Tsui Hark

Tsui Hark
Tsui Hark at the New York Asian Film Festival, July 10, 2011
Background information
Chinese name	徐克
Jyutping	Ceoi4 Hak1 (Cantonese)
Birth name	Tsui Man-kong (徐文光)
Born	(1950-02-15) 15 February 1950 (age 67) Saigon, Vietnam
Occupation	Film director, producer, presenter, screenwriter, actor
Spouse(s)	Nansun Shi (m.1996-2014)
Awards Hong Kong Film Awards Best Film 1986 A Better Tomorrow Best Director 1991 Once Upon a Time in China 2011 Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame

Tsui Hark (Chinese: 徐克, born 15 February 1950), born Tsui Man-kong, is a Vietnam-born Chinese film director, producer and screenwriter. Tsui has produced & also directed several influential Hong Kong films such as A Better Tomorrow; A Chinese Ghost Story; Once Upon a Time in China; and most recently, blockbusters such as Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame, Flying Swords of Dragon Gate and Young Detective Dee: Rise of the Sea Dragon. He is viewed as a major figure in the Golden Age of Hong Kong cinema and has been regarded by critics as "one of the masters of Asian cinematography."

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").