Tsui Hark is proof that it pays to go against the artistic flow
HONG KONG: Award-winning director Tsui Hark has a simple formula when it comes to achieving success: Don’t go with the flow.
Disclosed Tsui, 67: “There are always people who do not agree with what I’m doing. In fact, there’s seldom anyone who agrees. But even when there’s literally nobody who approves of what I do, I still persist in making something happen – and this gives me great satisfaction. I love to show people that nothing is impossible.”
Movie fans shall have another opportunity to observe Tsui’s go- against-the-flow philosophy soon.
He is busy tinkering with Detective Dee: The Four Heavenly Kings, the third instalment in the supernatural detective thriller series. Tsui is due to start shooting the film – again starring Mark Chao as the younger version of the titular master sleuth, played by Andy Lau in the first film – next month. But Tsui admits he has yet to finalise the script.
“This third film required almost the same amount of time it took us to come up with the first,” he disclosed. “We began working on Four Heavenly Kings when we finished the script for the second film, but until this day we’re still making revisions to the screenplay.
“The reason (for the delay) is that I want to finally pull off what we didn’t manage to do in the first two films.”
Tsui had worked with Stephen Chow on Journey to the West: The
There are always people who do not agree with what I’m doing. In fact, there’s seldom anyone who agrees. But even when there’s literally nobody who approves of what I do, I still persist in making something happen – and this gives me great satisfaction. Tsui Hark, award-winning director
Demons Strike Back, with Chow as producer.
Admitted a grinning Tsui: “I joined the project because I thought it would be a very special experience. I’m well aware that director Chow is a very opinionated person, that he has his particular way of working, and that it’s hard to work with him – or at least that’s what the rumours say. I personally found this very interesting. You shouldn’t go through life without experiencing something like that.”
He had intended to make his own version of Journey to the West when Chow invited him to collaborate on The Demons Strike Back.
Recalled Tsui with a hint of amusement: “When he called me, I also asked if he had anything else that we could collaborate on. What a coincidence that was.”