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6 days ago | 
scmp.com | Richard James Havis
Long before the success of the Hong Kong action blockbuster Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In, Soi Cheang Pou-soi made his mark directing innovative low-budget horror films. We recall three of the director’s notable early releases. 1. Horror Hotline … Big Head MonsterCheang had garnered some attention with the idiosyncratic, ultra-low-budget horror film Diamond Hill in 2000, but it was 2001’s Horror Hotline … Big Head Monster that made his name.
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1 week ago | 
msn.com | Richard James Havis
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1 week ago | 
scmp.com | Richard James Havis
Japanese characters were usually portrayed as cruel and dishonourable in the Hong Kong martial arts films of the 1960s and 1970s. But such on-screen animosity did not stop Hong Kong production companies from collaborating with their Japanese counterparts.
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2 weeks ago | 
scmp.com | Richard James Havis
Hong Kong superstar Andy Lau Tak-wah’s matinee idol looks were a good fit for romances and dramas early in his career, although his frequent roles playing “sensitive” triad gangsters were complemented by action scenes. In the early 2000s, Lau tried his hand at bona fide action and proved exceptionally good at it in spite of his slight figure. We recall the actor-singer’s portrayal of three very different action heroes on screen. 1.
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3 weeks ago | 
scmp.com | Richard James Havis
The Tom Cruise action movie Mission: Impossible was such a global success in the late 1990s that some Hong Kong producers decided to strip the local characteristics out of their action films to make them more palatable to mainstream audiences in the West. Cue generic plots involving the CIA, international criminals, drug smugglers and terrorists, and of course, really loud action scenes featuring massive explosions.
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1 month ago | 
scmp.com | Richard James Havis
Directed by Leong Po-chih (or Leung Po-chi) in 1984, Hong Kong 1941 is an unflinching look at the horrors of the Japanese invasion of Hong Kong. In the film, Chow Yun-fat, Cecilia Yip Tung and Alex Man Chi-leung play a trio of friends who try to survive the privations and degradations of the invasion while plotting their escape. Here we discuss it with film historian Frank Djeng, who provided the commentary for the film’s Eureka Entertainment Blu-ray release.
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1 month ago | 
scmp.com | Richard James Havis
“Exploitation films”, which rely on copious amounts of soft-core sex, gore and violence to attract an audience, began in the United States in the 1960s with films like Blood Feast. By the 1970s, hundreds were being made. Hong Kong did not really explore the genre until the late 1980s – but once it started, it went for it, no holds barred. We recall three classics of the exploitation genre made in Hong Kong. 1.
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1 month ago | 
scmp.com | Richard James Havis
The erotic spy thriller Lust, Caution achieved notoriety when it was released in 2007 as it was rumoured that the sex scenes between Tony Leung Chiu-wai and Chinese actress Tang Wei were the real thing. Director Ang Lee, realising that the rumour was generating publicity, never explicitly denied or confirmed it, although interviews the director gave suggested that it was untrue.
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1 month ago | 
scmp.com | Richard James Havis
Director Gordon Chan Kar-seung (Beast Cops) wanted to reshape the Hong Kong police film genre with 1994’s The Final Option, and the result was a classic. Lesser sequels followed. The Final Option (1994)A classic of 1990s Hong Kong cinema, The Final Option is action filmmaking of the highest order. The story about the Royal Hong Kong Police force’s Special Duty Unit (SDU), has a gripping storyline, believable characterisations and some excellent tactical assault sequences.
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2 months ago | 
scmp.com | Richard James Havis
Today, Donnie Yen Ji-dan is unquestionably one of the most famous Hong Kong film actors in the world. Yen’s superlative martial arts skills should have turned him into a star when he made his film debut in 1984, but it somehow took him almost 25 years to reap the acclaim he deserved, coming with the Ip Man films in the 2000s. “In the 1990s, Yen seemed fated to play bad guys in big films and good guys in small films,” critic Grady Hendrix said in 2012.
