Mark Morrison's Top Ten Hong Kong Movies
These are my favourite Hong Kong Movies. I won't say "of all
time", because this list is subject to change according to my memory, future viewing,
present mood & barometric conditions. But as of now, the best ten according to me
are...
BRIDE WITH WHITE HAIR 2 (1993)
I'll be the first to admit that Bride With White Hair is more stylish,
but I really like the second film. Much of its power comes What Has Gone Before -
so do get the full effect you really need to see both of them (which makes this a Top
Eleven if you do the maths. What a cheater). Anyway, the heroine of Bride With White
Hair (Brigitte Lin) has become a man-hating hair-flicking
white-haired witch whose hobbies are lounging on thrones and killing off the last of the
Eight Clans, while the hero (Leslie Cheung) is sitting on a mountain
somewhere freezing his haircut off, waiting for a flower to bloom so that he can take it
to her and say he's really really sorry (remember, this is in the days before Interflora).
Meanwhile, the 8 clans send their last able-bodied reserves - seven young Fu-sters and an
old granny - to find the witch and run a Number 1 clipper over her white locks. This is
not likely to be easy, as Brigitte's hair can kill at a hundred paces,
and she has taken up residence in a mountain fortress and surrounded herself with wronged
women who thirst for vengeance on men of all persuasions. Right there you have a situation
of two forces in deadly opposition that you both care about, chopping the
stuffing out of each other. I call that drama.
CHINESE GHOST STORY 2 (1990)
What is it with me and sequels? Beats me, but this second instalment of Tsui
Hark's groundbreaking series has a great blend of action, story and laffs. Leslie
Cheung reprises his role as the little tax collector, except that the people in
these parts seem to be more interested in putting him in the soup pot than in paying up
like good citizens. Joey Wong is part of the local resistance movement,
but is also the spitting image of Leslie's ghost lover from the first
movie. He assumes that she is the reincarnation of his lost love, putting her in the
tricky situation of falling for a man who loves her because of someone that she isn't.
Pathos! But you'll barely have time for her inner conflict with all of the flying
resistance fighters, evil ersatz buddhist monks, huge slimy undead creatures and enormous
monster worms. Jacky Cheung appears as the vainglorious demon fighter
Autumn, my favourite role of his. The stop-start sequence where he falls victim to a
misfiring mantra is the funniest scene in wuxia movies. Michelle Reis is
in there too as Joey's little sister, and Waise Lee is a sword-slinging
servant of the Emperor who comes to realise that he's been conned by demons. It's all more
fun than I can stand. Goodness is incorruptible! Virtue will always triumph!
CITY ON FIRE (1987)
An absolutely tremendous crime film. Chow Yun Fat is an
undercover cop who takes one last job infiltrating a gang of jewel thieves. He befriends
cool gunster Danny Lee despite himself. The big jewel robbery goes wrong,
Yun Fat gets gut-shot, and the gang withdraw to their warehouse hideout
to shout and point guns at each other while trying to work out who sold them out. Sound
familiar? That's because boy wonder Tarrantino used the last half hour of this excellent
flick as the basis for his Reservoir Dogs. Check the original, and you'll see
what turned Quentin on: great characters, pacing, tension and drama. Clean jawed Roy
Cheung is the hard detective who decides that the undercover cop is as guilty as
the thieves, and Carrie Ng makes her film debut as Yun Fat's
long suffering girlfriend (hard to believe from this that she would go on to be the
castrating assassin Princess in Naked Killer). There is one scene in City on
Fire which I always think of as the difference between tough guy Hollywood heroes and
trickster Hong Kong heroes; Yun Fat whistles at some girls, they tell him
to piss off, and he does this crazy little happy dance. I can't see Schwarzenegger
wiggling his ass like that. Director Ringo Lam continued his appraisal of
modern Hong Kong life with School on Fire and Prison on Fire.
FALLEN ANGELS (1995)
Love him, hate him, Wong Kar-Wai doesn't care; he'll just keep
making his monologue-laden arthouse flicks regardless of whether you like it or not. Me, I
like him plenty. This is the first one I saw, and I adore the interconnected set of
stories, the mix of HK pastiche and fine observations about family and life. The A story
has Leon Lai as a professional killer who lays waste to roomfuls of mah
jong players if they're not paying the right people; Michelle Reis
arranges his hits, and although she loves him madly, they never meet. (A modern girl in
every respect, she goes right ahead and has the sex scenes without him.) Karen Mok
won an award for her portrayal of a completely tizzy girl who gets what Michelle
cannot have. The B story has Takeshi Kaneshiro playing a mute who works
by night: he breaks into stores, opens them and then terrorises passers by into enjoying
his wares. The scene where he kidnaps an entire family and keeps feeding them ice cream is
a scream. In his travels he encounters Charlie Yeung, a love-struck girl
that he tries to help out, putting his own heart in peril, but it is his relationship with
his father (based on infuriation) that provides the film's best moments. Both A and B
stories ultimately twine together to make this a satisfying and beautiful little film.
FONG SAI YUK (1993)
Jet Li drops his noble Wong Fei Hung persona to star as folk legend Fong Sai Yuk,
the "most famous youth in Canton", in this period martial arts riot. Josephine
Siao is simply wonderful as his kung-fu fighting mum, described by crtitic Andy
Klein as "imperious and goofy at the same time". The movie revs into high gear
with a spectacular fight for the hand of local beauty Ting Ting (Michelle Reis).
The defender is Sibelle Hu, said beauty's mother. Fong Sai Yuk is on the
verge of beating her when he glimpses a less-than-comely maid he presumes to be the bride,
and so throws the match. Unable to see the Fong family name dragged through the dust, his
mother disguises herself as his brother "Fong Tai Yuk" and goes on to win the
competition - and in the process the bride's mother falls in love with "him".
