Fresh from directing the acclaimed television series The Gold Dagger Romance (1977), Tsui Hark made his feature film debut with The Butterfly Murders (1979). A wuxia film unlike any other of its time, the film opens with a series of mysterious murders committed by killer butterflies that has befuddled the martial arts world. Fong, a scholar who can’t wield a sword but can certainly write the stories, investigates the truth behind the crimes. As the story unravels, Tsui Hark surprises the audience with a genre-bending mix of influences from sci-fi and westerns, among others. Hailed as an early example of Hong Kong New Wave, The Butterfly Murders upends the traditional wuxia formula with its fast-paced editing, detective plot, narrative twists, and its funky theme song by George Lam.

Tsui Hark (b. 1951, Vietnam) spent his early years in Vietnam before moving to Hong Kong, where he completed his high school education. He then moved to the United States where he graduated from the film programme at the University of Texas at Austin. After a short spell of work in the US, he returned to Hong Kong and became a director at TVB. Later, during a brief stint at Commercial Television, he directed The Gold Dagger Romance (1978). The Butterfly Murders (1979), Tsui’s feature film directorial debut, was hailed as one of the early examples of the Hong Kong New Wave. Dangerous Encounters of the First Kind (1980) faced censorship from the colonial government for its uncompromising vision. Tsui would break ground with Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain (1983) by introducing Hollywood special effects to the wuxia genre. For much of the 1980s, Tsui was one of the creative masterminds behind the hitmakers Cinema City.

In 1984, he and Nansun Shi founded Film Workshop, which launched with the critically acclaimed Shanghai Blues. Tsui and his company found much success in several popular long-running film series, including A Chinese Ghost Story (1987), The Swordsman (1990), and Once Upon a Time in China (1991). In a career spanning over four decades, Tsui has not stopped finding new ways to reinvent himself as a director, writer, and producer. His take on the wuxia genre has continued to evolve in The Blade (1995) and the Detective Dee series. His Chinese war epic, The Taking of Tiger Mountain (2014), impressed audiences in China and abroad for his creative storytelling and eye for spectacle.