HONG KONG Film GUIDE
Good books and films have the power to transport us to a different place and time. You might be preparing for an upcoming trip to Hong Kong, or simply be full of wanderlust with a dream to one day, some day, turn your desire into a reality.
Our carefully curated recommendations will shine a light on Hong Kong and help you explore more thoughtfully and deeply once you are here.
Our film recommendations all come with trailers. Please click inside each listing. Enjoy!
DOCUMENTARIES
Documentary about martial arts actor Bruce Lee, from his birth in 1940 till his death in 1973, with interviews with his fellow actors and family.
A documentary where Jackie Chan and his stuntman team show you the secrets of some of the great stunts they do in films. The film also takes you on the sets of "Who Am I?" and "Rush Hour".
Follow Anthony Bourdain’s visits to Hong Kong in these two episodes of “The Layover” produced by Travel Channel and Parts Unknown produced by CNN to get an in-depth insight on how Bourdain viewed and experienced Hong Kong.
With his traditional Chinese/Japanese patterns, Jimmy Ho, now in his sixties, remains one of the coolest and most forward thinking tattooists in Hong Kong. Jimmy opened his first tattoo shop at the age of 14, we visited his shop in Portland Street, Mong Kok, to talk to the veteran about his glorious career and “the golden age of Hong Kong tattoo”
CLASSICS
U.S. soldier Frank Dux (Jean-Claude Van Damme) has come to Hong Kong to be accepted into the Kumite, a highly secret and extremely violent martial-arts competition. Frank is given the opportunity to fight. But can he survive?
Mark Conrad, a debonair Anglo-Austrian former playboy and junk owner, now an alcoholic down-and-out, is expelled from Hong Kong. He is placed on an ancient ferry boat, the Fa Tsan (known to its crew as the Fat Annie), despite the protests of the pompous owner, Captain Cecil Hart.
Bruce Lee plays a martial-arts expert determined to help capture the narcotics dealer whose gang was responsible for the death of his sister. Lee enters a kung fu competition in an attempt to fight his way to the dealer's headquarters with the help of some friends.
Two New York City police officers (Jackie Chan, Danny Aiello), set out on a mission to rescue a millionaire's daughter, who has been kidnapped by a drug lord in Hong Kong.
In Hong Kong in 1949, Mark Elliott (William Holden), an American reporter covering the Chinese civil war meets the beautiful Dr. Han Suyin (Jennifer Jones), from mainland China. As the pair fall in love, they encounter disapproval from both her family and his friends about their interracial romance.
When American artist Robert Lomax (William Holden) first meets beautiful Chinese native Suzie Wong (Nancy Kwan) aboard a ferry, she claims to be the virginal daughter of a prominent man. But later, she admits she is actually a prostitute. As Suzie models for Robert's paintings, their friendship deepens into love.
James Bond (Roger Moore) is tasked with recovering a device that can harness solar energy. He finds himself targeted by Scaramanga (Christopher Lee), the world's most costly contract killer. Bond then joins forces with Goodnight (Britt Ekland), and together they track Scaramanga down, where the killer-for-hire lures the slick spy into a deadly maze for a final duel.
HONG KONG CINEMA
For decades, Hong Kong was the third largest motion picture industry in the world (after Indian Bollywood and Hollywood) and the second largest exporter. Despite an industry crisis starting in the mid-1990s and Hong Kong's return to Chinese sovereignty in 1997 (which reduced HK’s degree of political and economic freedom), Hong Kong film has retained much of its distinctive identity. In the West, Hong Kong's cinema has long had a strong cult following, which is now arguably a part of the cultural mainstream.
For more information on Hong Kong cinema see Wikipedia.
A film producer (Andy Lau) helps care for his family's lifelong servant (Deanie Ip) after she suffers a stroke and must move into a nursing home.
It tells the story of a man (played by Tony Leung) and a woman (Maggie Cheung) whose spouses have an affair together and who slowly develop feelings for each other.
