Tsui Hark

Tsui Hark
徐克
Tsui Hark at the New York Asian Film Festival, 10 July 2011
Born	Tsui Man-kong (徐文光) (1950-02-15) 15 February 1950 Saigon, Vietnam
Occupation(s)	Film director, producer, presenter, screenwriter, actor
Spouse	Nansun Shi ​ ​ (m. 1996; div. 2014)​
Awards	Hong Kong Film Awards – Best Film 1987 A Better Tomorrow Best Director 1992 Once Upon a Time in China 2011 Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame 2016 The Taking of Tiger Mountain Hong Kong Film Critics Society Awards – Best Director 2016 The Taking of Tiger Mountain Asian Film Awards – Lifetime Achievement Award 2017 Golden Horse Awards – Best Director 1981 All the Wrong Clues for the Right Solution Golden Rooster Awards – Best Director 2015 The Taking of Tiger Mountain
Chinese name
Chinese	徐文光
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Xú Wénguāng Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization Chèuih Mahn Gwōng Jyutping Ceoi4 Hak1
Alternative Chinese name
Chinese	徐克
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Xú Kè Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization Chèuih Hāk

Tsui Hark (Chinese: 徐克, Vietnamese: Từ Khắc, born 15 February 1950), born Tsui Man-kong, is a Hong Kong film director, producer and screenwriter. Tsui has directed several influential Hong Kong films such as Zu Warriors from the Magic Mountain (1983), the Once Upon a Time in China film series (1991–1997) and The Blade (1995). Tsui also has been a prolific writer and (a very hands-on) producer; his productions include A Better Tomorrow (1986), A Chinese Ghost Story (1987), The Killer (1989), The Legend of the Swordsman (1992), The Wicked City (1992), Iron Monkey (1993) and Black Mask (1996). He is viewed as a major figure in the Golden Age of Hong Kong cinema and is regarded by critics as "one of the masters of Asian cinematography".

In the late 1990s, Tsui had a short-lived career in the United States, directing the Jean-Claude Van Damme–led films Double Team (1997) and Knock Off (1998). Both films were commercially unsuccessful and critically panned; Tsui himself was unsatisfied with his lack of creative control and returned to Hong Kong to continue his career. He has since found new commercial and critical success with blockbusters such as the Detective Dee film series (2010–present), Flying Swords of Dragon Gate (2011), and The Taking of Tiger Mountain (2014).

Early life

Tsui was born and raised in Saigon, Vietnam, to a large Chinese (Hoa) family with sixteen siblings. Tsui showed an early interest in show business and films; when he was 10, he and some friends rented an 8 mm 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.

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

New Wave period

Upon turning to feature filmmaking, Tsui was quickly typed as a member of the "New Wave" of young, iconoclastic directors. His debut film, The Butterfly Murders (1979), was an eccentric and technically challenging blend of wuxia, murder mystery and science fiction / fantasy elements. His second film, We're Going to Eat You (1980), was an eccentric blend of cannibal horror, black comedy and martial arts.

Tsui's third film, Dangerous Encounters of the First Kind (1980), put him beyond the pale. The thriller about delinquent youths on a bombing spree was nihilistic, grisly and pregnant with angry political subtext. 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). Unsurprisingly, it was not a financial success. However, it helped to make Tsui a darling of film critics who had coined the New Wave label and were hopeful for a more aesthetically daring cinema more engaged with the realities of contemporary Hong Kong.

Cinema City

In 1981, Tsui joined Cinema City & Films Co., a new production company founded by comedians Raymond Wong, Karl Maka and Dean Shek, that was instrumental in codifying the slick Hong Kong blockbuster films of the 1980s. Tsui played his part in the process with pictures like the 1981 crime farce All the Wrong Clues, 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 and remains preoccupied with pushing back the boundaries of the industry's effects technology.

Mogul

In 1984, Tsui formed the production company Film Workshop along with his now ex-wife and occasional co-producer, Nansun Shi, making it a home base for a tirelessly prolific roster of directing and producing projects. Here, 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. 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. Tsui has the knack of trend-setting in film genres which earned him the name 'Steven Spielberg of Asia'. He produced John Woo's A Better Tomorrow (1986), which launched a craze for the hardboiled mob film or "triad" movies, and Ching Siu-tung's A Chinese Ghost Story (1987), which did the same for period ghost fantasies. Zu Warriors and The Swordsman (1990) brought back the long-out-of-favor wuxia film.

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.

