Before BTS and K-drama, Andy Lau, Leslie Cheung, Chow Yun-fat and Tony Leung were Asia’s hottest stars – who were the leading men of Hong Kong cinema’s golden age?
How Hong Kong’s film industry got so big – and why it fell into decline
Here are seven of the most notable icons from this era.
Chow Yun-fat
Leslie Cheung
Aaron Kwok
Tony Leung Ka-fai
Simon Yam
He may not have as many acting awards as Tony Leung Ka-fai, but Simon Yam has been one of the most popular and recognisable Hong Kong movie stars of the last 30 years. Always suave and with an easy going charm, Yam is another versatile actor just as comfortable in action films (Bullet in the Head and Naked Killer) as he is drama (Echoes of the Rainbow) or even bawdy comedies (Gigolo and Whore).
Andy Lau
Like Kwok, Andy Lau is another of the “Four Heavenly Kings” who also successfully added a career in acting to that of a singer. Despite his later fame, Lau grew up among the tenements of Diamond Hill, which was a poor neighbourhood back in the 1960s. The future star had to collect water for his family eight times a day since their house lacked plumbing. Despite notable roles in Wong Kar-wai’s early films As Tears Go By and Days of Being Wild, Lau’s music career took precedence for much of his early career. It was only at the end of the 1990s, when he began working closely with director Johnnie To, that Lau’s acting talent blossomed and he starred in memorable hits like Needing You and Infernal Affairs.
Louis Koo
Arguably Hong Kong’s last great home-grown star, Louis Koo is more than just a pretty face. Before he made it in the movie industry, he worked as a model in advertisements and karaoke videos. However, after joining TVB in 1993, Koo started to get regular roles in TV programmes and local films. His big break came in 1999 in the police drama Bullets Over Summer, which won several awards at the Hong Kong Film Critics Society Awards.
5 of Louis Koo’s best movies – from Throw Down to Paradox
From there, Koo’s career went from strength to strength and he has been one of the most recognisable Hong Kong stars of the last 20 years – and just about the only one who wasn’t a Canto-pop idol or an already established movie star from Hong Kong cinema’s mid-1980s to mid-1990s golden age. Not bad for a man who was arrested for robbery as a teen and was sentenced to 22 months in the Correctional Services’ Lai King Training Centre.
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Wong Kar-wai and John Woo are among the directors who helped make these award-winning actors and Canto-pop stars famous in classic 80s and 90s films such as Hard Boiled, Days of Being Wild, Bullet in the Head, Infernal Affairs and Farewell, My Concubine