Five shorts reveal a fictional Hong Kong in 2025, depicting a dystopian city where residents and activists face crackdowns under iron-fisted rule.
The infamous Aunt Mei (Bai Ling), a former gynecologist who performed abortions, makes dumplings with miraculous youth-restoring abilities. Mrs. Li (Miriam Yeung), upon discovering their potency, offers to pay Mei any price for more. Things are complicated when Mei is forced to flee the country and the dumplings' power begins to fade.
Idealistic police cadet Chan Wing-Yan (Tony Leung) is recruited by Police Superintendant Wong (Anthony Wong) to go deep undercover as a member of the criminal Triad society. Into the same cadet class, crime boss Hon Sam (Eric Tsang) installs new Triad member Lau Kin Ming (Andy Lau) to become a long-term mole for the gang.
After his father abandons the family, Autumn Moon (Sam Lee) drops out of high school and becomes a money collector for organized criminals the Triads. On his rounds, he meets and falls in love with Ping (Neiky Yim Hui-Chi), a daughter of one of the Triads' debtors.
MOVIES
A Hong Kong biographical martial arts film based on the life of Ip Man, a grandmaster of the martial art Wing Chun and the teacher of Bruce Lee. The film focuses on events in Ip Man’s life that by accounts took place in the city of Foshan during the Sino-Japanese War
An honest Hong Kong cop, guilt-ridden over his participation in a recent shoot-out, attempts to save a real estate developer kidnapped under his care.
The film consists of two stories told in sequence, the first story stars Takeshi Kaneshiro as a cop obsessed with his breakup with a woman named May, and his encounter with a mysterious drug smuggler (Brigitte Lin). The second stars Tony Leung as a police officer roused from his gloom over the loss of his flight attendant girlfriend (Valerie Chow) by the attentions of a quirky snack bar worker (Faye Wong).
During the last months of Britain's control of Hong Kong, journalist John (Jeremy Irons) discovers he has only a few months to live. He decides to use the time to pursue his friend Vivian (Gong Li), who is already engaged to another man and recording street life, interviewing people like street vendor Jean (Maggie Cheung), in an effort to capture the real Hong Kong before he dies.
In 1941, Hong Kong was the Casablanca of the East, a city full of war refugees, profiteers and spies. With the sudden attack by Japanese troops, a Canadian soldier's Christmas promise is broken during the Battle of Hong Kong.
Nearly 25 years after seeing his father killed by Hong Kong crime boss Raymond Zhang (Philip Chan Yan Kin), Chad Wagner (Jean-Claude Van Damme) is living in Los Angeles as a flourishing yet peaceful martial arts trainer. But Chad has a twin brother, Alex (also Van Damme), who suddenly reunites with his less-aggressive sibling and wants to avenge their father's death.
After a Hong Kong nuclear plant and the Mercantile Trade Exchange in Chicago are hacked by unknown perpetrators, a federal agent (Viola Davis) proposes that the FBI work with China to find the cyber-criminals. The leader of the Chinese team, Chen Dawai, insists that convicted hacker Nick Hathaway (Chris Hemsworth) be released from prison to help with the investigation.
In the near future, Major is the first of her kind: a human who is cyber-enhanced to be a perfect soldier devoted to stopping the world's most dangerous criminals. When terrorism reaches a new level that includes the ability to hack into people's minds and control them, Major is uniquely qualified to stop it.
A budding attraction develops between a U.S. expatriate (Bryan Greenberg) and a Chinese-American woman (Jamie Chung) who's visiting Hong Kong for a business trip.
After an epic battle, a great city lies in ruins, but the Earth itself is saved. As humanity begins to pick up the pieces, a shadowy group emerges to try to take control of history. Meanwhile, an ancient and powerful new menace sets its sights on Earth.
With the help of allies Lt. Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman) and DA Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart), Batman (Christian Bale) has been able to keep a tight lid on crime in Gotham City. But when a vile young criminal calling himself the Joker (Heath Ledger) suddenly throws the town into chaos, the caped Crusader begins to tread a fine line between heroism and vigilantism.