appConfigEntityId

bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

isVideo

articlePageQuery

article

articleSchemaContent

content

hooksArticlePageAdvertisementConfigArticle

hooksArticlePageFloatingButtonConfigArticle

appConfig

filter

json

liveArticle

Richard James Havis

Some may say Tsui Hark, others may say Wong Jing, but Andrew Lau Wai-keung might be the most representative Hong Kong filmmaker in his prime years.
Lau has always avoided artistic pretentiousness and kept his eye on the market when choosing projects.
Lau, a trained cinematographer who shoots his own films, had big hits like the Young and Dangerous film series, The Storm Riders and the Infernal Affairs trilogy, but has never shied away from taking on potboilers between bigger projects.
Like all successful Hong Kong directors, he has become adept at telling familiar stories in a new way, usually with the young stars of the moment.

Here we look at some of Lau’s lesser known films that demonstrate his wide range.
To Live and Die in Tsimshatsui (1994)
Lau once said he found the triad world, which controlled a good part of the Hong Kong film industry in the early 1990s, to be a good source of dramatic stories for his films.
This early effort is a competent entry in the undercover police officer genre popularised by Alex Cheung Kwok-ming’s New Wave classic Man on the Brink. Jacky Cheung Hok-yau stars as a police spy who enmeshes himself in a triad gang, where he becomes seduced by the brotherliness he finds there.

“Producer Wong Jing’s script may superficially condemn the triads, but any moral outrage is superseded by the picture’s exultation of the gangster lifestyle and the myth of brotherhood among hoods,” said the Post review.
“Director Andrew Lau takes the viewer through the usual assortment of low-life locales, from Thai boxing arenas to seedy game arcades and the cinematically popular Chungking Mansions. And he does so with such slickness and gloss that the movie is more entertaining than the hackneyed script warrants.”
Lover of the Last Empress (1995)
The boom in Category III adults-only films had evaporated a few years before Lau and producer Wong Jing made this distinctly odd historical sex drama about the rise of the Empress Dowager from lowly concubine to powerful dictator.


The otherwise well produced period film features some inept sex scenes that are so tame they would not even have qualified as soft porn in the 1990s.
The idea was to try to cash in on the fame of sex-bomb star Chingmy Yau Suk-ching, and perhaps give her some dramatic exposure – she was Wong Jing’s lover at the time.
Lau said he was influenced by the work of the great Shaw Brothers costume drama director Li Hanxiang, who rejuvenated his career in the early 1970s with mildly erotic period films.
“When I was at Shaw Brothers, I worked with Li Hanxiang as a camera assistant, so I knew how he directed his Qing dynasty films,” Lau told film critic Miles Wood. “We spent a lot of money on the sets, but the production was too rushed, as we had to finish it in a month. But it looks very good.”
Sausalito (2000)

Lau does not usually make love stories, so this light romance between thirtysomethings, set abroad in picturesque Sausalito, California, came as a surprise.
Stars Maggie Cheung Man-yuk and Leon Lai Ming had a big hit together with Peter Chan Ho-sun’s Comrades: Almost a Love Story, and the big idea was to reunite them on screen.
“The result is above average for Cantonese cinema, but nowhere in the same league as [Cheung and Lai’s] previous effort,” noted the Post’s Paul Fonoroff.
Initial D (2005)
Lau set this street racing film in Japan, with a smorgasbord of Hong Kong actors playing Japanese characters – all of whom speak Cantonese. It is a super-slick racing drama so well photographed and edited it looks up to date 20 years later.


Based on a famous Japanese manga and anime, and playing like a The Fast and the Furious spin-off, the film exemplifies Lau’s strategy of cramming as many stars, young and old, into a movie as he can.
Initial D, which Lau directed with Alan Mak Siu-fai, features Taiwanese pop superstar Jay Chou in his first major screen appearance, playing a street racer with a once-revered racing driver father, played by Anthony Wong Chau-sang.
Chapman To Man-chat provides some crude humour, while Shawn Yue Man-lok, Edison Chen Koon-hei and Jordan Chan Siu-chun also co-star. There is even room for the older generation’s Kenny Bee – a member of The Wynners, a popular 1970s band.
“Technically, the production is of the high standard usually associated with Mak and Lau, with the racing sequences slickly shot and edited,” noted the Post.

