The Hong Kong film industry has some of the greatest films in cinematic history to offer, so here are 10 Hong Kong movies to start with.
The world of film would not be the same without foreign cinema; even the Academy has realized as much by now. While some countries’ film industries, like South Korea, France, and Japan, are very well respected even by people less invested in world cinema, plenty of others are still ignored. It would be disingenuous to call the Hong Kong film industry some kind of hidden gem; cinephiles are certainly aware of it, but for a region that has brought us some of the most heartbreaking doomed romances, bone-crunching action with practical stunts you’re not seeing anywhere else, and completely insane horror and fantasy movies with a wild imagination on display others could only dream of, Hong Kong isn’t getting the recognition I think it deserves.
To convince you, I’ve made a little beginner’s guide to Hong Kong cinema that includes some of the greatest directors that have come from there and the different kinds of fantastic films they have made. So here are 10 Hong Kong movies to start with, in alphabetical order.
1. Green Snake (1993)
Director: Tsui Hark
Green Snake is a colorful, hazy dream of a movie in which beautiful pastels fill every frame. This maximalist expressionistic fairy tale tells the story of two snake spirits: the titular Green Snake (Maggie Cheung), and her sister, White Snake (Joey Wang). They take on human forms and settle down in a small village, where White Snake falls in love with a man who can’t know her true identity. There’s a monk roaming the countryside who will banish any and all spirits in his righteous quest, blinded by pure religious fanaticism. But the playful Green Snake’s carelessness threatens to destroy both her sister’s relationship and their disguise.
This entirely singular film, even within the Wuxia genre, is at once utterly silly and effortlessly elegant. Maggie Cheung (a name that will come up many times in this list) is the star of the movie with her cheeky charisma and unique physicality, as she slithers around with her snake body from the torso down. It’s a delightfully horny film with plenty of flirtations, teasing, and devilish temptations, as director Tsui Hark fights the puritanism so often found in these movies. But above all else, it’s a film you should watch for the sheer beauty present in every frame, both visually and narratively. Green Snake ultimately is a movie about the innocent human longing for love, executed in a playful but deeply sincere manner.
2. Hard Boiled (1992)
Director: John Woo
If there’s any Hong Kong director that has managed to make it big in Hollywood, it would have to be John Woo. Having directed huge hits there like Face/Off and Mission: Impossible II, his best work nevertheless comes out of Hong Kong. Hard Boiled is perhaps his greatest achievement, and it showcases why he’s considered a master of action cinema. Inspector Yuen (Chow Yun-Fat) loses his partner in a shoot-out, so he decides to team up with the undercover cop Alan (Tony Leung) to find and kill them. Really though, Hard Boiled is a series of outrageous shootouts. Whether in parking lots or hospitals, the scale and destruction of each action set piece is massive. Unfortunate bystanders become victims as Inspector Yuen burns down the city to get his revenge.
Hard Boiled is a film about men on both sides of the law and the lines that separate them becoming blurry. It’s also about highly competent professionals who are letting their lives become consumed by their work, as well as the loneliness and longing for a connection that comes with it. In some ways John Woo isn’t too dissimilar as a filmmaker from Michael Mann. But while there’s melodrama, his unmatched ability to direct action is what makes a John Woo movie. There’s a tactility to the shootouts here thanks to real explosions and debris flying everywhere with each shot. Combined with the dynamic camera work and excellent use of slow motion, a John Woo action scene is more satisfying than anything else.
3. The Heroic Trio (1993)
Director: Johnnie To
Johnnie To is another Hong Kong filmmaker who’s obsessed with the masculine world of cops and gangsters, but with The Heroic Trio, he directs a screenplay from Sandy Shaw Lai-King and accordingly tells a story with a more feminine touch. While the police are trying to solve a series of baby kidnappings, a trio of exceptional women are tied to the events in different ways. For Wonder Woman (Anita Mui), Invisible Woman (Michelle Yeoh), and Thief Catcher (Maggie Cheung), it’s personal, as it all leads back to their old master and his evil plans, and they all play their own part in it. This leading trio is what makes the film. They’re charming, badass, and immediately iconic, pulling off insane stunts and dominating every frame with their screen presence.
