- Born
- Birth nameTsui Man-Kong
- Height5′ 9″ (1.75 m)
- Tsui Hark recently became the fourth Chinese film director to join the board of judges for the 57th Cannes Film Festival in the feature films category this year.
An internationally acclaimed visionary director, Tsui started making experimental movies with 8mm film when he was only 13. After graduating from the University of Texas in Austin, majoring in film, he returned to Hong Kong in 1977 and landed a job working in television. In 1979 he directed his film debut, The Butterfly Murders (1979). It raised a lot of attention, and was hailed by many as the start of a new wave in Hong Kong cinema. After making numerous critically and successful films, he co-founded his own production house, Film Workshop, with his wife, Nansun Shi, in 1984. Although the company was intended to be contemporary, it went on to become one of the most successful production companies in Hong Kong, having produced such classics of Hong Kong cinema as _Sinnui yauwan (1987)_ and A Better Tomorrow (1986), which was directed by John Woo and starred the amazing Chow Yun-Fat.
Considered the master of kung-fu action films, Tsui Hark's Swordsman (1990), _Xiao ao jiang hu zhi dong fang bu bai (1991)_, Dragon Inn (1992) and Once Upon a Time in China (1991) created a new era and standard for the "wuxia" genre that has now become a trend in filmmaking.- IMDb mini biography by: FB
- SpouseNansun Shi(1996 - 2014) (divorced)
- Fast tracking big budget productions
- He changed his calling name from Man-Kong to Hark ("overcoming") when his fellow students at the University of Texas at Austin used to tease him by calling him "KingKong"
- Studied film at the University of Texas at Austin.
- Member of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 2004
- Name is pronounced "Choy Hock"
- Speaks fluent English.
- Wuxia culture is like another dimension that provides us with strong emotion, strong passion. I have always been a fan of Wuxia movies. They give us a refreshed view of what we had before, of the values and of the way we looked at life.
- A commercial film must be entertaining. Film is a mass medium, so we attempt to become one with the audience. Otherwise, sooner or later the audience will confront you. They'll say, "I don't believe it." Sometimes, even after 20 minutes of a film, I don't know what it's about. That's bad; the director can explain the logic all he wants, and it doesn't matter. The masses go to feel, not to understand.
- Everything in a film, including a horror film, must relate to the characters in the story. Whether the audience buys the story or not depends on how you treat the material. We use new techniques and characters to change it.
- Emotion is the most essential element in my films. By taking many shots from different angles, I can bring out the emotions of a scene. The sequence's tempo can be controlled by sharp editing and by paying close attention to camera operations.
- My experiences with the people I worked with on the two movies in Hollywood is that they would leave the problem unsolved rather than trying to find a creative solution.
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