Tsui Hark

Tsui Man-kong (, ), known professionally as Tsui Hark (, , born 15 February 1951), is a Vietnamese-born Hong Kong filmmaker. A major figure of the Hong Kong New Wave, Tsui gained critical and commercial success with films such as Zu Warriors from the Magic Mountain, the Once Upon a Time in China film series (1991–97), Green Snake (1993), The Lovers (1994), and The Blade (1995). His credits as a writer and producer include A Better Tomorrow (1986), A Chinese Ghost Story (1987), The Killer (1989), Swordsman II (1992), New Dragon Gate Inn (1992), The Wicked City (1992), Iron Monkey (1993), and Black Mask (1996).

Amid the Hong Kong handover, Tsui briefly pursued a career in the United States, directing the Jean-Claude Van Damme–led films Double Team (1997) and Knock Off (1998), before returning to Hong Kong. Since the early 2000s, he has shifted to Mainland–Hong Kong co-productions and found success with blockbusters such as the Detective Dee film series, Flying Swords of Dragon Gate (2011), The Taking of Tiger Mountain (2014), and The Battle at Lake Changjin (2021).

Early life and education Tsui was born in Saigon, French Indochina, to a large Hoa Chinese family with 16 siblings. He was moved by his father to Guangzhou, China as a child, and grew up there until immigrating to Hong Kong when he turned 14. Tsui showed an early interest in show business and films; when he was 10, he and some friends rented an 8mm camera to film a magic show they put on at school. He also drew comic books, an interest that would influence his cinematic style.

Tsui started his secondary education in Hong Kong in 1966. He proceeded to study film in Texas, first at Southern Methodist University and then at the University of Texas at Austin, graduating in 1975. He claims to have told his parents he wanted to follow in his father's footsteps as a pharmacist, and that it was here he adopted the stage name Hark (克; "overcoming"). the dominant local television station, then moved to its rival, CTV, lured by its general manager Selina Chow. Viewed as having an eye for talent (numerous future New Wave directors got their first directing gigs under Chow) she put Tsui in charge of the martial arts drama, The Gold Dagger Romance, which marked him as a talent to watch.

Producer Ng See-yuen saw Gold Dagger Romance and hired Tsui to direct his first feature, The Butterfly Murders (1979),

1980s–1990s: Golden era In 1981, Tsui joined Cinema City & Films Co., a production company founded by comedians Raymond Wong, Karl Maka and Dean Shek. Cinema City & Films Co. was instrumental in codifying the slick Hong Kong blockbuster films of the 1980s. Tsui played his part in the process with pictures like the crime farce All the Wrong Clues (1981), his first hit, and Aces Go Places 3 (1984), part of the studio's long-running spy spoof series.

In 1983, Tsui directed the wuxia fantasy film Zu Warriors from the Magic Mountain (1983) for the studio Golden Harvest. Tsui imported Hollywood technicians to help create special effects whose number and complexity were unprecedented in Chinese-language cinema.

In 1984, Tsui formed the production company Film Workshop with Nansun Shi. He also developed a reputation as a hands-on and even intrusive producer of other directors' work, fuelled by public breaks with major filmmakers like John Woo and King Hu. His most famous collaboration has probably been with Ching Siu-tung. As action choreographer and/or director on many Film Workshop productions, Ching made a major contribution to the well-known Tsui style.

Film Workshop releases became consistent box office hits in Hong Kong and around Asia, drawing audiences with their visual adventurousness, their broad commercial appeal, and hectic camerawork and pace. With Tsui having been called the 'Steven Spielberg of Asia', Film Workshop became the 'Amblin of Hong Kong'. He produced John Woo's A Better Tomorrow (1986), which launched a craze for Heroic bloodshed movies, and Ching Siu-tung's A Chinese Ghost Story (1987), which did the same for period ghost fantasies. Zu Warriors from the Magic Mountain and The Swordsman (1990) birthed the modern-day special effects industry in Hong Kong.

In fact, Tsui's "movie brat" nostalgia is one of the main ingredients in his work. He often resurrects and revises classic films and genres: the murder mystery in The Butterfly Murders (1979); the Shanghai musical comedy in Shanghai Blues (1985). Peking Opera Blues (1986) plays with and pays tribute to the traditions of the Peking opera that his mother took him to see as a small boy and which had such a strong influence on Hong Kong action cinema. The Lovers (1994) adapts a retold, cross-dressing period romance, best known from Li Han-hsiang's 1963 opera film The Love Eterne. A Chinese Ghost Story remakes Li's supernatural romance The Enchanting Shadow (1959) as a special effects action movie.

The pattern is also seen in perhaps Tsui's most successful work to date, the Once Upon a Time in China film series (1991–97). Jet Li played the role of Chinese folk hero Wong Fei-hung in the first three films and the sixth, Once Upon a Time in China and America. This series is the clearest expression in his oeuvre of Tsui's Chinese nationalism and his passionate engagement with the upheavals of Chinese history, particularly in the face of Western power and influence.

Tsui also dabbled in acting, mostly for other directors. Notable roles include one-third of the comic relief trio in Corey Yuen's film Yes, Madam! (1985) and a villain in Patrick Tam's darkly comic crime story Final Victory (1987), written by Wong Kar-wai. He also made frequent cameo appearances in his own productions, such as a music judge in A Better Tomorrow and a phony FBI agent in Aces Go Places II.