The Heroic Trio is similar to your classic superhero movie, except that it feels more like a comic book than any film that has come out of Hollywood in the past years. Everything is so over-the-top and highly stylized, with ridiculous action scenes and wild new ideas thrown at you every second. The movie looks gorgeous too, mixing Hong Kong culture with an art deco aesthetic for a very unique look that could almost be mistaken for Gotham City. It’s completely different from any Marvel or DC film we’ve gotten out of Hollywood, and yet it feels like one of the only true comic book adaptations, despite the fact that it’s not even really based on one.
4. Infernal Affairs (2002)
Director: Andrew Lau & Alan Mak Siu-Fai
Did you know that 2006’s The Departed, the film Martin Scorsese finally won his long overdue Oscar for, was a remake of a Hong Kong movie from a couple of years earlier? Instead of Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon, Infernal Affairs has Tony Leung and Andy Lau going head-to-head as undercover agents. It’s an idea that is almost genius in its simplicity. Chan Wing Yan (Tony Leung) is an undercover cop in the world of the gangsters, while Lau Kin Ming (Andy Lau) is an undercover gangster in the world of the police. When the police get dangerously close to busting a drug delivery, both sides realize they must have a mole in their midst.
In classic Scorsese fashion, The Departed is a big crime epic, while Infernal Affairs is a much leaner thriller, being almost an entire hour shorter. It puts its focus on the two lead characters: they’re dealing with the same struggles but on opposite sides, and the film often highlights this by putting similar scenes with the police and the gangsters in direct contrast with one another. Both characters are also struggling with their allegiance throughout the film, working for one side but having spent so much time with the other. Infernal Affairs is another incredible movie about the blurry lines between the police and the gangsters they’re after and creates a labyrinth of twists and turns for you to enjoy.
5. In the Mood for Love (2000)
Director: Wong Kar-Wai
For as many great directors Hong Kong has produced, I’m not sure there’s anyone more influential on a global scale than Wong Kar-Wai. The number of filmmakers and movies that have been shaped by his work is endless. His magnum opus has to be In the Mood for Love, one of the most heartbreaking depictions of yearning ever put on screen. Chow Mo Wan (Tony Leung) and Su Li-Zhen (Maggie Cheung) are neighbors who come to the painful realization that their spouses are having an affair. They regularly meet and seek comfort in one another, but before they know it, they fall in love—a love that simply cannot be.
It’s a gorgeous film and a masterclass in the use of textures. Every image is so vivid, perfectly composed, and yet often obscured. It’s a story told with the slight haze of a memory that never quite lets us all the way in but is filled with overbearing emotion in every frame. Never has that longing for connection born out of endless loneliness in the city been depicted so well, and never has love hurt so much.
6. Police Story (1985)
Director: Jackie Chan
If there’s one Hong Kong superstar who truly needs no introduction, it’s Jackie Chan, having established himself as a household name all across the world with the Rush Hour films and The Karate Kid. But while in Hong Kong he wasn’t just an actor who does incredible stunts; he also directed his own films. In Police Story, Officer Chan Ka Kui (Jackie Chan) is suddenly gaining a lot of attention after putting a major Hong Kong drug dealer behind bars. But to win the case in court, the police need the testimony of Selina Fong (Brigitte Lin), so it’s up to Officer Chan to make sure she’s safe until then.
There are serious police procedurals already on this list, but Police Story is much more of a comedy, with Jackie Chan’s brand of humor all over the film. Naturally there are plenty of big action scenes as well with some truly ludicrous stunt work. The highlight of the movie is a scene in which Jackie Chan slides down a pole in the middle of a shopping center right through a number of lights and glass panels before crash landing below. It’s a stunt you’ve surely seen clips of before, and if you haven’t, it’s worth watching the film for that alone.
7. The Seventh Curse (1986)
Director: Lam Nai-Choi
Lam Nai-Choi is a director whose entire body of work pretty much fits into the Hong Kong Category III. It’s a rating system that was introduced in Hong Kong in 1988 that puts films into different categories, similar to age rating systems you will find in other countries, with Category III being the worst ones, and it has essentially created its own subgenre of extreme cinema. The Seventh Curse is one of those films and is basically Indiana Jones but way crazier, with a bigger emphasis on horror and a Xenomorph in the middle of it. In other words, it’s immensely fun.
