Tsui Hark

Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain (1983)

Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain (1983)
Rating: ★★★★
Sep 24, 2000Wu Xia Film
The beginnings of Wu Xia and the whole flying swordsman cycle. The legendary Tsui Hark creates a totally nutso film filled with wild martial arts battles with demonic forces. None of it makes the slightest sense but the results are out of this world
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A Chinese Ghost Story (1987)

A Chinese Ghost Story (1987)
Rating: ★★★★★
Apr 3, 2001Hong Kong Supernatural Fantasy/Ghost Romance
My introduction to Wu Xia - imagine some vision of Kwaidan as directed by Sam Raimi, filled with sensationally beautiful and out of this world imagery and completely nutsoid fantastical battles with ghosts and demons
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A Chinese Ghost Story III (1991)

A Chinese Ghost Story III (1991)
Rating: ★★½
Jul 3, 1999Hong Kong Supernatural Fantasy/Ghost Romance
The second sequel to A Chinese Ghost Story, a slighter effort too reliant on the plot beats of the original. Where it does work is in the enormous degree of slapstick energy with which proceedings are conducted
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Wicked City (1993)

Wicked City (1993)
Rating: ★★
Apr 27, 2013War with Demon Dimension
Live-action version of a manga that was previously made as an anime. This Hong Kong-made version is the lesser, lacking the perverse sexual imagery of the anime. It does feature the wildly fantastical action scenes typical to HK fantasy of this era but this has been conducted on a low-budget and looks rubbery (*)
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Iron Monkey (1993)

Iron Monkey (1993)
Rating: ★★★
Sep 9, 2013Hong Martial Arts/Masked Hero
Legendary Hong Kong action coordinator Yuen Wo Ping (the man behind the fight scenes in The Matrix) directs a martial arts film. Essentially a Wu Xia version of Robin Hood, this comes with a broad slapstick hand but is worth watching for Yuen's amazing combat scenes
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Zu Warriors (2001)

Zu Warriors (2001)
Rating: ★★★½
Jan 24, 2013Wu Xia Film
Tsui Hark's follow-up to Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain the film that popularised Wu Xia cinema. The point where Tsui discovered CGI and latches onto it to do more than just show flying swordsmen but create an exquisitely dreamy world of pure fantastique imagination
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Black Mask 2: City of Masks (2002)

Black Mask 2: City of Masks (2002)
Rating: ★★★
Feb 12, 2005Masked Superhero/Hong Kong Action
Tsui Hark takes over the directorial reins of the sequel, filling it with much more fantastical elements, pitting the hero against a mad scientist and his mutant creations in a series of wild martial arts scenes
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Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame (2010)

Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame (2010)
Rating: ★★★½
Aug 7, 2011Historical Detective/Flying Swordsmen Fantasy
Tsui Hark returns to form in this lush Chinese-backed historical drama where his wildly fantastical martial arts combine with the story of the true-life detective De Renjie/Detective Dee
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Flying Swords of Dragon Gate (2011)

Flying Swords of Dragon Gate (2011)
Rating: ★★★½
May 28, 2013Flying Swordsmen/Wu Xia Film
Tsui Hark, the originator of the modern Wu Xia cycle, returns with a lushly extravagant Chinese-backed flying swordsman epic. The film has a wide canvas of characters that come together amid a series of highly entertaining playoffs
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Young Detective Dee: Rise of the Sea Dragon (2013)

Young Detective Dee: Rise of the Sea Dragon (2013)
Rating: ★★★
Dec 2, 2013Historical Detective/Flying Swordsmen Fantasy
Tsui Hark delivers a prequel to his 2010 Detective Dee film. This takes the character back far more to his original nature as a Chinese equivalent of Sherlock Holmes. That is if you can imagine Sherlock Holmes taking place as a flying swordsman film filled with sea monsters and wildly fantastic martial combat scenes (*)
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Journey to the West: Demon Chapter (2017)

Journey to the West: Demon Chapter (2017)
Rating: ★★
May 22, 2017Epic Chinese Legend
A sequel to Stephen Chow's Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons. Chow hands the director's chair over to Tsui Hark, a legend of HK cinema, who leaps in with wildly fantastic regard. On the other hand, forced to also incorporate Chow's slapstick results in a very silly film
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The Thousand Faces of Dunjia (2017)

The Thousand Faces of Dunjia (2017)
Rating: ★★
Dec 30, 2018Wu Xia/Flying Swordsman Fantasy
One welcomes a collaboration between Tsui Hark, the godfather of Hong Kong fantasy cinema, and Yuen Wo Ping, fight choreographer for The Matrix and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon but the the results are oddly disappointing, with Yuen’s talents seeming buried under the CGI
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Detective Dee: The Four Heavenly Kings (2018)

Detective Dee: The Four Heavenly Kings (2018)
Rating: ★★½
Nov 10, 2019Historical Detective/Flying Swordsmen Fantasy
The third of Tsui Hark's films based on the historical figure of De Renjie/Detective Dee. While the other films were rooted in a relative realism, Tsui lets all restraints loose here and goes way over the top
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