American films

In 1990, Tsui had already attempted a low-budget American action film, the barely released and little seen The Master, with a pre-superstardom Jet Li. In the mid-'90s, Tsui tried Hollywood again with two films starring Jean-Claude Van Damme: Double Team (1997) and Knock Off (1998). In 2002, Tsui released Black Mask 2: City of Masks, an American market sequel to Jet Li's 1996 film.

2000s

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. Also in 2008 was the thriller Missing starring Angelica Lee. His latest comedy film All About Women features wonky sound editing and comic graphics.

2010s

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. Recently he has announced another children's film project titled Monster Wanted (possibly a working title).

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.

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

Future projects

Hark is set to work on a film with Milkyway Image with Ann Hui, John Woo, Ringo Lam, Patrick Tam, Johnnie To, Sammo Hung and Yuen Woo-Ping. Each director will create a segment based on Hong Kong history.

Cultural references

Tsui was featured on a track which bore his name on the 1994 Sparks album Gratuitous Sax & Senseless Violins. (Sparks also provided a song, "It's a Knockoff," for the closing credits of Knock Off.)

Filmography

Year	Title	Functioned as					Notes
		Director	Writer	Producer	Actor	Role
1979	The Butterfly Murders	Yes	No	No	No
1980	We're Going to Eat You	Yes	Yes	No	No		Also known as Hell Has No Gates
	Dangerous Encounters of the First Kind	Yes	Yes	No	No	Interpol Officer	Uncredited cameo
1981	All the Wrong Clues for the Right Solution	Yes	Yes	No	No
1982	Aces Go Places	No	No	No	Yes	Ballerina Director	Also known as Diamondfinger and Mad Mission
	Yi jiu ling wu de dong tian	No	No	No	Yes	Li Shutong
1983	Zu Warriors from the Magic Mountain	Yes	No	No	Yes	Blue Army soldier fighting Fat Man
	Aces Go Places 2	No	No	No	Yes	FBI	Also known as Mad Mission II
	Search for the Gods	Yes	No	No	No
	Wo ai Ye Laixiang	No	No	No	Yes	Japanese Ambassador
	All the Wrong Spies	No	No	No	No		Production designer
1984	Shanghai Blues	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Pedestrian Who Gets Soaked
	Aces Go Places 3	Yes	No	No	Yes	Police Officer in Computer Room	Also known as Mad Mission 3
	Run, Tiger, Run	No	No	No	Yes	Grandpa Steak
1985	Kung Hei Fat Choy	No	No	No	Yes	Gold Grabber
	Working Class	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Sunny
	Heart of Dragon	No	No	No	Yes	Panadol
1986	Peking Opera Blues	Yes	No	Yes	No
	Spirit Chaser Aisha	Yes	No	Yes	No		TV series
	A Better Tomorrow	No	No	Yes	Yes	Music Judge
	Happy Ghost III	No	No	No	Yes	Reincarnation Director
	Righting Wrongs	No	No	No	No		Action choreographer Also known as Above the Law
1987	Final Victory	No	No	No	Yes	Big Bo
	A Chinese Ghost Story	No	No	Yes	No
	A Better Tomorrow II	No	Yes	Yes	No
1988	The Big Heat	No	No	Yes	No	Inspector Yiuming Butt	Also uncredited director and actor
	Roboforce	No	No	Yes	No		Also uncredited director and writer
1989	A Better Tomorrow III: Love & Death in Saigon	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Police Officer in Computer Room
	The Killer	No	No	Yes	No
1990	Fight and Love with a Terracotta Warrior	No	No	Yes	No
	The Swordsman	No	No	Yes	No		Also uncredited director
	Spygame	No	No	Yes	No
	A Chinese Ghost Story II	No	No	Yes	No		Also editor
1991	Once Upon a Time in China	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
	The Raid	No	Yes	Yes	No		Also uncredited director
	A Chinese Ghost Story III	No	Yes	Yes	No		Also uncredited director
	King of Chess	No	No	No	No		Executive producer; also uncredited director
	The Banquet	Yes	Yes	No	No		Co-directed with Alfred Cheung, Joe Cheung and Clifton Ko
1992	Twin Dragons	Yes	Yes	No	No		Co-directed with Ringo Lam Also known as Shuang long hui and Brother vs. Brother
	Once Upon a Time in China II	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
	The Master	Yes	Yes	Yes	No		Completed in 1989, but only released following the success of Once Upon a Time in China
	Swordsman II	No	Yes	Yes	No		Also known as The Legend of the Swordsman
	New Dragon Gate Inn	No	Yes	Yes	No		Also known as Dragon Inn
	The Wicked City	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Card player
1993	Iron Monkey	No	Yes	Yes	No
	The East Is Red	No	Yes	Yes	No		Also known as Swordsman III
	Once Upon a Time in China III	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
	Green Snake	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
	Once Upon a Time in China IV	No	Yes	Yes	No
1994	Burning Paradise	No	No	Yes	No
	The Lovers	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
	Once Upon a Time in China V	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
1995	The Chinese Feast	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
	Love in the Time of Twilight	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
	The Blade	Yes	Yes	Yes	No		Also editor and production manager
1995–1996	Wong Fei Hung Series	Yes	Yes	Yes	No		TV series; wrote and directed the episodes "The Final Victory" and "The Ideal Century"
1996	Tristar	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
	Shanghai Grand	No	No	Yes	No
	Black Mask	No	Yes	Yes	No
1997	Once Upon a Time in China and America	No	No	Yes	No
	Double Team	Yes	No	No	No		American and English-language debut
	A Chinese Ghost Story: The Tsui Hark Animation	No	Yes	No	Yes	Solid Gold (voice)	Also editor and executive producer
1998	Knock Off	Yes	No	No	No		Second and last American and English-language film
2000	Time and Tide	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Narrator (voice)	Uncredited cameo
2001	The Legend of Zu	Yes	Yes	Yes	No		Also known as Zu Warriors
	Old Master Q 2001	No	No	Yes	No
2002	The Era of Vampires	No	Yes	Yes	No		Also known as Tsui Hark's Vampire Hunters
	Black Mask 2: City of Masks	Yes	No	Yes	No
2003	1:99 Shorts	Yes	No	No	No		Collaborative project made of 2 minutes-long segments; directed one segment
2004	Xanda	No	Yes	Yes	No		Also known as Sanda
2005	Seven Swords	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
2005–2006	Seven Swordsmen	No	Yes	Yes	No		TV series
2006	The Warrior	No	No	No	No		Action director
2007	Triangle	Yes	Yes	Yes	No		Co-directed with Ringo Lam and Johnnie To
2008	Missing	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
	All About Women	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Taxi driver	Also editor Uncredited cameo
2010	Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame	Yes	No	Yes	No
2011	A Simple Life	No	No	No	Yes	Director Tsui	Also known as Sister Peach
	Flying Swords of Dragon Gate	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
	The Great Magician	No	No	No	Yes	Warlord
2013	Sheng dan mei gui	No	No	Yes	No
	Young Detective Dee: Rise of the Sea Dragon	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
2014	The Taking of Tiger Mountain	Yes	Yes	No	No
2016	The Mermaid	No	No	No	Yes	Uncle Rich	Credited under the name Ke Xu
	The Bodyguard	No	No	No	Yes	Old Man
	Sword Master	No	Yes	Yes	No
2017	Journey to the West: The Demons Strike Back	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Theater employee	Also editor Uncredited cameo
	The Thousand Faces of Dunjia	No	Yes	No	No		Also executive producer
2018	Detective Dee: The Four Heavenly Kings	Yes	No	Yes	No
2019	The Climbers	No	No	Yes	No
TBA	Baat Bou Bun	No	No	Yes	No		Anthology film; directed a segment Filming

