Original sentence: Flying in the face of an industry downturn in the '90s, he produced two expensive and unpopular movies that proved he could fold the caustic cynicism of his early work into his blockbuster formula.Green Snake (1993) was an erotic and darkly apocalyptic take on a favorite Chinese fairy tale.Peking Opera Blues (1986) plays with and pays tribute to the traditions of the Peking opera that his mother took him to see as a small boy (Bordwell, 2000) and which had such a strong influence on Hong Kong action cinema.The Blade (1995) was a gory, deliberately rough-hewn and anti-heroic revision of the 1967 wuxia classic The One-Armed Swordsman.Tsui wasn't always content to rest on his box office laurels
Edited sentence: Examples included Green Snake (1993), a darkly apocalyptic take on a favorite Chinese fairy tale, and the startlingly feral martial arts picture The Blade (1995).Flying in the face of a downturn, he produced some ambitious and eccentric movies that proved the caustic cynicism of his early work wasn't dead, and also proved expensive and unpopular.In the '90s, Tsui proved that he wasn't always content to rest on his box office laurels.Peking Opera Blues (1986) plays with and pays tribute to the traditions of Peking opera that his mother took him to see as a small boy (Bordwell, 2000) and which had such a strong influence on Hong Kong action cinema