Editing Tsui Hark (section)

===1980s–2000s: Golden era===
In 1981, Tsui joined [[Cinema City & Films Co.]], a production company founded by comedians [[Raymond Wong (film presenter)|Raymond Wong]], [[Karl Maka]] and [[Dean Shek]]. Cinema City & Films Co. was instrumental in codifying the slick Hong Kong blockbuster films of the 1980s.{{citation needed|date=August 2021}} Tsui played his part in the process with pictures like the crime farce ''[[All the Wrong Clues]]'' (1981), his first hit, and ''[[Aces Go Places 3]]'' (1984), part of the studio's long-running spy spoof series.

In 1983, Tsui directed the [[wuxia]] fantasy film ''[[Zu Warriors from the Magic Mountain]]'' (1983) for the studio [[Orange Sky Golden Harvest|Golden Harvest]]. Tsui imported Hollywood technicians to help create special effects whose number and complexity were unprecedented in Chinese-language cinema.{{citation needed|date=August 2021}}

In 1984, Tsui formed the production company [[Film Workshop]] with [[Nansun Shi]]. He also developed a reputation as a hands-on and even intrusive producer of other directors' work, fuelled by public breaks with major filmmakers like [[John Woo]] and [[King Hu]]. His most longstanding and fruitful collaboration has probably been with [[Ching Siu-tung]].{{citation needed|date=August 2021}} As action choreographer and/or director on many Film Workshop productions, Ching made a major contribution to the well-known Tsui style.

Film Workshop releases became consistent box office hits in Hong Kong and around Asia, drawing audiences with their visual adventurousness, their broad commercial appeal, and hectic camerawork and pace. With Tsui having been called the 'Steven Spielberg of Asia', Film Workshop became the 'Amblin of Hong Kong'.<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=CORLISS |first1=Richard |title=He makes movies move That's why Tsui Hark is the Hong Kong Spielberg |url=http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2047487,00.html |magazine=Time |date=2 July 2001 |access-date=8 August 2021}}</ref> He produced [[John Woo]]'s ''[[A Better Tomorrow]]'' (1986), which launched a craze for [[Heroic bloodshed]] movies, and Ching Siu-tung's ''[[A Chinese Ghost Story]]'' (1987), which did the same for period ghost fantasies. ''[[Zu Warriors from the Magic Mountain]]'' and ''[[The Swordsman (1990 film)|The Swordsman]]'' (1990) birthed the modern-day special effects industry in Hong Kong.

In fact, Tsui's "movie brat" nostalgia is one of the main ingredients in his work. He often resurrects and revises classic films and genres: the murder mystery in ''[[The Butterfly Murders]]'' (1979); the Shanghai musical comedy in ''Shanghai Blues'' (1985). ''[[Peking Opera Blues]]'' (1986) plays with and pays tribute to the traditions of the [[Peking opera]] that his mother took him to see as a small boy and which had such a strong influence on Hong Kong action cinema. ''[[The Lovers (1994 film)|The Lovers]]'' (1994) adapts a retold, cross-dressing period romance, best known from Li Han-hsiang's 1963 opera film ''The Love Eterne''. ''A Chinese Ghost Story'' remakes Li's supernatural romance ''The Enchanting Shadow'' (1959) as a special effects action movie.

The pattern is also seen in perhaps Tsui's most successful work to date, the [[Once Upon a Time in China (film series)|''Once Upon a Time in China'' film series]] (1991–97). [[Jet Li]] played the role of Chinese folk hero [[Wong Fei-hung]] in the first three films and the sixth, ''[[Once Upon a Time in China and America]]''. This series is the clearest expression in his oeuvre of Tsui's Chinese nationalism and his passionate engagement with the upheavals of Chinese history, particularly in the face of Western power and influence.

Tsui also dabbled in acting, mostly for other directors. Notable roles include one-third of the comic relief trio in [[Corey Yuen]]'s film ''[[Yes, Madam (1985 film)|Yes, Madam]]!'' (1985) and a villain in [[Patrick Tam (film director)|Patrick Tam]]'s darkly comic crime story ''Final Victory'' (1987), written by [[Wong Kar-wai]]. He also made frequent cameo appearances in his own productions, such as a music judge in ''[[A Better Tomorrow]]'' and a phony FBI agent in ''[[Aces Go Places II]]''.

In the face of an industry downturn in the '90s, he produced two expensive movies. ''[[Green Snake (1993 film)|Green Snake]]'' (1993) was a poetic and lyric movie based on a favourite Chinese fairy tale. ''[[The Blade (film)|The Blade]]'' (1995) was a gory, deliberately rough-hewn revision of the 1967 [[wuxia]] classic ''[[The One-Armed Swordsman]]''.

In the mid-to-late '90s, Tsui tried Hollywood with two films starring [[Jean-Claude Van Damme]]: ''[[Double Team (film)|Double Team]]'' (1997) and ''[[Knock Off (film)|Knock Off]]'' (1998). In 2002, he made ''[[Black Mask 2: City of Masks]]'', an American market sequel to Jet Li's [[Black Mask (film)|1996 film]]. It was released [[direct-to-video]] in the United States in December of that year before being theatrically released the next month in Hong Kong.