Koan Hui has been Tsui Hark assistant for many years and was involved with the production of Time and Tide (scriptwriter, 2nd unit director and sound mixer) for which he created some of the most brilliant visuals.
Koan Hui supervised as well the post-production for Legend of Zu. He is may be the new blood that the Hong Kong cinema was waiting for. He was nominated for the 20th Hong-Kong Film Awards in 2001 for Best Sound Effects in Time And Tide.
Let get to know him a bit more.
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East Is Red (Swordsman 3)
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Working for the master |
HKCinemagic:
What have you done before joining the Film Workshop (Tsui Hark's production company)?
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Koan Hui: I was studying before I joined the Film Workshop in 1991. |
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HKCinemagic:
What did you do before working on The Blade (1995) ?
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Koan Hui: Before writing the script for The Blade I worked as Tsui Hark's assistant director. |
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HKCinemagic:
How did you work with Tsui Hark before and during The Blade's production?
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Koan Hui: We spent time discussing the theme and characters. Then I wrote the script and usually afterwards there were some re-writing. For Time & Tide we spent almost a year re-writing. Then during production, we noticed some of the actor characteristics and made adjustments to fully optimise the potential of the actors. |
The Blade
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HKCinemagic:
How did you work with director Daniel Lee on Black Mask (1996) ?
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Koan Hui: Daniel Lee is a very visual director, and I also draw illustrations so we shared a similar approach to the story. We enjoyed searching for a distinct visual style and incorporating it into the Black Maskworld. |
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HKCinemagic:
In Time and Tide, Wu Bai said that there were a lot of script changes during the shooting. How did you
tackle that?
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Koan Hui: As I've mentioned before and after the actors began to play we discovered some
specificity of their own personality that could enhance the characters in the film. That's why we re-wrote the script to give more life to the story. |
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HKCinemagic: You worked as a second-unit director as well. How did you manage this situation under Tsui Hark's management?
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Koan Hui: I have worked with Tsui for many years, we have evolved together in search of new ways of visual expression, and therefore it was quite a natural process for me to take up
the direction for the 2nd unit. Also as I was writing the script some of the visuals became quite strong in my mind. For instance, the fight scene where Wu Bai jumped between the buildings was something I always wanted to shoot for many years and finally in this film we were able to bring it to screen. |
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HKCinemagic: What are your current projects?
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Koan Hui:
At the moment, I'm supervising the post-production for Tsui's Legend of Zu (2001) . 80% of the film is CGI work (computer-generated imaging), and it is a gigantic task.
After that, I plan to direct my first feature, hopefully it will happen this year. |
Legend of Zu
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HKCinemagic: Thank you very much for your time and good luck for yours projects.
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