When Hui returned to Hong Kong after her stay in London, she became an assistant to prominent Chinese film director
King Hu. She then began working for
Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB) as a scriptwriter-director and produced documentaries such as
Wonderful, four episodes of
CID, two of
Social Worker, and one of the
Dragon, Tiger, Panther series. In March 1977 she directed six dramas for the
Independent Commission Against Corruption, a Hong Kong organization created to clean up government misconduct. Two of these films were so controversial that they were banned. A year later, Hui directed three episodes of
Below the Lion Rock, a documentary series about people from Hong Kong, produced by public broadcasting station,
Radio Television Hong Kong. The most recognized episode of Hui's is
Boy from Vietnam (1978), which is the start of her Vietnam Trilogy. In 1979, Hui finally directed her first feature-length film,
The Secret, which presents images from the gloomy and dreary old
Western District, with its worn-out mansions, shadowy alleys, fallen leaves and religious rituals, such as the ceremonial rite of releasing the soul from purgatory by burning paper money and cutting off the head of a chicken. In the 1980s, Hui's career was growing internationally. The most popular films of that time were Eastern variations of Hollywood gangster and action films. But Hui did not follow the trend, and instead created more personal films. Many of her best films dealt with cultural displacement. In particular, her central characters are often forced to relocate to another country where they struggle to learn and survive. Hui explores the characters' reactions to new environments and their responses to their return home. During this "New Wave" period, most of her films are sharp and tough, with satirical and political metaphors, reflecting her concern for people; for women; for orphans devastated by war; and for Vietnamese refugees. Her best known works in this category are
The Story of Woo Viet (1981) and
Boat People (1982) – the remaining two parts of her Vietnam Trilogy.
Boat People won the
Hong Kong Film Awards for Best Film and Best Director. Although Hui has directed some generic films, another common theme she works with is family conflict, such as in the 1990 film
My American Grandson. Hui's concern for regular people, and especially women, became the most common theme in her films. She creates stories of the experiences of women. Hui said in an interview that she wanted to do more socially conscious projects. She knew the difficulties of finding projects that would do that and "attract investors as well as appeal to the public." Her goal was to "present something that is watchable and at the same time attractive" and allow the public to analyse the social issues involved. Hui is known for making controversial films; the interview, in particular, described the horrors of increased crime and unemployment rates in
Tin Shui Wai, Hong Kong. Two of her films that focus on these issues are
The Way We Are (2008) and
Night and Fog (2009), while maintaining a motif of displacement. The 45th annual Hong Kong International Film Festival was held in April 2021. Hui was one of the six veteran Hong Kong filmmakers who directed
Johnnie To Kei-Fung's highly anticipated anthology film:
Septet: The Story of Hong Kong (2020). The other filmmakers were
Sammo Hung,
Ringo Lam,
Patrick Tam Kar-Ming,
Tsui Hark,
Yuen Woo-ping and Johnnie To. The short films were shot entirely on 35 mm film; each touches on a nostalgic and moving story set across different time periods, with each an ode to the city.
Vietnam Trilogy "Collectively, the three have been named the 'Trilogy of Vietnam', as they all focus on problems involving Vietnam. They are about the tragic destinies of displaced individuals seeking a place to which they can belong and who are struggling in a period of changes, leading in the end to failure." This film is historical: in the late 1970s, a large number of
Vietnamese boat people illegally immigrated to Hong Kong. This film describes the experience of those who risked their lives in Hong Kong, and shows the setbacks, discrimination and exploitation they experienced when they were only teens. In 1981,
The Story of Woo Viet continued to examine the problem of Vietnamese boat people. Woo Viet, an overseas Chinese from Vietnam, smuggles himself into Hong Kong after trying many times. He gets a pen pal from Hong Kong to help him start over in the United States. However, he is stuck in the Philippines as a hired killer for saving his love. This film describes the hardship of smuggling, the memories of war, the sinister nature of refugee camps, and the crisis in Chinatown. In 1982, the People's Republic of China, having just ended a war with Vietnam, permitted Hui to film on
Hainan Island.
Boat People (1982) set in 1978, after the Communist Party began its rule over Vietnam, through the point of view of a Japanese photojournalist, Shiomi Akutagawa, showed the condition of society and political chaos after the Vietnam War.
Boat People was the first Hong Kong movie filmed in Communist China. Hui saved a role for
Chow Yun-fat, but because at that time Hong Kong actors working in mainland China were banned in Taiwan, Chow Yun-fat declined the role out of fear of being
blacklisted. Six months before filming was set to start, and after the film crew was already on location in Hainan, a cameraman suggested that Hui give the role to
Andy Lau. At that time, Lau was still a newcomer in the Hong Kong film industry. Hui gave Lau the role and flew him to Hainan before a proper audition or even seeing what he looked like.
Transition from television to film Hui left television in 1979, making her first feature,
The Secret, a mystery thriller based on a real-life murder case and starring Taiwanese star
Sylvia Chang. It was immediately hailed as an important film in the Hong Kong New Wave.
