck, a series based on Japanese format Kisuke, for the U.S.

They have already produced a two-hour special that aired in Japan that won its time slot before shopping the project to U.S. buyers.

The series is based entirely on chance. A group of lucky contestants, who require no smarts, zero skill and absolutely no strength or stamina, are pitted against each other in rounds of luck-based obstacles where they pick their poison and pray they avoid the predetermined punishment, which could include freezing water, electric shocks and explosive flour cannons.

Dumb Luck was spearheaded by TBS International, the company’s U.S. arm, which has been ramping up its efforts in the States. It recently hired Elwin de Groot, who co-created Fox music competition series The Four, as Senior Non-Fiction Development Executive.

Kisuke launched in Japan in 2024, initially as a segment on its daily morning variety program Love It! before it was expanded out. The special was produced by Yoshimi Ito and Takuma Inoue with Haruhiko Yasuoka as chief director.

“As it happens, Kisuke’s evolution was far from luck,” said Goshu Segawa, VP, TBS International. “We saw its universality, comedy-based nature and ability to offer something quite different in today’s market. We quickly decided that A. Smith & Co. were the ideal partners for developing Dumb Luck and believe it will win over American audiences just as Ninja Warrior has.”

“We’re always looking to push boundaries in unscripted formats, and Dumb Luck does that with its fresh and wildly fun take on competition television that’s driven by the one thing no one can predict: chance,” added Eli Baldrige, EVP of Development at A. Smith & Co. Productions. “TBS and A. Smith have a longstanding track record of creating shows that connect, entertain and sustain, and we’re excited to once again partner to bring this show and its bold, comedic energy to life for U.S. audiences.”