Top 10 Hong Kong Films

(Need to see: A Simple Life, Comrades: Almost a Love Story, in terms of films that seem up my street...Cold War, the Overheard films, all of John Woo's and more of Johnnie To's Hong Kong filmography, more of Wong Kar-Wai besides the films mentioned here, particularly want to see Happy Together and 2046; etc. I really have a lot more films I need to see...)

Hon. Mentions: Fatal Contact, Infernal Affairs II, CJ7

Hon. Mention: Echoes of the Rainbow

Now as I've said before this is an incomplete list due to my relative scarcity of HK films in my 'seen' list. Therefore there are a lot of films missing out here that would probably deserve a place, and also perhaps my latter half of my top 10 is not all that strong. Now Echoes of the Rainbow is far from a flawless film but I want to talk about its merits. Compare it to say, a similar coming-of-age story like the Taiwanese You Are the Apple of My Eye. That film was a struggle to get through and I must admit I did not finish, largely owing to the almost overflowing abundance of cliches pushed to the maximum (especially through the superfluous comic side characters), an unimaginative script and worst of all a terrible and obnoxious main character (and incredibly lacklustre lead performance). Now technically our lead hero here, Desmond, is not all that interestingly depicted or written either, but the point is he's used as a straightforward stick in the mud sort of fella whose impact is facilitated by the side characters like his loving parents (played well by Simon Yam and Sandra Ng) and Buzz Chung as the true star, his younger quirky brother. This too is a cliched film but the difference is that it makes these cliches endearing, and builds it towards a rather moving ending without feeling too manipulative.

10. Bodyguards and Assassins

This is technically a deeply flawed film that's perhaps a textbook definition of a 'mixed bag'. It's a mixed bag in a very odd way as well as different aspects of the film are mixed in different way, for example on the acting/characterization front, some characters start of strong and interestingly but end up becoming a bit generic (i.e. Donnie Yen's gambling addict turned generic Kung Fu fighter) while some other characters start off with very little promise but end up having a strangely affecting payoff (i.e. Lai Ming's badass with a past). The film is also very tonally inconsistent jumping from story to story with little coherence and resulting in a bit of a whiplash depending on which aspect of the bodyguard protection of Sun Yat-Sen we're focusing on. I still like the film a great deal though because of its heights. For every clumsy plot point there's some genuinely moving moments, most courtesy of Nicolas Tse's winningly heartfelt performance as a rickshaw driver and the sterling veteran work of Tony Leung-Ka Fai and Wang Xueqi. And for every generic kung fu action scene there's some genuinely inventive moments.

9. Unbeatable

I love a good old boxing film as much as the next guy and this certainly is a good one, albeit a missed opportunity in some ways. I found the central relationship between the two main characters in fact to be genuinely winning and quite brilliant in many ways, I was expecting the usual sort of 'tough love' and 'gradually grudingly growing to like you' sort of story beats but the more carefree, relaxed manner in which Nick Cheung and Eddie Peng generated their chemistry was rather inspired, and I quite loved it. Now I won't go any higher because I do feel beyond their chemistry and the boxing scenes everything else feels extremely rote and generic, and also I feel like the final fight would've worked better had they just left Peng's character in action, we didn't need the extra dramatics of him being beaten by the villain, in short this film would've been better off as more of a Creed than a Rocky IV.

8. Kung Fu Hustle

This is one film I'll admit, I'm not as in love with as many seem to be. It's funny for sure, the special effects are pretty amazing, the homages to films like The Matrix are pretty clever, and overall it's an incredibly entertaining watch. Nevertheless there seems to be something missing from it. The first half builds up to an entirely different film to what the second half gives us, so it seems, for example by turning it all into a very straightforward 'action man' showdown instead of utilizing that 'village camaraderie' atmosphere amongst the villagers. Now I need to re-watch this one for sure, but as it stands it's a good film but not the very best HK cinema has to offer.

