At one time, Hong Kong films were also an important force that could not be ignored in the world film industry. At its peak, Hong Kong films contributed about 200 to 300 films every year. It may not seem like much, but compared with the population and area of Hong Kong, it is a huge number.
Hong Kong films involve a wide range of topics and types, and there are some well-known directors, but not many of them can afford the title of film director master. Usually, people think they can be called masters, such as Hu Jinquan (martial arts film), Li Hanxiang (romantic film), Zhang Che (martial arts film), Tsui Hark (martial arts film), Wong Kar-wai (literary film), Xu Anhua (literary film) and John Woo (gangster film). There is only one martial arts film unique to our Chinese-speaking circle. Martial arts movies can be said to be a unique film type in China. Like American westerns and Japanese samurai films, it is one of the unique contributions made by China's films to the world movies, and it also occupies an important position in the world movie history.
Off topic, let's talk about Tsui Hark's personal experience. You can refer to Baidu Encyclopedia. Tsui Hark is a professional filmmaker with western education, especially in innovation. When you talk about the film Dong Fangbubai in Jianghu, you can see that Tsui Hark is involved in the producer, producer and screenwriter of this film. For the specific affairs of producers, producers and screenwriters, you can read the encyclopedia. What needs to be pointed out here is that Hong Kong films are different from other countries' film markets, and the loss of directors is not the most severe. It is often the most powerful person in the crew who decides the tone and artistic taste of a film. As we all know, Tsui Hark established Tsui Hark's film studio earlier. Like Universal Pictures in Li Xiuxian and Galaxy Images in Siu Fai Mak, Du Qifeng, Tsui Hark belongs to an independent production company that provides movies for investors. The investor mentioned here refers to the Golden Princess Film and Television Company. Alas, I have to mention Xiao and Jiahe here. How can I put it? Shaw dominated the world in early Hong Kong movies, and later tied with Jiahe. Princess Jin is a rising star, not as good as the above two companies in terms of talents. Mainly by investing in independent filmmakers to get the film source. Tsui Hark Film Studio is one of the most famous independent filmmakers. You can look at a series of works by Tsui Hark Film Studio, from the pioneering work One Night in Shanghai to The True Color of Heroes, and so on. Excellent works emerge one after another. The True Color of Heroes makes John Woo unique and go down in history. Among them, Tsui Hark, as the boss, as the producer and producer of this film, contributed as much as John Woo. Before meeting Tsui Hark, John Woo directed comedies, and even wandered around Taiwan Province Province, nobody cared. After I met Tsui Hark, I became the first China director to leave his name on the Avenue of Stars. Here we can see Tsui Hark's understanding of people.
The relationship between Tsui Hark and Cheng Xiaodong is very complicated. It is generally believed that Tsui Hark and Cheng Xiaodong have created new martial arts films. They all participated in Ghost Story series, Dong Fangbubai in the legendary swordsman and Xinlongmen Inn. Here you can compare other works of Process Xiaodong without Tsui Hark's participation (how many can you remember), and you can see what Tsui Hark injected into these films. In fact, when most people mention Cheng Xiaodong, they pay more attention to his achievements and contributions in Wushu teaching. The so-called five fingers (Cheng Xiaodong, Yuan Kui, Liu Jialiang, Sammo Hung, Yuan Heping), Cheng Xiaodong is good at martial arts design and graceful movements, which is unique in the martial arts world. As for the other Li Huimin director you mentioned, you can go and see his other works. You can understand it by comparing it.
Tsui Hark's contribution to martial arts films is mainly reflected in innovation. You can look at the works of Hu Jinquan, Zhang Che and Chu Yuan, the representatives of the old martial arts films, and then compare the new martial arts films created by Tsui Hark. The most obvious differences are shooting skills, editing and screenwriter. Tsui Hark is good at lively and smooth editing and clever martial arts design, which gives the audience better visual enjoyment and pleasure. Here I will focus on the Huang Feihong series, which is the masterpiece of Tsui Hark-style martial arts movies. This series not only successfully excavated Jet Li, a future world-renowned kung fu movie superstar, but also turned a new page for Huang Feihong, the most photographed figure in film history. Look at Huang Feihong's works before Tsui Hark. Before Tsui Hark, Huang Feihong, the father of Kwan Tak-hing, played Huang Feihong the most times and was deeply rooted in people's hearts. Look at that image, the image of Jet Li, the martial arts design at that time, and Yuan Heping's brand-new martial arts design for new Huang Feihong, and you can see how many qualitative changes Tsui Hark has brought to martial arts films. Actually, if you think about it carefully, how many well-known martial arts works can we remember (not to mention the works of Hu Jinquan and Zhang Che here)? Jackie Chan's action movies are not strictly martial arts movies, but humorous kung fu movies, and Stephen Chow's costume comedies are even less chivalrous. I think there are not a few people who watch Hong Kong movies, and they can barely be regarded as martial arts fans, but those works that are really often mentioned and can be called martial arts masterpieces, Xu Laoguai said the most.
Therefore, Tsui Hark's main achievement is to inject brand-new ideas and technologies into martial arts films and repackage traditional martial arts films with technologies learned from the West. Of course, I'm not saying that Xu Laoguai is perfect, especially in recent years, the films he made are not as good as before, from the new swordsman in Shushan to the seven swordsman to the flying sword in Longmen as you said. Flying swords of dragon gate, in particular, is Tsui Hark's greatest failure in recent years. Personally, I think this film can't be compared with Xinlongmen Inn. First of all, this film seriously compromised the market and enabled some roles that should not appear in martial arts movies at all. It seems that the elites of China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Hong Kong are gathered together, but in fact, they have to take care of more people watching movies. In addition, the martial arts design is nothing new, and there are almost no martial arts scenes that I can remember after seeing them. The plot is even more self-explanatory, full of loopholes, and the most unbearable thing is that Tsui Hark deliberately added several scenes to highlight the 3d movie in order to highlight the 3D effect. This is the most annoying. It can be seen that the success of the box office is not necessarily the high quality level of the film. It can only show that its marketing method is correct. I don't want to say anything else, but you may not like it, hehe.
I am just an ordinary Hong Kong film fan myself. My level is naturally limited and my writing is even worse. Moreover, my preface is often irrelevant, even irrelevant. I hope I didn't confuse you more. I didn't make it clear in many places. If you want a broader and more professional understanding, I recommend you to read some professional expositions. One is the History of Hong Kong Films written by Wei Junzi, which discusses in detail some little-known history and anecdotes of Hong Kong films since the establishment of Shaw Company. After reading it, you will naturally understand what I didn't make clear. In addition, you can watch several special series about martial arts movies in the tenth screening room of CCTV, and also introduce the contribution and status of Tsui Hark's works. There is also an issue of "The Story of Lao Liang" dedicated to the shooting of the new Longmen Inn, which can also be referred to. If you want to know what foreign professionals say about Hong Kong movies and martial arts movies, you can refer to David Bordwell's The Secret of Hong Kong Movies. Of course, this is just a suggestion. In fact, you can have a general understanding by looking at the relevant figures of Baidu Encyclopedia.
I hope my answer is helpful to you.