By Gabriel Chong | 30 September 2010

When film scholars look back at the Hong Kong film industry, no director could have claimed to have left a more indelible mark than Tsui Hark (pronounced ‘choy hark’). The man once dubbed ‘the Spielberg of Asia’ has produced and/or directed some of the most iconic films of Golden Age of Hong Kong cinema in the 80s and 90s and in doing so, created new genres like the fantasy ‘wuxia pian’ that have since won fans all over the world.

Besides introducing new genres, Tsui Hark is also credited for being the founding father of the special effects and animation industries in Hong Kong- thanks to his films “Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain” (1983) and “A Chinese Ghost Story: The Animated Movie” (1997) respectively. Yet the director regarded as the best and brightest hope for Hong Kong cinema has of late been a shadow of his former self.

In the past decade, the once-prolific Tsui Hark has produced and directed more duds than hits- “The Legend of Zu” (2001) and “Missing” (2008) the notable misfires. Even his ‘wuxia’ opus “Seven Swords” (2005) failed to live up to expectations, and any film bearing the title “a Tsui Hark film” on the poster was greeted with more apprehension than anticipation. It has been two years since his last film- the inconsequential comedy “All About Women” (2008)- and Tsui Hark is back with a big-budget period action spectacle that looks set to restore the lustre he has lost over the years.

“Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame” (2010) debuted to positive reviews at the recently concluded Venice Film Festival, where it was in competition for the top prize of the Golden Lion. It didn’t win, but it was enough to convince critics- us included- that Tsui Hark may just have gotten his mojo back. Considering how “Detective Dee” boasts the elements of classic Tsui Hark films- wuxia, murder mystery, supernatural fantasy- this homecoming is all the sweeter.

As we await the arrival of “Detective Dee” in cinemas this week, we look back at the long and illustrious history of Tsui Hark, a trip down memory lane that anyone who has ever been a fan of Hong Kong cinema will undoubtedly find nostalgic.


The Cinema City Days

Many of the biggest Hong Kong blockbusters in the 80s came from a studio called Cinema City, founded by Raymond Wong, Karl Maka and Dean Shek. Tsui Hark joined Cinema City in 1981 and immediately struck box-office gold with the comedy “All the Right Clues for the Wrong Solution” (1981) as well as the third Aces Go Places movie, “Our Man from Bond Street” (1984).”

“By then, Tsui was already regarded as one of the “New Wave” directors in Hong Kong cinema. His feature film debut was The Butterfly Murders (1979), a unique blend of the kind of elements in “Detective Dee”. Just as distinctive were his follow-ups, “We’re Going to Eat You” (1980) and “Dangerous Encounter of the First Kind” (1980) which made him the darling of film critics pushing for change in the industry.

Some called him a sell-out when he joined Cinema City and started making commercial films, but Tsui remained an iconoclastic director. He imported Hollywood technicians to help create the special effects in the 1983 wuxia fantasy “Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain” (1983) and by doing so led the charge of CGI into an industry then way behind its Hollywood contemporaries.

Starting the Film Workshop

With his wife and long-time collaborator Nansun Shi, Tsui Hark started his own production company Film Workshop in 1984. Tsui’s first film under his own production house was “Shanghai Blues” (1984), possibly the first non-action comedy with an all-female cast. The film was nominated for Best Film at the Hong Kong Film Awards (HKFA) that year, and Tsui for Best Director .

Tsui said of Film Workshop’s maiden venture: “My thinking was that we should try something else, so we did a non-action comedy with an all-female cast. Women were rarely given significant roles before this movie. But I said, "This is quite a boring thought, we should try something away from the ideas that have been established." The film was not greenlighted by the company I was working for at that time (New Cinema City), so that's why we formed Film Workshop.”

At Film Workshop, Tsui took charge of the creative and production side of things while Nansun supervised financials and distribution. Film Workshop hit the ground running, churning out hit after hit at a brisk pace. But Film Workshop’s runaway success came with John Woo’s A Better Tomorrow (1986), which they co-produced with Cinema City.


Ranked #2 on the list of Best 100 Chinese motion pictures by the HKFA, it broke box-office records in its time and created easily the most iconic role in Chow Yun-Fat’s career. Forever a watershed film for the hardboiled triad film genre, it was followed by the troubled sequel A Better Tomorrow 2 (1987). Not only did Cinema City fall apart afterwards, it led to fallout between John Woo and Tsui Hark- hence Tsui’s takeover of directorial reins in the third instalment, A Better Tomorrow III: Love and Death in Saigon (1989).

Breaking New Ground and Revisiting Old Ones

With his own production company, Tsui had the creative latitude to make the films he wanted, especially when it came to experimenting with genres. He produced A Chinese Ghost Story (1987)- directed by his long-time action director/ collaborator Tony Ching Siu-tung- which introduced the ‘ghost romance’ genre to Hong Kong audiences. But even as he was breaking new ground for the industry, he was also revisiting the classics to put his own stamp on them. .

Peking Opera Blues (1985) paid tribute to the tradition of Peking Opera Tsui grew up with, The Swordsman (1990) and its Jet Li-Brigitte Lin sequel Swordsman 2 (1992) revived the classic wuxia genre, and Blade (1995) was a bloody anti-heroic remake of the 1967 The One-Armed Swordsman. Still, Tsui will probably best be remembered for his take on the martial arts folk hero Wong Fei-Hung in his career-defining masterpiece, Once Upon a Time in China (1991). Credited for starting the martial arts craze in the early 90s, the film ran for two months in cinemas and won Tsui a Best Director award at the HKFA.

The inevitable sequel followed, another equally successful movie that was most notable for the climactic fight scene between Jet Li’s Wong Fei-hung and Donnie Yen’s corrupt Manchu official. Another sequel with Jet Li followed, before Tsui would make yet another two less successful movies with Chiu Mun-Cheok taking over the lead role and retiring the series with Once Upon A Time in China and America (1996) which he produced and Sammo Hung directed. The franchise would probably be forever remembered as the landmark of Tsui’s career- as well as probably that of Jet Li’s .

TSUI HARK Once Upon A Time In Hong Kong continues...