Hu grew up in Beijing as a child, and emigrated to British Hong Kong in 1949. at first he wanted to study in the United States, but could not raise the money for tuition.
[4] After moving to Hong Kong, Hu worked in a variety of occupations, such as advertising consultant, artistic designer and producer for a number of media companies, as well as a part-time English tutor.
Under the influence of Taiwanese director Li Han-Hsiang, Hu embarked on a directorial career, helping him on the phenomenally successful The Love Eterne (1963).
Leaving the Shaw Brothers Studio in 1966, Hu travelled to Taiwan, where he made another wuxia movie, Dragon Inn.
Dragon Inn broke box office records and became a phenomenal hit and cult classic, especially in Southeast Asia.
Late in his life, he made a brief return from semi-retirement in The Swordsman (1990) and Painted Skin (1992), but neither achieved the renown of his first two, financially successful wuxia films.
While Kurosawa had a direct influence on Hu, the comparison with Minnelli is equally apt since both men were highly cultured aesthetes who paid special attention to the décor and art direction of their films and who reveled in the ability of mise-en-scène, movement and the spatial composition of the frame to express character and the relations between characters.”[2] The British Film Institute wrote that "Hu is not simply the progenitor of the wuxia blockbuster: he goes beyond the escapist pleasures of the genre to take the audience on spiritual journeys that confound expectations.
[2] Directors that have cited his influence include Tsui Hark, John Woo, Ang Lee, Wong Kar-Wai, and Tsai Ming-liang.