Still with me? Just as well, because I'm only 20 minutes into the plot of this total romp.
It has comedy, action, tragedy and charm in equal measure. The finest of the fine, and the
ideal film with which to turn your friends (or yourself!) into cheering HK movie fans.
GOD OF COOKERY (1995)
I keep reading that #1 Hong Kong box office star Stephen Chow is
the master of the Cantonese pun, and that if you don't speak Cantonese, then you just
won't get him. Well, all those writers can go boil their heads. Chow is
also the master of slapstick, send-up, sight gag and silly expressions. He knows funny,
and the perfect introduction to his wild makes-no-sense comic style is God of Cookery.
He plays (of course) the God of Cookery, a media celebrity who owns chains of fast food
restaurants where they sell priced-up swill to a non-discerning but adoring public.
However, he is undone by a fatty who had previously proved his loyalty by going "for
a hard excretion in front of the foyer". Unmasked and unseated, the God of Cookery
goes into the culinary wilderness, where he meets and becomes the love object of Karen
Mok, a disfigured BBQ pork vendor who is famed for the springiness of her beef
balls. She is locked in deadly battle with a rival vendor of pissing prawns, but they join
forces to create "pissing beef balls", the new taste sensation that will restore
the God of Cookery to his throne. All this and Eighteen Brassmen of Shaolin, a bearded
schoolgirl, mad cow disease gags and a climactic kung-fu style cook off. Watch in
amazement, watch it again to get the rest of the gags, then rent every Stephen
Chow flick you can get your hands on. You must laff.
A HERO NEVER DIES (1998)
Is this director Johnnie To's pastiche of John Woo,
or a piss-take? Homage or satire? The jury is out, but I'm not - I love this film. It's a
big, bombastic gangster flick, and it sucks me in every time. Jack (Leon Lai)
and Martin (Lau Ching Wan) are hitmen, each working for an opposing boss,
but with a respect for each other. When their bosses go to war, so must they. Both actors
shine in the lead roles, but so do Yoyo Mung and Fiona Leung as
their respective girlfriends - strong roles and strong characters which get under the skin
of what it's like to stand by your triad man. Music, story, cinematography, script,
acting, action - whichever way you break it down, this film shines, and I love the damn
thing to bits.
THE KILLER (1989)
John Woo is at the peak of his form with this blood-soaked epic. I'm sure you've
already seen it, otherwise you wouldn't have arrived at this site. If you haven't, shame
on you. The relationship between the assassin (Chow Yun Fat) and the cop
(Danny Lee) is terrific. The scene where they point guns at each other
unbeknownst to their blind hostess (Sally Yeh) is terrific. The villain (Shing
Fui-On) is terrific. The themes of brotherhood, honour and heroism are terrific.
The action scenes are terrific. Just see the damn thing, okay?
RUNNING OUT OF TIME (1999)
Director John Woo and his favourite star Chow Yun-Fat have
gone to Hollywood, alas. But I can't say I miss them. Why? Because I have director Johnnie
To and his favourite star Lau Ching Wan. It seems to me that
everything that To and his Milkyway Image production company turns to
gold - brilliant, shining, ice-blue gold. Why blue? Because it's so damn cool, just like
this film. To overturns the powerful darkness of his company's three
films in 1998 (The Longest Nite, Expect the Unexpected and A Hero
Never Dies) with this playful thriller that pits terminally-ill master thief Andy
Lau against bored and demoted cop Lau Ching Wan. It's a heist
film fair and square, and a joy to watch the two match wits and swap handcuffs as Lau sets
in motion a three-day plan to pull the job of a lifetime. Perfect pacing, snapping
tension, laugh-out-loud humour, and a hearty dose of sheer good will - it's clear to me
that the two leads had a damn fine time making this one. Ruby Wong is
under-used in a supporting role, but Hui Siu-Hung provides many a guffaw
as the antiquated chief inspector. The warmest moments in the film belong to Yoyo
Mung, aka "The girl on the bus". To plays with his
subject of time with good-old slow-mo but also a new trick: fast-mo, hyper sped-up
segments which reinforce the fast and fleeting nature of modern life in open-all-hours
Hong Kong. But as long as they keep making films as good as this one, you'll find me
propping up the counter until it's long past closing time.
TASK FORCE (1997)
Further proof that there is still life in the Hong Kong movie industry,
post-Handover and post-Hollywood. This is a wonderful little cop buddy romance action
comedy drama type thing - in other words, it can't make up its mind what genre it is, but
it magically manages to hit exactly the right note in every scene regardless. Leo
Ku is a young cop whose father was killed on duty, and it is his narration that
binds together the character vignettes that make up this movie. Eric Tsang
is his irrascible sergeant who loses his marriage Hugh Grant style (there's something
inherently irrascible about Eric Tsang, in whatever role he is in). Karen
Mok is a hardworking cop with a turd for a boyfriend. All three have weaving
relationships with family, lovers and crooks, and the narrative twists effortlessly
between them all. The scene where Tsang crashes his wife's second wedding
to take the wedding photo he never got is simple and beautiful. But the film belongs to Charlie
Yeung, who lights up the screen with her portrayal of a prostitute who is a
compulsive liar. One such lie is that she has a John Woo style hitman for
a boyfriend, who will be back one day to take her to Paris - or is it a lie? (Woo
himself has a cameo as a superintendent.) Yeung is exuberant and natural
in this, her last role - she has since retired to run a beauty consultancy in Malaysia.
So, for her performance and for all the other reasons cited, track this one down. Viva la
Hong Kong!
