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Asian cinema: Hong Kong film
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Why Daniel Wu is swapping ‘broken’ Hollywood for Hong Kong films

Wu discusses his coming films including Cold War 1995 and the Twilight of the Warriors sequel, and how Hollywood has ‘dropped diversity’

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Daniel Wu is pictured at the New York Asian Film Festival 2026. Wu is making his Hong Kong comeback as he loses optimism in a Hollywood system that feels as if it has “dropped diversity altogether”. Photo: Chris Kammerud
Daniel Eagan
Daniel Wu Yin-cho’s recent return to Hong Kong cinema ends a years-long hiatus that caught even the actor by surprise. Before shooting Cold War 1994, which opened in the city in April 2026, he had appeared in just one local production – 2020’s Caught in Time – since his 2016 thriller Sky on Fire.
While he spent the intervening decade focusing on Hollywood projects like the Into the Badlands series and Tomb Raider (2018), this recent absence was exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic disrupting travel from his home in the United States.

“I wasn’t consciously stepping away from Hong Kong film,” he says in an interview with the South China Morning Post at the New York Asian Film Festival, where he received the Best from the East Award.

“Coming back for Cold War 1994 felt great, because that’s where I cut my teeth. Seeing all these familiar faces just a bit older was a really nice thing. I love all the Hong Kong traditions, like we don’t have a trailer; we just have a rice box for lunch. It was really cool to go back.”

Revisiting the Cold War franchise

The first half of a two-part prequel to Cold War (2012) and Cold War 2 (2016), Cold War 1994 stars Wu as Peter Choi, a scheming policeman previously portrayed by Chang Kuo-chu in Cold War 2.
Daniel Wu (centre) in a still from Cold War 1994.
Daniel Wu (centre) in a still from Cold War 1994.

“It’s been a minute since we’ve seen a film with such a large scope,” Wu says, noting that the film expands beyond the police force to involve the whole city.

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