In the face of an industry downturn in the '90s, he directed and produced two expensive movies. Green Snake (1993) was a poetic and lyric movie based on a favourite Chinese fairy tale. The Blade (1995) was a gory, deliberately rough-hewn revision of the 1967 wuxia classic The One-Armed Swordsman.

In the mid-to-late '90s, Tsui tried Hollywood with two films starring Jean-Claude Van Damme: Double Team (1997) and Knock Off (1998). In 2002, he made Black Mask 2: City of Masks, an American market sequel to Jet Li's 1996 film. It was released direct-to-video in the United States in December of that year before being theatrically released in 2003 in Hong Kong.

2000s–present: China-Hong Kong co-productions

Tsui returned to directing at home in 2000 after not having made a local film since 1996. Time and Tide (2000) and The Legend of Zu (2001) were action extravaganzas with lavish computer-generated imagery that gained cult admirers but no mass success.

Tsui continues to push technical boundaries and revise old favourites. Old Master Q 2001 was Hong Kong's first combination of live action and Pixar-style 3D computer animation. The Era of Vampires (2002; US title, "Tsui Hark's Vampire Hunters") reworked a subgenre popular in the '80s, hybrid martial arts / supernatural horror films featuring the "hopping corpses" of Chinese folk legend. He also directed a short film in 2003, titled Believe It or Not, which was part of the 1:99 Shorts, featuring 11 segments of short films made by various directors and featured many Hong Kong actors to raise awareness against the 2002–2004 SARS outbreak. The following year Tsui also produced a martial arts filmed named Xanda.

In 2005, Tsui launched the multimedia production Seven Swords, a film adaptation of Liang Yusheng's novels Saiwai Qixia Zhuan and Qijian Xia Tianshan. The film came with a television series counterpart (Seven Swordsmen), a comic book series, a cellphone game, clothing brand, and an online multi-player video game. The film was relatively successful, and in February 2006 Tsui announced plans to begin filming the second late in the year. As of 2008, Tsui continues to work on the script for Seven Swords 2 in between filming projects. In 2011 there has been no news nor plans about a Seven Swords 2. Rumors has it that due to lack of interest by the filmmakers of finishing the hexalogy lead the project into being cancelled.

In August 2008, Tsui provided art direction for the direct-to-video anime feature titled Kungfu Master (a.k.a. Wong Fei Hong vs Kungfu Panda), an apparent unofficial sequel to Kung Fu Panda, featuring Chinese folk hero Wong Fei-hung. He also directed the 2008 thriller Missing starring Angelica Lee and the 2008 romantic comedy film All About Women featuring comic graphics and extensive ADR dubbing.

Tsui's latest work in 2010 is Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame, a rare but successful blend of wuxia, suspense-thriller, mystery, and comedy, which was in competition for the Golden Lion award and was also nominated and won numerous other awards.

In 2010, he announced his first 3-D film, The Flying Swords of Dragon Gate, which is a re-imagining of his 1992 film New Dragon Gate Inn starring Tony Leung Ka-Fai, Maggie Cheung and Brigitte Lin. In 2011, Huayi Brothers announced that Tsui will be making a prequel to Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame; shot in 3-D, it was released in 2013 as Young Detective Dee: Rise of the Sea Dragon.

His film The Taking of Tiger Mountain premiered in China in December 2014.

Tsui worked on a film with Milkyway Image alongside Ann Hui, Ringo Lam, Patrick Tam, Johnnie To, Sammo Hung and Yuen Woo-Ping. Each director created a segment based on Hong Kong history. The completed film, Septet: The Story of Hong Kong, was shown at the Busan International Film Festival on 21 October 2020 and at the annual Hong Kong International Film Festival in April 2021.

In 2021, Tsui co-directed The Battle at Lake Changjin with Chen Kaige and Dante Lam. The film is the most expensive film ever produced in China, the highest-grossing Chinese film of all time, and the highest-grossing non-English film. By 2011, Tsui began dating his assistant, Lele, whom he had met online during the filming of Flying Swords of Dragon Gate (2011). Shi announced their divorce in 2014, adding that Tsui and Lele had been together for some time.

Filmography

Film

Producer only

Acting roles

Other production credits Year TitleDirector Notes 1983 All the Wrong SpiesTeddy Robin Production designer 1986 Righting WrongsCorey Yuen Action choreographer

Television Year Title Director Writer Producer Notes 1986 Spirit Chaser Aisha Considered lost 1995–96 Wong Fei Hung Series Episodes "The Final Victory" and "The Ideal Century" 2005–06 Seven Swordsmen

Awards and nominations Golden Horse Awards YearCategoryWorkResult 1981 Best Director All the Wrong Clues for the Right Solution 1992 Best Adapted Screenplay Swordsman II 1994 Best Adapted Screenplay The Lovers 1997 Best Adapted Screenplay A Chinese Ghost Story: The Tsui Hark Animation 2005 Best Adapted Screenplay Seven Swords 2015 Best Director The Taking of Tiger Mountain

Hong Kong Film Awards YearCategoryWorkResult 1985 Best Film Shanghai Blues Best Director 1987 Best Film A Better Tomorrow Best Action Choreography Righting Wrongs 1988 Best Film A Chinese Ghost Story Best Supporting Actor Final Victory 1990 Best FilmThe Killer 1992 Best Film Once Upon a Time in China Best Director 1993 Best Film Once Upon a Time in China II Best Director 1995 Best Director The Lovers 2006 Best Film Seven Swords Best Director 2011 Best Film Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame Best Director 2012 Best Film Flying Swords of Dragon Gate Best Director 2016 Best Director The Taking of Tiger Mountain

Explanatory notes