Ann Hui
| Ann Hui | |||||||||||||||||
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 Ann Hui answering questions following a screening of The Way We Are at the Broadway Cinematheque in Yau Ma Tei. |
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| Chinese name | 許鞍華 (Traditional) | ||||||||||||||||
| Chinese name | 许鞍华 (Simplified) | ||||||||||||||||
| Born | 23 May 1947 Anshan, Liaoning |
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| Years active | 1979 - present | ||||||||||||||||
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Awards
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Ann Hui On-Wah, MBE (simplified Chinese: 许鞍华; traditional Chinese: 許鞍華; pinyin: Xǔ Ānhuá; Hepburn: Kyo Anka; born 23 May 1947 to a Chinese father and a Japanese mother) is a Hong Kong film director, film producer and occasional screenwriter, one of the most critically acclaimed amongst the Hong Kong New Wave.
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[edit] Early life
Hui was born in Anshan, Liaoning, China and she moved to Macau, then to Hong Kong when she was five. She studied in St. Paul's Convent School. She studied English language and literature and comparative literary studies in the University of Hong Kong until 1972, when she received her Masters, before spending two years in the London International Film School. Returning to Hong Kong in 1975, she entered TVB as a director, making many serials and documentaries on 16mm. During this time she became King Hu's assistant on television. The most notable featurette she made during this period was Boy From Vietnam (1978), which was her first film on Vietnam and formed the first part of her "Vietnamese trilogy".
[edit] Transition from television to film
Hui left television in 1979, making her first feature The Secret, a mystery thriller based on real life murder case and starring Taiwanese star Sylvia Chang. It was immediately hailed as an important film in the Hong Kong New Wave. The Spooky Bunch (1981) was her take on the ghost story genre, while The Story of Woo Viet (1981) continued her Vietnamese trilogy. Hui experimented with special effects and daring angles; her preoccupation with sensitive political and social issues is a recurrent feature in most of her subsequent films. Boat People (1982), the third part of her Vietnamese trilogy, is the most famous of her early films. It examines the plight of the Vietnamese after the Vietnam War.[1]
In the mid-1980s Hui continued her string of critically acclaimed works. Love in a Fallen City (1984) was based on a novella by Eileen Chang, and the two-part, ambitious wuxia adaptation of Louis Cha's first novel, The Book and the Sword, was divided into The Romance of Book and Sword (1987) and Princess Fragrance (1987). 1990 saw one of her most important works to date, the semi-autobiographical The Song of Exile. The film looks into the loss of identity, disorientation and despair faced by an exiled mother and a daughter faced with clashes in culture and historicity. As in the film, Hui's own mother was Japanese.
[edit] Post-hiatus work
After a brief hiatus in which she returned briefly to television production, Hui returned with Summer Snow (1995), about a middle-aged woman trying to cope with everyday family problems and an Alzheimer-inflicted father-in-law. In 1996, she was a member of the jury at the 46th Berlin International Film Festival.[2]
Eighteen Springs (1997) reprises another Eileen Chang novel. Her Ordinary Heroes (1999), about Chinese and Hong Kong political activists from 1970s to the 1990s, won the Best Feature at the Golden Horse Awards.
In 2002, her July Rhapsody, the companion film to Summer Snow and about a middle-aged male teacher facing a mid-life crisis, was released to good reviews in Hong Kong and elsewhere. Her film, Jade Goddess of Mercy (2003), starring Vicki Zhao and Nicholas Tse, was adapted from a novel from Chinese writer Hai Yan.
