Opinion / Hong Kong’s best films of 2020: from Shadows to Enter the Fat Dragon – do A-listers Donnie Yen, Jackie Chan or Andy Lau make STYLE’s award winners?

Jan 21 , 2021

Which were the best Hong Kong films of 2020? From left: Gladys Li in You Are The One; Jackie Chan in Vanguard; Stephy Tang in Shadows. Photos: Emperor Motion Pictures; China Film Co. Ltd; Instagram/@weirdeyeforfilms

With the official Hong Kong Film Awards cancelled until 2022 thanks to Covid-19, STYLE’s resident film buff crowns the past year’s best movies and performances – with kudos going to actors Carlos Chan, Stephy Tang and Zeno Koo, and directors Glenn Chan and Chan Chit-man

The golden age of Hong Kong cinema may be long past, but even by recent standards 2020 wasn’t a vintage year for the local film industry. The protests that dominated 2019 disrupted film production, and then last year the Covid-19 pandemic closed cinemas for months, leaving the industry on the ropes after this hefty one-two combination.

Even those stars who did get films out last year didn’t impress – Jackie Chan trod tired old ground in Vanguard, the kind of film he made but much better more than 30 years ago in Armour of God, while Andy Lau starred in Find Your Voice, a “banal education drama” that had none of the warmth or subtlety of 2018’s education-focused Distinction.

Perhaps all that explains why the Hong Kong Film Awards has opted not to host its 40th annual award ceremony this year. Instead, they plan a double edition for 2022, which will consider Hong Kong-made films released in both 2020 and 2021 as eligible.

That will make for a crowded field in 2022, and why wait that long anyway? So in lieu of this year’s official Hong Kong Film Awards, here are STYLE’s very own cinematic honours.

A number of the best films released in 2020 were already nominated and awarded at the delayed 39th Hong Kong Film Awards in May – the likes of Suk Suk, Beyond the Dream and My Prince Edward, and are thus not included here. Other films that premiered outside Hong Kong last year without a wider release – such as Ann Hui’s Love After Love, shown at the Venice Film Festival – have also not been considered.

Best Film – Shadows

A highlight of last year’s curtailed Hong Kong International Film Festival, Shadows has yet to see a general release thanks to the pandemic. Chances are without that, it would have been a big winner at this year’s awards. The film’s premise – with the mystical power to delve into people’s subconscious, Ching, a psychiatrist, discovers that a social worker is compelled by an inner voice to kill his family and commit suicide – sounds rather hokey, but this dark psychological thriller twists and turns to excellent effect.

Best Director – Glenn Chan (Shadows)