HONG KONG, July 14 — Veteran Hong Kong film producer Nansun Shi, whose career helped shape the city’s golden era of cinema, has died at the age of 75.

The Straits Times reported that Shi died on July 13 at the Hong Kong Sanatorium & Hospital, with Film Workshop, the production company she founded with her former husband and director Tsui Hark, confirming her death in a statement.

“Ms Shi had been in declining health since 2022 due to complications affecting her immune system,” the statement said in Chinese and English. 

“In recent months, recurrent infections resulted in multiple organ dysfunction. She was surrounded by her family and loved ones in her final moments.”

The company said details of her memorial and funeral arrangements would be announced later.

Shi was regarded as one of the most influential producers in Chinese-language cinema, with her name linked to acclaimed films including the A Better Tomorrow crime action series, A Chinese Ghost Story, the Once Upon A Time In China martial arts franchise and Infernal Affairs.

She entered the film industry in the early 1980s after previous careers in communications and television programming, telling The Straits Times in a 2014 interview that her move into film happened unexpectedly.

Shi said she became acquainted with Hong Kong producers including Raymond Wong and the late Dean Shek while considering her next career move, before eventually joining their production company Cinema City.

“I called Raymond up and asked, ‘What is this for?’,” she told ST. 

“And he said, ‘Oh, we are paying you. When you are ready, come to work.’ So the next day, I turned up for work.”

She later co-founded Film Workshop with Tsui in 1984, overseeing areas including production, budgeting and casting, while Tsui focused on writing and directing.

The pair, who met while working at Commercial Television in the 1970s, became one of Hong Kong cinema’s most prominent creative partnerships before registering their marriage in the United States in 1996.

Their relationship later ended, with Shi confirming their divorce in 2014, though they continued collaborating professionally, including on 2025 martial arts film Legends Of The Condor Heroes: The Gallants.

Shi and Tsui received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Hong Kong Film Awards in April 2025.

Shi’s final public appearance was in May, when she attended the funeral of fellow Hong Kong film producer Linda Kuk while using a walking stick.

She was later reported to have been in critical condition after several figures from the entertainment industry visited her in hospital.