Tsui Hark

Tsui Hark ({{zh-cpw|c=徐克|p=Xú Kè|w=Hsü K'o}}) (born Tsui Man-kong on January 2, 1951) is a New Wave film director in Hong Kong who is also a highly influential producer, often likened to Steven Spielberg for a similar galvanizing effect on his country's cinematic scene.

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, The Butterfly Murders/Die Bian (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 kung fu.

Related Topics:
Black comedy - Kung fu

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But it was his third, Dangerous Encounter of the First Kind (1980), that 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 '81 in a drastically altered version titled Dangerous Encounter - 1st Kind (or alternately, Don't Play with Fire). Unsurprisingly, it was not a financial success. But it helped 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 (Teo, 1997).

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