has a very special presence among many Chinese directors, and it is difficult to draw her movies into which specific genre.
Because she has photographed almost all subjects, including literature, martial arts, thriller, gangster, crime, horror...
Although he has won numerous awards, he is called the director who is the least profitable by the media. However, big-name actors are willing to reduce their own pay and even earn zero income to star in her movies.
She is the "number one" of the female director of Hong Kong movies. Today, let's talk about this maverick female director -
Ann Hsu
documentary " Make a good movie " records Ann Hsu's forty years of film career and shows the director's most private and real side to the audience.
is also a review of the history of Hong Kong movies and is a great documentary that movie fans should not miss.
So far, Douban score is 8.9, and more than half of the audience have given five-star praise.
There is a consensus in the movie circle: female directors are as strong as men.
How powerful is Ann Hui?
In the director circle that is almost monopolized by men, she won the Best Director Award for three times and the Best Director Award for Film Award for six times. She is the Chinese director who has won the most three Golden Director Awards in the history of Chinese film .
In the history of Hong Kong film industry, she is as famous as Wang Kar-wai , Tsui Hark , etc., and is known as the director of the New Wave in the 1970s and 1980s.
In 2020, she won the Venice International Film Festival Lifetime Achievement Award, and was the first female director in the world to win this honor.
She has filmed more than 90 movies, among which the well-known ones are " Women forty ", " Day and Night in the Shuiwei ", " Taojie ", " Golden Age ", " Half-life fate ", " Jade Guanyin ", " Aunt's Postmodern Life ", , which can be said to have won a prize.
Of course, Ann Hui also had a "turnaround". 1984's " Love in the City " was accused of being a failed work, and its reputation was mediocre after its release.
Coincidentally, this movie is also adapted from Zhang Ailing novel, just like the "The First Incense" , which was controversial recently.
Ann Hui seems to have a special liking for Zhang Ailing's novels, and has filmed three films: "Love in the City", "Half a Lifetime" and "The First Incense".
Only "Half of Life" is considered a success. Although the box office results are average, there is not much controversy in both the casting and the plot.
Stills of "Half-life Fate"
"The First Incense" is Anhua Xu's third adaptation of Zhang Ailing's work.
The film was controversial after its release, its reputation was overturned on the Internet, Douban scores plummeted, and the box office was poor.
controversial points mainly come from casting. Many netizens believe that the heroine of the film is far from the image of Ge Weilong in Zhang Ailing's works. Peng Yuyan 's dark and strong appearance is inconsistent with the gloomy and pale temperament of the mixed-race Qiao Qiqiao.
Stills of "The First Incense"
Although he has received numerous praises, Ann Hui is also a well-known director in the circle who does not know how to make money.
Now she is in her 70s and will squeeze into the subway when traveling, but she still can't afford a house. She lives in a rented house with her mother who is over 100 years old.
What would you imagine the home of a big first-line director? Ann Hui’s home is definitely down-to-earth, and it looks no different from many ordinary people living in big cities.
Some netizens joked that Anh Xu could put her trophy at home? Ann Hui said it doesn’t matter if she won an award. She is happy as long as she films, as long as she doesn’t let her boss lose money.
Ann Hui also has a cat named Figaro, who is a complete cat slave.
On weekdays, they always keep smoking. They walk vigorously in Converse canvas shoes, do their own things, completely different from ordinary 70-year-olds, and of course they are not like a successful and famous director.
At the same time, she also has a very similar side to a little girl, such as on a whim, she wants to exercise and shape: "Find a coach", teach yourself to "practice your arms", "practice until you have lines to wear suspenders", and then turn your head and eat your favorite pineapple bread.
0-year-old single unmarried tag is often used as a gimmick by the media, and her emotional experience is indeed very simple.
In Anhua's own words, he was not confident in his appearance when he was young and did not have the courage to fall in love.
Just like the troubles many girls have, she will still be carelessly threatening toward the camera and she is straightforward and cute.
Ann Hui laughed at her current life state: "Two old women support each other."
She said: "My mother is getting older and older, so am I. A few years ago, I was very close because they were all old women. Now she is reborn and I have become the one who takes care of her."
In fact, many of Ann Hui's movies are inspired by her mother.
990 movie " Guest Path Qiu Hate " , the barriers and bonds between the heroine played by Maggie Cheung and the Japanese mother are a realistic portrayal of Anh Hui and her Japanese mother.
Stills of "House of the Guest Road"
There is also a little gossip about this movie. When Anhua Xu filmed "House of the Guest Road", director Wang Jing commented: "Who wants to see the story of a fat woman and her mother."
Anhua Xu was angry and retorted: "Why, he is also very fat!"
After Anhua Xu filmed two movies in a row and lost money. Wang Jing, who is good at commercial films, said: Director should not let the boss have no money to make money.
Hong Kong media fanned the flames and did not bother to watch the fun, and even used the title: Start a war! Anhua Xu said he wanted to beat Wang Jing! After
, Wang Jing said: Ann Hui is the director she admires the most, and she accepts all her criticisms. Only then did the two of them settle their past grudges.
007 Ann Hui filmed "Day and Night in Tianshuiwei" , and Wang Jing also invested 1.2 million for her.
Although the box office is only 100,000, it won four awards: Best Director, Screenwriter, Actress, and Supporting Actress in the Academy Awards.
