2 films by star Hong Kong directors Ronny Yu and Tsui Hark you probably haven’t seen

Chow Yun-fat and Sally Yeh charmed in Yu’s 1984 horror The Occupant, while Tsui joined Joey Wong and Sam Hui in 1985 comedy Working Class

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Teddy Robin (left) and Tsui Hark in a still from Working Class. Hark both directed and acted in this 1985 comedy about workers in a noodle factory trying to get the better of their bosses. Photo: Handout

Published: 3:15pm, 27 Jul 2025Updated: 3:18pm, 27 Jul 2025

Ronny Yu Yan-tai made unusual ghost films before becoming a superstar director with the kung fu fantasy The Bride With White Hair, while Tsui Hark made comedies before reinventing the martial arts genre in the 1990s.

Here we look at two relatively unseen works from the star Hong Kong directors.

The Occupant (1984)

“Long before he scared Hollywood with The Bride of Chucky and Freddy vs. Jason, director Ronny Yu Yan-tai made this spooky horror hit for Cinema City, a suspenseful mystery that is high on atmosphere and style,” noted the Hong Kong Film Archive in its programme note on the film.

The Occupant is a very lightweight ghost story, a potpourri of ghostly horror, romance and comedy delivered in equal measures in a carefully understated style.

The slim storyline is acceptable even though there are holes, and a top-flight cast of Sally Yeh Chian-wen, Chow Yun-fat and even kung fu legend Lo Lieh in a thoroughly thespian role delivers so much charm that it overrides the film’s faults.

Comedian Raymond Wong Pak-ming – one of Cinema City’s co-founders – is acceptably funny, too, even though his role as an annoying and nerdy would-be Casanova was designed to irritate.

The story – and the mystery – is so slim it is almost non-existent. Yeh’s Canadian resident is writing a university thesis on Chinese paranormal activities and, by chance, moves into a haunted house when she visits Hong Kong to do some research.

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