The Spooky Bunch (1981) was her take on the
ghost story genre, while
The Story of Woo Viet (1981) continued her Vietnam Trilogy. Hui experimented with special effects and daring angles; her preoccupation with sensitive political and social issues is a recurrent feature in most of her subsequent films.
Boat People (1982), the third part of her Vietnam Trilogy, is the most famous of her early films. It examines the plight of the Vietnamese after the
Vietnam War. In the mid-1980s Hui continued her string of critically acclaimed works.
Love in a Fallen City (1984) was based on a novella by
Eileen Chang, and the two-part, ambitious
wuxia adaptation of
Louis Cha's first novel,
The Book and the Sword, was divided into
The Romance of Book and Sword (1987) and
Princess Fragrance (1987). In 1990, one of her most important works to date, the semi-autobiographical
The Song of Exile, was released. The film looks into the loss of identity, disorientation and despair faced by an exiled mother and a daughter faced with clashes in culture and historicity. As in the film, Hui's mother was Japanese.
Post-hiatus work After a brief hiatus in which she returned briefly to television, Hui returned with
Summer Snow (1995), about a middle-aged woman trying to cope with everyday family problems and an
Alzheimer's-inflicted father-in-law. In 1996, she was a member of the jury at the
46th Berlin International Film Festival.
Eighteen Springs (1997) reprises another Eileen Chang novel. Hui's
Ordinary Heroes (1999), about Chinese and Hong Kong political activists from 1970s to the 1990s, won the Best Feature at the
Golden Horse Awards. In 2002, her
July Rhapsody, the companion film to
Summer Snow about a middle-aged male teacher facing a
mid-life crisis, was released to good reviews in Hong Kong and elsewhere. Her film,
Jade Goddess of Mercy (2003), starring
Zhao Wei and
Nicholas Tse, was adapted from a novel from Chinese writer
Hai Yan. In 2008, Hui directed the highly acclaimed domestic drama,
The Way We Are. In an interview with Esther M. K. Cheung, Hui recalls working on
The Way We Are being the same as working during her "earlier TVB days".
The Way We Are was followed by
Night and Fog. "The two films revolve around the mundane lives of the inhabitants of
Tin Shui Wai's public housing blocks." In an interview with
Muse magazine, Hui explains how she sees the two films as about something uniquely Hong Kong: "[on
Night and Fog] I think that this film can represent something; it can express a kind of feeling about the middle and lower class, and maybe even Hong Kong as a whole. Everyone can eat at McDonald's or shop at malls. That's a way of life, but spiritually, there's dissatisfaction, especially with families on welfare. They don't really have any worries about life, but there's an unspeakable feeling of depression.
A Simple Life (2011) premiered at the
68th Venice International Film Festival where it was nominated for the
Golden Lion. The film centres on the relationship of two characters, Ah Tao (
Deanie Ip) and Roger (
Andy Lau). It is a tale about a master and his long-time servant and was based on the relationship producer Roger Lee had with his servant. The film was chosen as
Hong Kong's submission to the
Academy Awards but did not make the shortlist. Hui could not afford to film
A Simple Life until she found Andy Lau. "You make a movie and a lot of people ask you why you do it, and this time I was moved by one person's behavior, by the script." "Because she has always shot a very authentic Hong Kong theme, the reaction on the mainland will not be too special", said Andy Lau. When Hui reached him, she said something that made him sad: "I haven't had enough money for a long time. Can you help me?" Andy Lau said it touched him. "I feel so sad. Sometimes when you make a movie, they say, aren't you afraid to lose money? It's not the best-selling, it's not the most famous, but sometimes you're moved, maybe it's the action, maybe it's the script, and the many little drops add together to make me do it. I work hard to make money every day, so I won't be stupid". He invested 30 million yuan before
Yu Dong (president of Bona Film Group Limited) joined. "Both the director and I wanted the film to come out, so we calculated the cost and used it to produce, what I lost was just my salary, just count it as finding someone to play with me for two months." Hui's 2014 film
The Golden Era premiered out of competition at the
71st Venice International Film Festival. It was a biopic based on the lives of writers
Xiao Hong and
Xiao Jun.
Tang Wei and
Feng Shaofeng starred.
Our Time Will Come () is a 2017
war film, starring
Zhou Xun,
Eddie Peng and
Wallace Huo. It revolves around the resistance movement during Japan's occupation of Hong Kong. Mark Jenkins writes, "Fictionalized from actual events, the sumptuously photographed drama centers on Lan (
Zhou Xun), a teacher before the Japanese closed the local schools. After she helps smuggle out a noted author (
Guo Tao), the young woman is recruited by the insurgents' swashbuckling leader (
Eddie Peng). Lan eventually learns that her ex (
Wallace Huo Chienhwa) has infiltrated the occupation headquarters, where he discusses classical Chinese verse with a Japanese officer (
Masatoshi Nagase, who also portrayed another poetry lover in '
Paterson')." The film opened in China on 1 July 2017, to commemorate and to coincide with the 20th anniversary of
the handover of Hong Kong from the United Kingdom to China. In 2022, Hui was invited to be the Jury President of the
59th Golden Horse Awards. In February 2024, Hui served as a jury member at the
74th Berlin International Film Festival. ==Style, themes and legacy==