7. Ip Man

This could go down a bit. I wasn't a big fan of the stylized, and in my opinion overly melodramatic The Grandmaster at all so it gained me a bit more appreciation for this first venture into the story of the famous master teacher of Wing Chun. It's actually fairly by-the-books in terms of directorial flair and production style. The acting is uniformly quite good, and Donnie Yen does a solid job in the lead role. What really makes it stand out though is the absolutely brilliant action choreography and the strong emotional undercurrent to it. The backdrop of the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong helps give it more depth than your standard kung fu picture, and though I don't love it (and again a re-watch of Kung Fu Hustle could bring this down) I certainly like it well enough.

6. Beast Cops

I think it's around this point I begin moving from 'quite liking' to 'kind of loving' the films I'm talking about here. Beast Cops has one major flaw in one of its leads, Michael Wong, being rather over-the-top and fairly wooden at the same time (as well as bursting into English at some seriously random intervals). Now funnily enough this major flaw actually adds to my enjoyment of the film as a somewhat ridiculous aspect of it, because the whole film is one ridiculous thrill-ride...ridiculously entertaining, that is. Anthony Wong-Chau Sang gives a spellbinding performance as the lazy, burnt-out corrupt Officer Tung, who really couldn't care less about his job, sharing an apartment with Michael Wong's Cheung and the uncouth and rather vile Sam (an incredibly entertaining and even somewhat endearing Sam Lee). The first half of the film is essentially a sort of buddy comedy and it works even with Michael Wong's lacking performance because Wong-Chau Sang is so good at being so effortlessly funny. And when the more serious aspects of the plot kick in, most of them involving Patrick Tam's villainous triad underling, the film still works very well, culminating in an absolutely brilliant, ballsy conclusion where Officer Tung takes on a surprisingly heartwarming and downright awesome turn for the greater good as he pumps himself up with adrenaline and alcohol to make things right.


5. Shaolin Soccer

Unlike Kung Fu Hustle I completely understand the love for this film. It's really just the best example of Stephen Chow's comical abilities I've seen and I quite adore it. It has one of the finest comic ensembles of recent years with all of the Shaolin Soccer players, their washed out coach, the hilariously OTT villains, and all of the smaller supporting players doing their bit to add to the tapestry of the film. The special effects I've seen criticism of for being a bit cheesy and unrealistic, but I disagree in that while they aren't perfect, they work incredibly well for the film's manic tone. Past that the script is consistently funny, and more importantly unlike Kung Fu Hustle where I found some of the messages and character arcs slightly obnoxious, this film has a genuine heart to it that I really love, and manages to be quite uplifting while never losing sight of the next opportunity for an excellent sight gag.

4. The Mission

I've repeated this cliché multiple times on here already, but sometimes simplicity really is key to making a film work. This is essentially Johnnie To's The Seven Samurai and while it doesn't quite reach the heights of that film (which really isn't saying anything as Seven Samurai is a near-perfect masterpiece) within its limitations (it's surprisingly short at bare over 80 minutes), it so perfectly establishes a sense of camaraderie amongst five very different triad members, brought together to protect Brother Lung (Eddy Ko) whom various mysterious assassins are out for his blood. What I love about this film is that it gets to the point in the best possible way. The introductions to each of the five principals is so efficiently done, with expositionary dialogue about their background pared down to the bare minimum, with To instead opting to convey their different personalities and approaches to their work through the actors' performances and their characterizations on the go as they reveal their natures through the job. Francis Ng's Roy and Anthony Wong's Curtis probably get the most focus out of the group as the ostensible leaders, and both their actors give superb performances, with Ng giving an incredibly compelling portrayal of a very emotional, hotheaded and yet deep down quite caring man, and Wong as the more lax sort whose chilled exterior belies an incisive professionalism and loyal dedication to his job underneath. Jackie Lui, as Roy's second-in-command is incredibly likable and manages his little arc very well, Lam Suet as the gun expert is enjoyably uncouth, fun and badass while barely uttering any lines and chewing on lotus seeds, and Roy Cheung might be my favourite of the whole cast as he gives just about the perfect reactionary performance: his portrayal of the ace marksman Mike encompasses everything I love about the acting in this film as every small action he makes and little expression he does just suggests the background and mindset of his character beautifully. Add in an entertaining Simon Yam as a fellow triad member and some very effective setpieces by To, and a great soundtrack, and you have yourself one very entertaining film.

