He was born in Shanghai in 11/19/1935. He came to HK in 1949 and started working as an assistant cinematographer at Nanguo Studio. He eventually joined Shaw Brothers in 1964 where he worked with Chang Cheh as assistant director in The Butterfly Chalice (1965) and Tiger Boy (1966). He directed the first ever colour Wuxia for the studio Temple of the Red Lotus (1965) and its subsequent sequels Twin Swords (1965) and The Sword and the Lute (1967). His last film for the studio will be Swordsman at Large (1971).

Hsu joined Golden Harvest (HK) Limited in 1971 and directed the Chinese version of Zatoichi and the One-Armed Swordsman, a parallel to the Japanese version directed by Kimiyoshi Yasuda. (Excerpt taken from Hong Kong Film Archive).