Hong Kong Cop Movies
With such a proud history of world-class crime dramas coming out of Hong Kong, it seemed natural to ask—are the real cops fans of police movies? In a word, absolutely.
“I really liked ‘Cold War,’” constable Ha Chi-him told us, “but those movies are just entertainment.” Wait—so Kowloon cops don’t actually shoot up triad tea houses as routinely as they do in John Woo flicks? Not quite, says Ha. “In movies, the police pull their guns out way too often, and real police don’t fight nearly as much.” That’s refreshing news, but it still doesn’t take away an ounce of the excitement you’ll derive from the depiction of our men in blue in these must-see gems.
Hard Boiled (1992)
While it had a less profound impact on the filmmaking industry than 1986’s “A Better Tomorrow” or 1989’s “The Killer,” this John Woo cop epic is the director’s last feature before leaving for Hollywood, and its breathtaking shoot-outs are still regarded as some of the best ever filmed. The film reunited Woo with star Chow Yun-fat, who plays a police investigator who teams up with an undercover cop (Tony Leung) to take down triad leader Johnny Wong (Anthony Wong).
Watch for: One of cinema’s most ambitious and stunning long tracking shots, wherein two cops shoot dozens of gangsters through the hallways of a hospital. Woo reportedly had one chance to get the shot right, and did he ever—the camera doesn’t cut once through two minutes and 40 seconds of consecutive bloodbath.
Police Story (1985)
Should you wish to launch an exploration of Jackie Chan’s contribution to cinema, we recommend starting with the actor/director/stuntman’s personal favorite—the first and finest of his five “Police Story” films. The cop-chases-crime-lord plot is less important than the ground-breaking action sequences, which include a hillside car chase that destroys an entire shanty-town, Jackie swinging off the roof of a double-decker bus with an umbrella, and a massive shopping mall shoot-out that tests the limits of how many stuntmen can be thrown through plate glass in one sequence.
Watch for: Jackie’s final stunt in the film—in which he jumps off the fourth story of TST’s Wing On Plaza and slides down a pole to the ground level to catch his perp—nearly paralyzed him, as he broke two vertebrae, dislocated his pelvis, and burned all the skin off both hands thanks to a string of Christmas lights wrapped around the pole. Manly.
Infernal Affairs (2002)
Directors Andrew Lau and Alan Mak would go on to make two acclaimed sequels to their seminal crime thriller, but it’s the first one you really need to see. It’s cunningly simple plot involves a police officer and a triad (played by Tony Leung and Andy Lau) who infiltrate each other’s organizations as moles, and their struggle to maintain cover as both sides come to learn of traitors in their ranks. The film would go on to win Best Film, Director and Screenplay at that year’s Hong Kong Film Awards.
Watch for: Martin Scorsese’s “The Departed,” the 2006 Hollywood remake that took the Academy Award for Best Picture, and starred Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon and Jack Nicholson. Fun fact: the word "fuck" is said 237 times in the film, which averages to more than 1.5 times a minute. “Infernal Affairs,” on the other hand, doesn’t use “fuck” once. Because it’s in Cantonese.