Recommended Movies

A lot (well, okay, some) people have asked me asking "What are some good movies to start out with?" I always find this question hard to answer, because one man's trash is another man's treasure. Even mostly loved HK people like John Woo and Jackie Chan have their detractors. I'm not questioning any of that -- one of the wonderful things about movies (and why, I think, so many people enjoy them) is that there's something for almost everyone. HK cinema is no exception. Even though my tastes fall pretty solidly in the crime drama/action (aka heroic bloodshed) genre, there's a whole another world (or rather, worlds) in HK cinema, from comedy to horror to romance. If you don't find this list to your liking, try lurking around the alt.asian-movies newsgroup or chat rooms. People are usually only too happy to share their likes and dislikes with you.

The following is a list of films that have recieved ratings of 8 and above (out of 10) on this site -- clicking on a name will take you to a full review. Please remember that even though I have tried to narrow the films to a single genre, many Hong Kong movies mix up genres and as such are a bit hard to define in that way. I have listed alternate titles (usually dubbed versions) for some of the movies; of course, I would recommend getting the original version.

Old-School Kung Fu / Wu Xia / Heroic Bloodshed / Action / Girls-with-Guns / Martial Arts / Drama / Horror / Comedy / Cat III/Exploitation / Romance / Top Five Gunfights / Top Five Fight Scenes

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Old-School Kung Fu

36^th Chamber of Shaolin (aka "Shaolin Master Killer")
Crippled Avengers (aka "Return of the Five Deadly Venoms", "Mortal Combat")
Dreadnaught
Enter the Dragon
The Five Deadly Venoms

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Wu Xia (swordsplay)

The Blade
The Bride with White Hair
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Kung Fu Cult Master (aka "Kung Fu Colt Master", "Lord of the Wu-Tang")
Dragon Inn
The Storm Riders
Swordsman II
Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain

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Heroic Bloodshed (cops & robbers action/drama)

A Better Tomorrow
A Better Tomorrow 2
The Club
Crime Story
Face/Off
Full Alert
Full Contact
Hard-Boiled
The Killer
The Mission
My Heart is That Eternal Rose
Organized Crime & Triad Bureau
Prison on Fire
School on Fire

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Action

Black Mask
Heroes Shed No Tears
High Risk (aka "Meltdown")
The Matrix
Police Story (aka "Jackie Chan's Police Force")
Police Story 2
Tiger on the Beat
Tomorrow Never Dies

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Girls-with-Guns (female-oriented action)

Angel (aka "Midnight Angel")
Angel Terminators II
Enter the Eagles (aka "And Now You Are Dead")
The Heroic Trio
In the Line of Duty III (aka "Yes! Madam 2", "Force of the Dragon")
Police Story 3: Supercop (aka "Supercop")
Righting Wrongs (aka "Above the Law")
Royal Warriors (aka "In the Line of Duty")
She Shoots Straight

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Martial Arts

Dragons Forever
Drunken Master II (aka "Legend of Drunken Master")
Fist of Legend
Iron Monkey
The New Legend of Shaolin
Once Upon a Time in China
Once Upon a Time in China 2
Once Upon a Time in China III
Pedicab Driver
Project A
Project A Part 2
Rumble in the Bronx
Story of Ricky (aka "Riki-Oh")
Tai Chi Master (aka "Twin Warriors")
Wheels on Meals
Wing Chun

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Drama

Beast Cops
Bullet in the Head
God of Gamblers
God of Gamblers Returns
A Hero Never Dies
Lifeline
Peace Hotel
Peking Opera Blues
Too Many Ways to Be Number One
Young and Dangerous 2
Young and Dangerous: The Prequel

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Horror

Bio-Zombie
A Chinese Ghost Story
Mr. Vampire

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Comedy

Aces Go Places
The God of Cookery
Once a Thief

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Cat III/exploitation

Ebola Syndrome
Naked Killer
Run and Kill
Taxi Hunter
Underground Banker
The Untold Story

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Romance

All About Ah-Long
Chungking Express

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Top Five Gunfights

Mansion shootout, A Better Tomorrow 2. The film as a whole may not be as strong as some of Woo's other work, but the ending gunfight, which features Chow Yun-Fat armed with dual guns and a trenchcoat filled with grenades is simply phenomenal.
Hospital hallway, Hard-Boiled. The whole finale in Woo's last HK movie is great, but this tracking shot -- which goes on unbroken for several minutes, even after Tony Leung got hurt for real -- in particular shows something that Hollywood could not (or would not) ever attempt.
Mall firefight, The Mission. This one is quite the opposite of what many western fans are used to (i.e., Woo's style). It's a symphony in simplicity that manages to deliver thrills despite a low body count.
Bar brawl, Full Contact. Ringo Lam breaks from his more realistic style with this high-powered shootout in a bar, which includes some inventive techniques, such as seeing the battle from a bullet's point of view.
Car in the elevator, High Risk. Wong Jing is known for his exaggerated action sequences, and this segment (where Jet Li drives a car through a hotel full of terrorists) is both absurd but yet quite exciting.

Top Five Fight Scenes

Jackie Chan vs. Ken Lo/Ho Sung Pak, Drunken Master II. A scene that took months to film, with Chan going against his real-life bodyguard Lo in a fight that makes most others look anemic by comparision.
Sammo Hung vs. Lau Ka Leung, Pedicab Driver. You may not think that a fight between a portly guy and a 60 year-old man would be all that exciting, but this one sure as hell is.
Jet Li vs. Donnie Yen, Once Upon a Time in China 2. One of the best uses ever of "wire-fu"; the movements are exaggerated enough to be exciting but not so much so as to be overly distracting.
Michelle Yeoh's "tofu fight", Wing Chun. Brian from http://www.brns.com describes this as "sublime" and I would readily agree; it's literally poetry in motion.
Bruce Lee vs. Shek Kin, Enter the Dragon. The scene which set the standard for everything that followed, mixing in characterization, plot development, great cinematography and, of course, ass-kicking kung-fu.

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