Tsui was born and raised in Saigon,Vietnam,to a large Chinese (Hoa) family with sixteen siblings.[3] 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. By the age of 13,he and his family immigrated to Hong Kong.[4]
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 changed his given name to Hark ("overcoming").
After graduation,Tsui moved to New York City,where he worked on From Spikes to Spindles (1976),a noted documentary film by Christine Choy on the history of the city's Chinatown. He also worked as an editor for a Chinese newspaper,developed a community theatre group and worked in a Chinese cable TV station. He returned to Hong Kong in 1977.
Career
1977-1981:New Wave period
Tsui returned to Hong Kong in 1977 and worked for TVB,[5] 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)[6] she put Tsui in charge of the martial arts drama,The Gold Dagger Romance,which marked him as a talent to watch.[7]
Producer Ng See-yuen saw Gold Dagger Romance and hired Tsui to direct his first feature,The Butterfly Murders (1979),[8] a technically challenging blend of wuxia,murder mystery and science fiction / fantasy elements. His second film,We're Going to Eat You (1980),was a blend of cannibal horror,black comedy and martial arts. He was quickly typed as a member of Hong Kong's "New Wave" of directors.
Tsui's third film,Dangerous Encounters of the First Kind (1980),was a nihilistic thriller about delinquent youths on a bombing spree. Heavily censored by the British colonial government,it was released in 1981 in a drastically altered version titled Dangerous Encounter –1st Kind (or alternatively,Don't Play with Fire). The movie out-grossed Tsui's previous two films,however and made him a darling of film critics with writers describing it as “one of those very rare films in the history of Hong Kong cinema that brims with accusation and subversion”and saying that it described “man as trapped animals —this is the popular theme of the New Wave and the one enduring image in their narratives.”[9]
1980s-2000s: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.[citation needed] 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.[citation needed]
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 longstanding and fruitful collaboration has probably been with Ching Siu-tung.[citation needed] 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'.[10] 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 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 the next month in Hong Kong.
2000s-Now:China-Hong Kong co-productions
Tsui Hark in 2008
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. Master Q 2001 was Hong Kong's first combination of live action and Pixar-style 3D computer animation. 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.
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.[11] 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 October 2011,Tsui received the Asian Filmmaker of the Year Award at the 16th Busan International Film Festival for his contributions to Hong Kong cinema. He is the fifth Chinese filmmaker to receive this award at Busan.[12]
Tsui Hark has been married twice. He was briefly married during his time studying in the U.S. in the 1970s,but the marriage ended in divorce. In 1977,he met Nansun Shi while working at Commercial Television,Hong Kong and they began dating a year later. In 1984,they founded a film studio,where Shi was responsible for financing,distribution,and promotion. The couple co-produced over a hundred films. In 1993,rumors circulated about Tsui's affair with Sally Yeh,allegedly causing a temporary split with Shi. In 1996,Tsui and Shi married in Beverly Hills,California. In 2008,Tsui was reported to have been living with Seven Swords (2005) actress Chen Jiajia in Beijing. When asked about their status of marriage,Shi then responded,"Let me give you a standard answer. I’ve been saying this for years:what happens between two people is private and doesn’t concern a third party."[16] By 2011,Tsui began dating his assistant,Lele,whom he had met online during the filming of Flying Swords of Dragon Gate (2011).[17][18] Shi announced their divorce in 2014,adding that Tsui and Lele had been together for some time.[19][20]
↑ 自由時報電子報 (4 July 2014). "徐克施南生終結18年婚 - 自由娛樂". ent.ltn.com.tw (in Chinese (Taiwan)). Archived from the original on 4 April 2024. Retrieved 4 April 2024.
Bordwell, David. Planet Hong Kong: Popular Cinema and the Art of Entertainment. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2000. ISBN0-674-00214-8.
Dannen, Fredric, and Barry Long. Hong Kong Babylon: The Insider's Guide to the Hollywood of the East. New York: Miramax, 1997. ISBN0-7868-6267-X.
Hampton, Howard. "Once Upon a Time in Hong Kong: Tsui Hark and Ching Siu-tung". Film Comment July–August 1997: pp.16–19 & 24–27.
Morton, Lisa. The Cinema of Tsui Hark. Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Company, Inc., 2001. ISBN0-7864-0990-8.
Teo, Stephen. Hong Kong Cinema: The Extra Dimensions. London: British Film Institute, 1997. ISBN0-85170-514-6.
Yang, Jeff, and Dina Gan, Terry Hong and the staff of A. magazine. Eastern Standard Time: A Guide to Asian Influence on American Culture. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997. ISBN0-395-76341-X.
A Chinese Ghost Story is a 1987 Hong Kong horror film starring Leslie Cheung, Joey Wong and Wu Ma, directed by Ching Siu-tung and produced by Tsui Hark. The plot is loosely based on a short story about Nie Xiaoqian from Qing dynasty writer Pu Songling's Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio and is also inspired by the 1960 Shaw Brothers Studio film The Enchanting Shadow. The film was popular in Hong Kong and several Asian countries, including South Korea and Japan. Although the film could not gain access to movie theaters in mainland China when it was first released, it became a cult film among young people in the mainland. At that time the film generated a phenomenal cult following among audiences, especially the generation born in the 1980s. In 2011, the Hong Kong producers screened a restored version officially in mainland China.
The Hong Kong New Wave is a film movement in Chinese-language Hong Kong cinema that emerged in the late 1970s and lasted through the early 2000s until the present time.
Brigitte Lin Ching-hsia is a Taiwanese actress. She is regarded as an icon of Chinese language cinema for her extensive and varied roles in both Taiwanese and Hong Kong films.
