Hui's concern for regular people, and especially women, became the most common theme in her films. She creates stories of the subjective experience of women. One of her most personal works is "Song of the Exile" (1990), a semi-autobiographical film about family connections and identity. It depicts the story of a young woman, Cheung Hueyin, returning to Hong Kong for her sister's wedding after studying film in London for several years. Hueyin and her mother, who is Japanese, do not seem to have a steady relationship. As the film follows Hueyin's journey to her mother's hometown in Japan, Hueyin and her mother are forced to reexamine their relationship, as both have lived through being uprooted from one's own country. The film won both the Hong Kong Film Awards and Golden Horse Award for Best Director. She served as the president of the Hong Kong Film Director's Guild in 2004.