Born in 1947, Hui moved from Anshan, Liaoning province, to Hong Kong at age 5. After earning a master's degree in English and comparative literature from the University of Hong Kong, she studied filmmaking at the London Film School and entered the film industry in 1975.
She became a leading figure of the Hong Kong New Wave with her directorial debut, The Secret (1979), followed by such acclaimed works as The Spooky Bunch (1980), A Simple Life (2011), The Golden Era (2014) and Our Time Will Come (2017).
Hui has won the Hong Kong Film Award for Best Director six times. She also received the Asian Film Awards' Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011 and the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice International Film Festival in 2020.