The One-Armed Swordsman is a 1967 Hong Kong wuxia film produced by the Shaw Brothers Studio. Directed by Chang Cheh, it was the first of the new style of wuxia films emphasizing male anti-heroes, violent swordplay and heavy bloodletting. It was the first Hong Kong film to make HK$1 million at the local box office, propelling its star Jimmy Wang to super stardom.
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Seven Swords is a 2005 wuxia film produced and directed by Tsui Hark, starring Donnie Yen, Leon Lai, Charlie Yeung, Sun Honglei, Lu Yi and Kim So-yeon. An international co-production between Hong Kong, China, South Korea and the Netherlands, the story is loosely adapted from Liang Yusheng's novel Qijian Xia Tianshan and is completely unrelated to the novel except for some characters' names. Seven Swords was used as the opening film to the 2005 Venice Film Festival and as a homage to Akira Kurosawa's 1954 film Seven Samurai.
Lau Kar-leung was a Hong Kong martial artist, filmmaker, actor, and fight choreographer. He is best known for the films he made in the 1970s and 1980s for the Shaw Brothers Studio. His most famous works include The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (1978) starring Gordon Liu as well as Drunken Master II (1994) starring Jackie Chan.
James Wang Yu was a Hong Kong-Taiwanese martial artist, actor, film director, producer, and screenwriter. Initially a contract player for Shaw Brothers, he rose to fame for his starring role in The One-Armed Swordsman (1967) and its sequels, and was one of the first major stars of martial arts and wuxia cinema. At the height of his fame in the 1970s, he was the highest-paid martial arts actor in the world. According to The New York Times, Wang was "the biggest star of Asian martial arts cinema until the emergence of Bruce Lee."
Ching Siu-tung, also known as Tony Ching, is a Hong Kong action choreographer, actor, film director and producer, who has directed over 20 films, including the critically acclaimed supernatural fantasy A Chinese Ghost Story (1987). He produced the expensive music video for "L'Âme-stram-gram" by the French singer Mylène Farmer in the style of A Chinese Ghost Story at a cost of €1 million. He studied in the Eastern Drama Academy and trained in Northern Style Kung Fu for 7 years.
Zu Warriors from the Magic Mountain is a 1983 Hong Kong supernatural wuxia fantasy film directed by Tsui Hark and based on the xianxia novel Legend of the Swordsmen of the Mountains of Shu by Huanzhulouzhu. The film has been noted for combining elements of Hong Kong action cinema with special effects technology provided by a team of Western artists including Robert Blalack. It served as an influence for the 1986 American film Big Trouble in Little China.
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The Swordsman, also known as Swordsman, is a 1990 Hong Kong wuxia film. King Hu was credited as the director but allegedly left the project midway, and the film was completed by a team led by producer Tsui Hark. The film is loosely adapted from Louis Cha's novel The Smiling, Proud Wanderer. The film was followed by two sequels: Swordsman II (1992) and The East Is Red (1993).
Nansun Shi is a Hong Kong film producer and executive, known for her long-time partnership with director Tsui Hark.
Film Workshop Co. Ltd., is a Hong Kong production company and film distributor. It was founded in April 1984 by producer/director Tsui Hark and his now ex-wife, Nansun Shi. Already a director with box office hits, Tsui wanted to create a workshop where the foremost filmmakers could work on films with artistic merit, and at the same time, films that could be commercially rewarding for the financiers behind his projects. The company has not produced a film since 2017.
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The Sword Stained with Royal Blood is a 1993 Hong Kong wuxia film based on Louis Cha's novel Sword Stained with Royal Blood. The film was written, produced and directed by Cheung Hoi-ching and stars Yuen Biao, Sharla Cheung, Danny Lee, Ng Man-tat and Anita Yuen
The East Is Red, is a 1993 Hong Kong wuxia film. The main character in the film is loosely based on Dongfang Bubai, a character in Louis Cha's novel The Smiling, Proud Wanderer. The film was produced by Tsui Hark, was co-directed by Ching Siu-tung and Raymond Lee and starred Brigitte Lin, Joey Wong and Yu Rongguang. The film is regarded as a sequel to The Swordsman and Swordsman II.
Flying Swords of Dragon Gate is a 2011 wuxia film directed by Tsui Hark and starring Jet Li, Zhou Xun, Chen Kun, Li Yuchun, Gwei Lun-mei, Louis Fan and Mavis Fan. The film is a remake of Dragon Gate Inn (1966) and New Dragon Gate Inn (1992) but takes place three years after. Production started on 10 October 2010 and is filmed in 3-D. The film screened out of competition at the 62nd Berlin International Film Festival in February 2012. The film was nominated for eight awards at the 2012 Asian Film Awards and won two: Best Visual Effects and Best Costume Design.
Happy Ghost III is a 1986 Hong Kong comedy film directed by Johnnie To. Produced and written by Raymond Wong, the film stars Wong and Maggie Cheung. This is the third installment in the "Happy Ghost" series, the film is far more frenetically paced than the first two and its much more a film for adults.
Stephen Tung Wai is a Hong Kong action choreographer, actor, and film director. He began his career as a stuntman at the age of sixteen and transitioned into action choreography in the 1970s. Tung has collaborated extensively with directors John Woo, Tsui Hark, and Wong Kar-wai, contributing to films such as A Better Tomorrow (1986) and Hard Boiled (1992), The Blade (1995) and The Battle at Lake Changjin (2021), and As Tears Go By (1988) and 2046 (2004). Tung won Best Action Choreography in the Hong Kong Film Awards seven times with Downtown Torpedos (1997), Purple Storm (1999), The Accidental Spy (2001), Seven Swords (2005), Bodyguards and Assassins (2009), Kung Fu Jungle (2014), Operation Mekong (2016), and Bursting Point (2023), making him the most awarded individual in this category.
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