When Dr. Yuen (Chin Siu-Ho) attempts to save a girl from the Worm Tribe, he becomes inflicted with seven deadly blood curses. After talking to a specialist (Chow Yun-Fat), he returns to the jungles of Thailand to find a cure before he dies. What follows are evil cults, demon fetuses, the aforementioned Xenomorph creature, and more. The Seventh Curse can feel like five different movies smashed together, but it surprisingly works and makes for a wild trip of a movie.
8. Shaolin Soccer (2001)
Director: Stephen Chow
While other movies on this list have comedic elements in them, Shaolin Soccer is the only true comedy film on it. Stephen Chow has proven that he’s a master of the spoof with films like From Beijing with Love and Kung Fu Hustle, and with Shaolin Soccer he has created a fantastic sports film spoof.
Once a soccer star who went by the nickname Golden Leg, Fung (Richard Ng Man-Tat) is now a disgraced wannabe trainer after his leg was broken many years ago. When he meets the young Shaolin monk Sing, also known as Mighty Steel Leg (Stephen Chow), he sees incredible talent in him and forms a new soccer team with him and his Shaolin brothers. With little time to train, they sign up for a huge tournament where they’ll compete with the best team in all of Hong Kong, led by Fung’s rival.
Shaolin Soccer is no ordinary sports film, though, as the Shaolin techniques allow Sing and his brother to pull off incredible feats. It’s a movie where someone shoots a ball so hard that it catches fire and turns into a flaming tiger, and people can fly by stepping on air. Anime is probably the closest comparison for what’s going on here, except in live-action. The humor mostly comes from the completely ludicrous things this team can pull off, and it’s an absolute joy to watch.
9. Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In (2024)
Director: Soi Cheang
Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In is by far the most recent film on this list, but it’s already a classic. After he’s screwed by crime boss Mr. Big (Sammo Hung), Chan Lok-kwun (Raymond Lam Fung) hides away in the Kowloon Walled City. There he meets another crime lord by the name of Cyclone (Louis Koo), who welcomes him into his community. It’s a film that spends a lot of time getting you to care about the Walled City and its people before exploding into some of the greatest fight scenes you can find in modern cinema. As it turns out, Kowloon is the perfect setting for an action film with its tight corridors, verticality, and maze-like structure.
While Sammo Hung wasn’t the action choreographer here (that would be Kenji Tanigaki), he did provide guidance, and the type of close-quarter fist fighting with lots of acrobatics and wirework is clearly inspired by him. In general, Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In feels like an older generation passing the baton onto a new one, with Hong Kong legends Louis Koo and Sammo Hung playing the two older crime bosses, while their disciples are portrayed by much fresher faces. Director Soi Cheang himself is an apprentice of Johnnie To. If this is the future of Hong Kong cinema, then the future is looking bright.
10. Yes, Madam! (1985)
Director: Corey Yuen
Girls with Guns is a subgenre that was very prevalent in the 80s and 90s in Hong Kong. As the name suggests, it’s a movement of female-led action films. Corey Yuen is one of the directors who helped to popularize this subgenre, and Yes Madam! is an early but very notable example. It’s a buddy comedy in which Senior Inspector Ng (Michelle Yeoh) and Senior Inspector Carrie Morris (Cynthia Rothrock) have to work together to solve a murder case. But we also follow a trio of bumbling thieves led by Tsui Hark who find themselves way out of their depth in the midst of this crime saga.
It might sound weird to call an Oscar-winning actress like Michelle Yeoh underrated, but Hollywood has no idea what they’re missing out on. She was born to lead action movies and is astonishing in them, including this one. Cynthia Rothrock is similarly amazing as the “nasty foreign chick” that doesn’t hold back when interrogating criminals. Every scene with Tsui Hark is comedic gold and shows he’s very capable as both an actor and director. Yes, Madam! is a great police procedural with some ludicrous fighting choreography, like so many great Hong Kong films.
