Ng Kwan Lai made her first film in 1955, starring alongside Yam Kim Fai and Pak Suet Sin in The Model and the Girl. This was the same year that she appeared on stage with Sun Ma Si Tsang in A Bitter Revenge, in which she dazzled in the role of the Queen of Yue, who remained a staunch supporter of her imprisoned husband despite suffering the same fate.

Between 1955 and 1967, Ng appeared in over 150 operatic and modern-dress films, mostly alongside male leads such as Yam Kim Fai, Sun Ma Si Tsang, Law Kim Long, Cheung Ying Choi and Wu Fung. Of these films, How Leung Hung Yuk’s War Drum Caused the Jin Troops to Retreat, The Beauty’s Grave, Two Immortals at the Pavilion of the Moon, Lee Sam Neung, Uproar in Jade Hall, Lust is the Worst Vice, and Who Should be the Commander-in-chief were originally successful stage productions that were adapted for the silver screen. In 1960, her film The Unroyal Prince was one of that year’s top box office hits.

Ng also starred in quite a large number of modern-dress films, including Whatever You Say, My Darling Wife, The Rebellion, The Big Revenge, and The Bridge. River of Mandarin Duck, made in 1960, broke box office records in Singapore. In 1962, Ng founded the Sun Lai Sing Film Company to make her own productions, the best known of which was The Widow, adapted from a radio play broadcast on Commercial Radio about the misfortunes of a young girl. In 1964, she appeared on stage in Singapore and Malaysia to promote the premiere of her film The Factory Rose, when she sang her most famous arias and performed numbers such as the Double Sword Dance and the Fan Dance as well as instrumental solos on the Chinese zither and zheng – to the great delight of the audience. During the 1960s, Ng was awarded the Wah Kiu Man Po Golden Globe Award several times as one of the top ten Mandarin and Cantonese film stars – adding further glory to her already impressive record.