Hui, Ann

(Hui On-wah/Xu Anhua)

b. 1947, Liaoning

Film director, producer

The only woman and one of the most respected figures of the ‘Hong Kong New Wave’ of the late 1970s, Ann Hui has used her versatile talents to create a distinct, original voice. Her recurrent theme is the dialectic between personal relationships and a larger, societal or historical situation, which she has been able to explore within the context of genre cinema. Starting with a near-masterpiece, The Secret (Feng Jie, 1979), she has periodically revisited the ghost story, with a humorous twist in The Spooky Bunch (Zhuang Dao Zheng, 1980) or a darker touch in Visible Secret (Youling Ren Jian, 2001). She made two violent political thrillers—The Story of Woo Viet (Hu Yu de Gushi, 1981) and Boat People (Touben Nuhai, 1982)—as well as a two-part, highly stylish martial arts film, Romance of Book and Sword (Shujian Enchou Lu, 1987), one of the first Hong Kong co-productions with the PRC.

She adapted two books by the 1930s Shanghai writer Eileen Chang (Zhang Aileen)—Love in a Fallen City (Qingcheng zhi Lian, 1984) and Eighteen Springs (Ban Sheng Huan, 1997)—and directed woman-centred dramas: Starry is the Night (Jingye Xingguang Canlan, 1988) and Song of the Exile (Ketu Qiuhen, 1990). Going beyond genre films, she powerfully explored complex political or personal dilemmas in Summer Snow (Nüren sishi, 1995), Ordinary Heroes (Qian Yan Wu, 1998) and July Rhapsody (Nanren sishi, 2002). Some of her best works were the realistic dramas she directed for television in the 1970s. She has also made a few documentaries.

See also: Chang, Sylvia; Fong, Allen

Further reading

Erens, Patricia Brett (2000). ‘The Film Work of Ann Hui’. In Poshek Fu and David Desser (eds), The Cinema of Hong Kong: History, Arts, Identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 176–95.

Ho, Elaine Yee Lin (2001). ‘Women on the Edges of Hong Kong Modernity: The Films of Ann Hui’. In Esther Yau (ed), At Full Speed: Hong Kong Cinema in a Borderless World. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 177–206.

Law, K. (ed.) (1999). Hong Kong New Wave—Twenty Years After. Hong Kong: Provisional Urban Council.

Stringer, Julian (2003). ‘Boat People: Second Thoughts on Text and Context’. In Chris Berry (ed.), Chinese Films in Focus: 25 New Takes. London: BFI, 15–22.

BÉRÉNICE REYNAUD