1980 made his first attempt as a director and directed the film "Mysterious Giant Buddha", which can be regarded as a martial arts film. Although the audience has different views on this film, the audience's love for martial arts movies has aroused Huaxun Zhang's thinking. He believes that China is the birthplace of martial arts, and martial arts is a pearl in China's cultural treasure house. Can't you make a China martial arts film with China characteristics? To this end, he went deep into life, became familiar with the situation, looked through historical materials, attended the national martial arts conferences held in An and Shenyang successively, got to know many famous domestic martial artists, listened to them talk about martial arts and tell stories, and finished the creation of the film Wu Linzhi on 1982. During the filming, Huaxun Zhang learned the lesson of the mysterious Buddha, didn't he? Instead, we should treat the film as a tragic drama. The film should have thoughts, depth, stories and characters. Martial arts should be authentic, and mysterious "superman" movements should not be done. The treatment of some exaggerations should be limited to the true and credible range, so as to enhance the realism of martial arts and reflect the realistic style. Wu Linzhi's shot combination and scene change are simple, vivid and easy to understand. As soon as it was released, it aroused strong resonance from the audience. The film won the second prize of excellent film of the Ministry of Culture 1984. Later, Huaxun Zhang made films such as Tide, Lohan with a Big Belly, Romance of Wutai Mountain, Chivalrous Woman in White, Casting Sword, etc. Most of them are martial arts films, and his films are different from those in Taiwan Province and Hongkong. Although there are some shortcomings, it can be said that he pioneered China's martial arts films and made indelible contributions to China's films.

Huaxun Zhang's director style is excellent. He has been very diligent in filming, and his professionalism has been praised by the film industry.

1996, Huaxun Zhang was invited to be the director of the TV series "The Romance of Sui and Tang Dynasties" and left the crew because of a conflict with the producer. This debate has left a deep reflection on whether China can implement the "producer-centered system".

The son is a famous mainland director JASON ZHANG (Zhang Yang).