Ann Hui's straightforward and bold personality may come from the genes of people in Northeast China.
She is not an authentic Hong Kong person, but she is not a real Hong Kong person. In 1947, Anhua Xu was born in Anshan, Liaoning, and the "an" in his name originated from this.
My father is a Kuomintang document and my mother is a Japanese. When she was two months old, she moved to Macau with her parents.
949, his father went to Hong Kong to work, while Ann Hui lived in Macau with his grandparents, mother and others.
She grew up in an old-style Chinese family. Because her grandfather and father both loved classical literature, Anhua Xu recited many ancient poems.
html When he was 15 years old, Ann Hui came to Hong Kong to live because of his grandparents returning to Guangzhou to settle down.
Ann Hui and her parents
When she was in college, Ann Hui worked as a student theater troupe to play props, a supporting role, and designed posters.
When she encounters a problem that cannot be solved, she will run to the cinema to watch a movie.In 1972, she obtained her Master of Arts from the Department of British Literature and Comparative Literature at the University of Hong Kong, and then went to the London Film Academy in the UK to study for film.
975, Ann Hui, who returned to Hong Kong after studying, met director Hou Jinquan under the introduction of a friend, and then worked as an assistant in his studio for 3 months.
is responsible for drafting documents and doing some errands about serving tea and pouring water. During this period, she helped proofread the English subtitles of the movie "The Legend of the Condor Heroes".
When she was young, Ann Hui was a famous literary youth in the circle. She always carried books with her. Ng Junru described her as "intellectual in the movie circle" .
979, Ann Hui filmed her film debut " Crazy Hit " . The film won the 17th Taiwan Golden Horse Award for Excellent Drama Film Awards, and Ann Hui was nominated for Best Director for the film, and her film life began.
Ann Hui and the protagonist of "Crazy Joe" Zhao Yazhi
982, Ann Hui won 5 awards including Best Picture and Best Director at the 2nd Academy Awards for his " Going to the Angry Sea" , which tells the story of Vietnamese refugees, and has won 15.47 million yuan in box office results, and has since established his position in the Hong Kong film industry.
This movie is also the first movie starring Andy Lau . It allowed him, who was a fledgling, to be nominated for the Best New Actor Award for the Academy Awards, and opened his path to superstar.
Stills of "Fighting to the Rage Sea"
4 years later, Ann Hui was still the director who was too poor to make movies, and Andy Lau was already a superstar in the circle.
Ann Hui is unwilling to carry the label of not making money-making art films. After all, Hong Kong movies are very market-oriented.
She always smiled and said, "I don't believe you can't make money!"
When Anhua Xu found Andy Lau and said she wanted to make a commercial film, Andy Lau readily accepted the invitation. However, he was amused and puzzled to find that this was still not a standard commercial film.
This is the "Taojie" that won the award.
Perhaps because of the grace of knowing the love, Andy Lau not only served as the male lead in "Taojie", but also invested 20 million yuan in the movie.
He said: "The director said something, I feel very distressed. She said, I haven't had enough money to film in a long time."
In 2011, the movie "Taojie" shined at the International Film Festival. Andy Lau won the Golden Horse Awards and the Academy Awards twice. Ann Hui also won the Golden Horse Awards for Best Director for the second time and the Academy Awards for Best Director for the fourth time.
Ann Xu's movies show the most is the current situation of the people at the bottom, especially the elderly, widowed women.
It seems that she is worried about her old age situation.
Once when she saw friends of the same age getting married and having children, she would also say enviously: "Oh, I'm so miserable. What should I do when I'm old?"
But after filming "Taojie", she felt relieved.
When she was teasing her old age with others, she said, "I was filming outside during the day and going back to the nursing home at night. It was so funny..."
Someone once asked Ann Hui: "How can we devote ourselves to movies for the rest of our lives?"
Ann Hui answered humorously: "It's okay to die early!"
Since she was in her 40s, the media often asked her when she would retire. "This question is discriminating against women. I haven't heard of anyone asking when a male director who is about the same age as me will retire, such as Tsui Hark."
For the future, Ann Hui said that as long as her body allows and she has a favorite script, she will continue to film, and she has never thought about retirement.
4-year-old said in an interview that she would still want to study abroad to learn to write scripts in a few years.
learned from Hu Jinquan and opened up a new wave of Hong Kong movies. Wandering between business and art, genre and literature, winning six gold statues and killing three golden horses, we still have to worry about investment difficulties.
has won numerous awards, and has also fallen to the bottom and never give up the opportunity to be loyal to creation.
In her later years, Anhua Xu devoted her life to the film career. She likes to focus the camera on the small people at the bottom of society and make people pay attention to social issues through movies.
She may not be a very profitable director, but she is definitely a respectable director.
She created a miracle for Hong Kong movies. She is the director who flows with the long river of life: Anh Xu.
*Author of this article: RAMA
![Text/Wang Dingjun [US] 1. For and not have Chinese literature and art in New York. In terms of population, writers are the most, painters are second, and calligraphers are second. When it comes to seal carving, it is really rare. Mr. Xin Xiaoyu appeared and everyone competed to t - DayDayNews](https://cdn.daydaynews.cc/wp-content/themes/begin/img/loading.gif)