Awards and nominations

Golden Horse Awards

Year	Category	Film	Result
1981	Best Director	All the Wrong Clues for the Right Solution	Won
1992	Best Adapted Screenplay	Swordsman II	Nominated
1994	Best Adapted Screenplay	The Lovers	Nominated
1997	Best Adapted Screenplay	A Chinese Ghost Story: The Tsui Hark Animation	Nominated
2005	Best Adapted Screenplay	Seven Swords	Nominated
2014	Best Director	The Taking of Tiger Mountain	Nominated

Hong Kong Film Awards

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

Sources

• Bordwell, David. Planet Hong Kong: Popular Cinema and the Art of Entertainment. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2000. ISBN 0-674-00214-8.
• Dannen, Fredric, and Barry Long. Hong Kong Babylon: The Insider's Guide to the Hollywood of the East. New York: Miramax, 1997. ISBN 0-7868-6267-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. ISBN 0-7864-0990-8.
• Teo, Stephen. Hong Kong Cinema: The Extra Dimensions. London: British Film Institute, 1997. ISBN 0-85170-514-6.
• 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. ISBN 0-395-76341-X.
• Bringing a Wealth of Cinematic Knowledge to the Screen in 3-D

Further reading

• Ho, Sam, ed. The Swordsman and His Juang Hu: Tsui Hark and Hong Kong Film. Hong Kong University Press, 2002. ISBN 962-8050-15-X.
• Schroeder, Andrew. Tsui Hark's Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2004. ISBN 962-209-651-4.

External links

• Tsui Hark at IMDb