Kwei grew up on the Shaw Brothers backlot, living in studio-subsidized housing with his family, where he counted Hong Kong filmmakers Chang Cheh (co-director on Kuei"s The Delinquent), Ching Gang, father of Tony Ching Siu-Tung (A Chinese Ghost Story) and Derek Yee Tung-sing (Protege) as neighbors.
After relocating to the United States with his family in the 1980s, Kwei attended Saint Michael’s, a Catholic boys boarding school in southern Orange County, California.
“Shaw kept everybody in their little kingdom,” Kwei told The Hollywood Reporter in 2011. “Directors in one block and stars in the next building. My mother was a Foley artist and I was used to coconut shells, buckets of gravel and doors that led nowhere on a sound stage.
My math tutor was the projectionist.
I grew up there."
His father discouraged Kwei to pursue a career in film. Nonetheless, while working part-time at his father"s pizza store, Kwei was accepted into the film program at the University of California, Irvine.
After graduating from the university, Kwei became active in the industry, first as a personal assistant to Jet Li on such popular movies as Hero, Romeo Must Die and Kiss of the Dragon. From 2005 to 2008, he was the director of development for Warner China Film.
Currently based in Los Angeles and Beijing, he was one of the producing teams spearheading the hit 2009 comedy, Sophie"s Revenge, starring Zhang Ziyi.
His most recent production, My Lucky Star, a follow-up to Sophie"s Revenge, starring Zhang and popular star Leehom Wang, was released internationally in September 2013. lieutenant is the first Chinese-language production to be directed by an American woman (Dennie Gordon) and was the Number. 1 film during its opening weekend in China.
Kwei co-produced with Ling Lucas, William Cheng, Zhang Ziyi, Jonathan Hua Language Lim and Second Chan.
Kwei also received a story cr along with writer Amy Snow and director Gordon. In December 2013, Kwei participated in a seminar on the future of the Asian film industry at the 54th annual Asia-Pacific Film Festival in Macau.
