An image of Hong Kong film-maker Tsui Hark that has remained stuck in my mind is of him as a straitjacketed escapee from the mental institution going “Beeboobeeboo!” in the action comedy Part 2, Mad Mission: Aces Go Places (1983).

It captures in one indelible instant the 60-year-old as a madcap genius. Whether you think of him as more mad or genius depends pretty much on which movie of his you catch as he swings from one end to the other.

At his best, he is like a mad scientist who blithely blends genres to come up with movies that are original, visually arresting, funny and just a blast to watch. When the concoction works, his brand of anarchic energy is irresistible.

His directorial debut in 1979, The Butterfly Murders, mixed wuxia, crime and sci-fi. Peking Opera Blues (1986), about the adventures of three unlikely heroines during the chaotic early years of the Republic of China, deftly married action, comedy and Peking opera. It has been widely hailed as his masterpiece.

He has also demonstrated a knack for casting the right actor in the right role.

The wide-eyed Sally Yeh was a hoot as a naive country girl in the war-time musical comedy Shanghai Blues (1984) and as the daughter of an opera troupe leader in Peking Opera Blues.

Sometimes, he would see something no one else did in an actor and it would turn out to be spot on.

Brigitte Lin was best known for playing lovelorn heroines in a string of tearjerkers in the 1970s. Yet he cast her as a tomboy who dresses in men’s clothes in Peking Opera Blues. Transgender parts would later become something of a calling card for her in roles such as a castrated male sorcerer in Swordsman II (1992).

When he felt like doing it, he could offer some exhilarating action sequences.

The fantasy wuxia flick Zu: Warriors From The Magic Mountain (1983) featured groundbreaking special effects for Chinese-language cinema then. Watching screen idols Lin and Adam Cheng duel on flying elephant statues was just the coolest thing ever for a primary school kid, even if the ambiguities of gender, identity and morality all flew over my head.

In the early 1990s, he made the Once Upon A Time In China gongfu series. True, the action sequences in the furiously paced and inventive flicks about folk hero Wong Fei Hung, played by Jet Li, were not choreographed by him but he captured them with economy and flair.

Later that decade, Tsui seemed to lose focus with a detour to Hollywood.

Both critics and fans hated Double Team (1997), a buddy action film with the Muscles from Brussels Jean-Claude Van Damme and one-time basketball star Dennis Rodman, and Knock Off (1998), in which Van Damme plays a fashion industry rep who ends up fighting terrorism. Even a one-line summary of these films alone sounds alarmingly bad.

If his Hollywood misadventure could be blamed on the lack of total creative control – a common complaint among Hong Kong film-makers who are used to having the final say – there is a criticism he will find harder to dodge, that he has resorted to sequels and retreads far too often.

He helmed the gangster flick A Better Tomorrow III (1989) as well as Once Upon A Time In China parts I, II, III and V.

To be fair, a sequel is not in and of itself a bad thing and the second instalment of Once Upon A Time In China is widely regarded as the most brilliant entry in the series.

But the lacklustre sci-fi actioner Black Mask 2: City Of Masks (2002) and the cliched and exaggerated humour of All About Women (2008), originally meant to be an update of Peking Opera Blues, give sequels the bad name they deserve for being unimaginative and mercenary.

With his latest, the compelling Tang dynasty whodunnit Detective Dee And The Mystery Of The Phantom Flame, he is back in form. It is hard to say if this is part of an upward trajectory since the man has had more ups and downs in his career than a gymnast on a trampoline.

According to reports, American auteur Quentin Tarantino said Peking Opera Blues was either one of the greatest films ever made or one of the craziest.

When it comes to Tsui Hark, either, or both, could be true.

(ST)