3. Chungking Express

Literally a film of two halves, the first half led by an engaging and energetic Takeshi Kaneshiro, the second half by a lovely and endearing Tony Leung-Chiu Wai. This is a film that kind of makes me wish Wong-Kar Wai was chosen to help collaborate with Cloud Atlas alongside the Wachowskis and Tom Twyker. It melds together the two completely unconnected plots very well, and I won't go too much detail into the plots and performances because this is one particular film that must be seen and experienced to really get the whole appeal of. It's a definitely hate it, love it or be utterly baffled by it experience but I entirely took to it. From its remarkable utilization of 'California Dreaming', it's interesting use of black humour and a surprisingly poignant romantic subplot to both sections, it's quite the endearing movie experience.

2. Infernal Affairs

Probably best known to western audiences as the film which inspired The Departed. Now I'll admit I was overly harsh on my first perusal of The Departed and I've come to admire it as a very well directed (though Cuaron should've won that year in a landslide) film with a very good lead performance by Leonardo DiCaprio, a well-written script with some cracking comic lines (mostly courtesy of the entertaining double-team of Mark Wahlberg and Alec Baldwin which Infernal Affairs does lack), though it's far from one of my favourite films of 2006 (though I mean, The Prestige, The Lives of Others and Children of Men did come out in the same year). Anyway, I digress. Though I perhaps prefer The Departed on a technical level, Infernal Affairs definitely trumps it overall. I love the whole construction of the plot from that brilliant first scene in the electronics store, to the way the terse cat-and-mouse chase within the police departments and the Triad ranks is played out, any scene which involves both sides of the coin, Tony Leung's undercover cop and Andy Lau's mole in the police department, coming close to finding out or being found out information about the situation, is brilliant. One particular scene with the drug bust is a masterclass in tension-building. Now I won't deny that the film makes the occasional misstep in for example, music choice for certain scenes, and I've never been in love with the romantic subplot, but the strong script holds together the complex plot in a surprisingly coherent fashion.


Now what about the performances? Well the supporting cast is uniformly strong. Chapman To is very moving in his 'big scene', Anthony Wong and Eric Tsang are effective at playng respectively the wholly good police officer and the wholly evil Triad boss, every supporting player does his or her part very well. Of course the whole film's success is down to the two leads. Well they're both amazing. Leung's performance is very different to DiCaprio's because they're playing entirely different characters, and his portrayal of the undercover cop is truly great--were it not for Adrien Brody giving one of my all-time top 10 performances in the very same year he'd be my win. Chan Wing-yan has been in the undercover game for ten years so his performance follows in line, an gives a remarkable depiction of a wearied mind and when a scene calls for him to show emotion, he has such resonant power, especially in the scene where he reacts to the death of a friend and the heartbreaking conclusion. But not to be forgotten is Lau who shows how exactly the remake sort of missed out on making the corrupt cop a potential moral foil to the undercover cop. He gives a marvelously deceptive performance that in the film's final moments becomes remarkably powerful depiction of the conscience and regret of a man who wishes he'd never been placed in the position he's in.

1. In the Mood for Love

I'll wait till a future post to delve further into this film. Suffice to say it's essentially the Hong Kong Brief Encounter for me, and we know how much I adore films in that sort of vein. It's a very repressed film about repressed love and it's filmed with such creativity and brimming passion by Wong Kar-Wai and his renowned cinematographers Christopher Doyle and Mark Lee Ping Bin. The music is fantastic, the colour scheme is fantastic, and I'll get onto the performances in a future date but they're both remarkable, Tony Leung-Chiu wai giving a restrained portrayal of a heartbreaking romantic and Maggie Cheung giving the greatest female performance in a Hong Kong film as the repressed housewife.