New Police Story director Benny Chan’s five best movies – Hong Kong action-film maker dies of cancer aged 58
- Hong Kong lost one of its great action movie directors on Sunday with the death from cancer of Benny Chan
- From Big Bullet to The White Storm to Call of Heroes, we recall his five best movies from a 30-year directing career
Hong Kong cinema lost one of its most established action-film directors on Sunday when Benny Chan Muk-sing died of nasopharyngeal cancer in Hong Kong Sanatorium & Hospital. He was 58.
As Hong Kong film lovers mourn the loss of one of the industry’s most respected action filmmakers, we look back on five of the best directorial efforts in Benny Chan’s career.
1. A Moment of Romance (1990)
Chan announced his arrival as a film director in some style with this debut, which went on to become one of the most recognisable Hong Kong films of the 1990s. Produced by Johnnie To Kei-fung (with whom Chan worked as a production assistant at TVB, back in 1982), its melodramatic blend of gangster thriller and star-crossed romance provided one of the most iconic roles for Andy Lau Tak-wah.
Lau plays Wah Dee, a triad getaway driver who falls for his equally smitten hostage (Wu Chien-lien). By deftly striking a balance between the litany of gangland violence and his protagonists’ unlikely romance, Chan came up with one of the most engrossing stories in his entire oeuvre – an irony, given how many audiences have since come to view action, instead of storytelling, as Chan’s bread and butter.
2. Big Bullet (1996)
Despite his career-long affinity for mainstream action movies, Chan was well recognised beyond the confines of genre filmmaking. The filmmaker received the first of his five best director nominations at the Hong Kong Film Awards for Big Bullet, which ranks among the best action movies ever made in Hong Kong.