The Beijing International Film Festival (BJIFF) may be designed to celebrate cinema from all around the world but it's also championing some of China's lesser-known filmmakers, with the highlight being the King Hu retrospective that took place this week.

King Hu – the stage name of Hu Jinquan – shouldn't be a "lesser-known" filmmaker: born and raised in Beijing, he moved to Hong Kong in the early 1950s and began working in the art department for the legendary Shaw Brothers. Working his way up the ranks, he began his career as a director in 1964 with "The Story of Sue San" but made his name with three Chinese swordplay films that would go on to define the genre - "Come Drink With Me," "Dragon Inn" and the epic "A Touch of Zen."

Hu has essentially been relegated to a footnote in cinema history in ways that make for unfortunate comparisons to other filmmakers. His position as the godfather of modern swordplay film makes him a Chinese analog to John Ford, who was instrumental in the development of the western – broadly, the American equivalent to swordplay – genre but then got overlooked when more flashy and violent westerns from directors like Sergio Leone and Sam Peckinpah came to the fore; Hu's competitors included chanbara  – broadly, the Japanese equivalent to swordplay - director Toshiya Fujuita and Lau Kar-leung.

Also, away from genre cinema, his career mirrors that of France's Jean-Luc Godard in the sense that while Hu worked consistently for three decades, he never escaped the shadow of his early work. Godard is still making movies, yet their influence dropped dramatically after 1967's "Week End"; "A Touch of Zen" was released in 1971 and followed by ten films that almost instantly faded into obscurity.

But, the BJIFF's King Hu season includes four films from the 1970s that were made after "A Touch of Zen": "The Fate of Lee Khan," "The Valiant Ones," "Raining in the Mountain" and "Legend of the Mountain" and these were the films I made a point of catching.

For example, in "The Fate of Lee Khan", Hu's dynamic camera movements, allegorical script and fight choreography by Sammo Hung combine to create a period martial arts drama that still manages to feel fresh while also feeling like a second go at "Dragon Inn."

It is undeniable that there are lesser works – you can, after all, only break ground once – but they're also very clearly the product of a master of his craft. Less discursive and mythological than his earlier, fantastical work, and also repetitive in theme and content but made to such fine standards that they're still a joy to watch.

The BJIFF runs until April 22.