In 2008, Hui directed the highly acclaimed domestic drama, The Way We Are, which was then followed up by Night and Fog. In an interview with Muse Magazine, Hui explains how she sees the two films as about something uniquely Hong Kong: '(on Night and Fog) I think that this film can represent something; it can express a kind of feeling about the middle and lower class, and maybe even Hong Kong as a whole. Everyone can eat at McDonald's or shop at malls. That's a way of life, but spiritually, there's dissatisfaction, especially with families on welfare. They don't really have any worries about life, but there's an unspeakable feeling of depression.'[3]
[edit] Filmography as director
- The Secret (1979)
- The Spooky Bunch (1980)
- The Story of Woo Viet (1981)
- Boat People (1982)
- Love in a Fallen City (1984)
- The Romance of Book and Sword (1987)
- Princess Fragrance (1987)
- Starry Is the Night (1988)
- Song of Exile (1990)
- Swordsman (1990) (uncredited)
- My American Grandson (1990)
- Zodiac Killer (1991)
- Boy and His Hero (1993)
- Summer Snow (1994)
- The Stunt Woman (1996)
- Eighteen Springs (1997)
- As Time Goes By (1997)
- Ordinary Heroes (1998)
- Visible Secret (2001)
- July Rhapsody (2002)
- Jade Goddess of Mercy (2003)
- The Postmodern Life of My Aunt (2006)
- The Way We Are (2008)
- Night and Fog (2009)
- All About Love (2010)
- A Simple Life (2011)
[edit] Filmography as actress
Ann Hui has appeared mostly in cameo in several films:
- Love Massacre (1981)
- Winners and Sinners (1983) - Fast food clerk
- Summer Snow (1995) - Neighbour
- Somebody Up (1996) .... Teacher
- Who's the Woman, Who's the Man? (1996)
- The River (1997) - Director
- Jiang hu: The Triad Zone (2000)
- Merry-Go-Round (2001)
- Forever and Ever (2001)
- Fighting to Survive (2002)
- My Name Is Fame (2006) - Film director
- Simply Actors (2007)
- Echoes of the Rainbow (2010) - Kindergarten teacher
[edit] Awards and nominations
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Stuart Whitmore (30 Nov 2000). "Hong Kong director Ann Hui hits the festival circuit with her Ordinary Heroes". Asiaweek (CNN). http://www.cnn.com/ASIANOW/asiaweek/99/0305/feat1.html. Retrieved 18 April 2010.
- ^ "Berlinale: 1996 Juries". berlinale.de. http://www.berlinale.de/en/archiv/jahresarchive/1996/04_jury_1996/04_Jury_1996.html. Retrieved 2012-01-01.
- ^ Ma, Kevin (5 2009). "The Life and Times of Ann Hui". Muse Magazine (28): 19.
- ^ "Berlinale: 1995 Programme". berlinale.de. http://www.berlinale.de/en/archiv/jahresarchive/1995/02_programm_1995/02_Programm_1995.html. Retrieved 2012-01-01.
- ^ "Berlinale: 1997 Prize Winners". berlinale.de. http://www.berlinale.de/en/archiv/jahresarchive/1997/03_preistr_ger_1997/03_Preistraeger_1997.html. Retrieved 2012-01-14.
[edit] External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ann Hui |
| Awards and achievements | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by None |
Golden Bauhinia Awards for Best Director 1996 for Summer Snow |
Succeeded by Peter Chan for Comrades, Almost a Love Story |
| Preceded by Wong Kar-wai for In the Mood for Love |
Hong Kong Film Critics Society Awards for Best Director 2001 for Visible Secret |
Succeeded by Peter Chan for Three |
| Preceded by Johnnie To for Exiled |
Hong Kong Film Critics Society Awards for Best Director 2007 for The Postmodern Life of My Aunt |
Succeeded by Ann Hui for The Way We Are |
| Preceded by Ann Hui for The Postmodern Life of My Aunt |
Hong Kong Film Critics Society Awards for Best Director 2008 for The Way We Are |
Succeeded by Alan Mak, Felix Chong for Overheard |
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- 1947 births
- Living people
- Alumni of the University of Hong Kong
- Best Director HKFA
- Female film directors
- Hong Kong film directors
- Hong Kong film producers
- Hong Kong screenwriters
- Hong Kong women writers
- Chinese people of Japanese descent
- Fukuoka Asian Culture Prize winners
- Members of the Order of the British Empire