“Fast cars, teen idols, and Japanese youth culture – fans of any of these are in for a blast. But non-aficionados will nod at the wheel of this slick but puerile adaptation,” the Post added.
Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen (2010)
This movie, set in wartime and scripted by Gordon Chan Kar-seung, a filmmaker who has loved war films since childhood, is a well-executed drama which blends a superhero story with some dramatic intrigue centred on the anti-Japanese resistance in Shanghai.
Unexpectedly, the superhero element plays second fiddle to historical drama, and could have been excised without affecting the overall storyline.


The film is meant to be a remake of Bruce Lee’s Fist of Fury. Although the overarching story is very different, there are some references to the earlier film, such as the final bout between Chen Zhen and a vicious Japanese general.
This time Donnie Yen Ji-dan plays Chen Zhen, who, after a spell fighting the Germans in Europe during the first world war, returns to Shanghai to work at the ritzy Casablanca nightclub, run by the lordly Anthony Wong.
Chen Zhen is also part of a fledgling anti-Japanese underground movement and, if that is not enough for one character, he also dons a mask and cap to fight the Japanese as a superhero.
Shu Qi, in one of her best performances, plays a Chinese nightclub singer who is really a Japanese military captain.

“[Legend of the Fist] is a serious attempt to tell a tale rather than just showing off a top-notch fighter,” Lau told the Post. “We made Chen Zhen a more rounded figure, and gave him more space to develop as a character. We wanted him to be an intelligent man who can use his brains to achieve his aims.”
The sequences set in France during the first world war are based on the real-life Chinese Labour Corps.
In this regular feature series on the best of Hong Kong cinema, we examine the legacy of classic films, re-evaluate the careers of its greatest stars, and revisit some of the lesser-known aspects of the beloved industry.
Want more articles like this? Follow SCMP Film on Facebook


Hong Kong film festival celebrates 37 years of queer cinema

Famous Chinese women in folklore, from Hua Mulan to a consort who brought down a dynasty

‘Rest in eternal peace’: veteran horror actor, filmmaker Simon Loui dies at age 62

How Cantopop lyricist Wyman Wong pushed Hong Kong’s LGBTQ, style and emotional boundaries

Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

From Initial D to Sausalito, 5 films that show Hong Kong director Andrew Lau’s range

Jay Chou in a still from Initial D (2005), one of five lesser known movies of Hong Kong filmmaker Andrew Lau Wai-keung, director of the Infernal Affairs trilogy and the Young and Dangerous film series. 

Film director Andrew Lau Wai-keung pictured at his office in Kwun Tong, in Hong Kong, in 2007. Photo: SCMP

Roy Cheung Yiu-yeung (left) and Jacky Cheung Hok-yau in a still from To Live and Die in Tsimshatsui (1994).

Maggie Cheung Man-yuk and Leon Lai Ming in a still from Sausalito (2000).

Edison Chen Koon-hei (left) and Jay Chou in a still from Initial D (2005).

Donnie Yen Ji-dan in a still from Legend of the Fist: Return of Chen Zhen (2010).

From Seven Swords to Sword Master, how Chinese wuxia films got an update in 21st century

Lin Gengxin as Third Master in a still from Sword Master. Photo: Bona Film Group

Donnie Yen in a still from Seven Swords, Tsui Hark’s 2005 sword-fighting epic and one of three notable wuxia films shot this century. Photo: Handout

Martial arts master Lau Kar-leung (front) in a still from Seven Swords. Photo: Handout

Charlie Young in a still from Seven Swords. Photo: Handout

Chang Chen in a still from Brotherhood of Blades. 

Wang Qianyuan in a still from Brotherhood of Blades. 

Peter Ho in a still from Sword Master.

From A Better Tomorrow to Bullet in the Head, the 10 best Golden Princess films ranked

Chow Yun-fat in a still from A Better Tomorrow (1986). Photo: Cinema City & Films

Chow Yun-fat in a still from A Better Tomorrow (1986), one of the classic Hong Kong films in the Golden Princess library recently bought by Shout! Studios, which plans to make them available to fans around the world. Photo: ISD Photo

How Hong Kong film Swordsman launched a new era of fantasy martial arts cinema

Sam Hui Koon-kit as Ling-wu Chung in a still from Tsui Hark’s Swordsman (1990), the film adaptation of a Louis Cha wuxia novel that launched and era of fantasy martial arts cinema in Hong Kong. Photo: Fortune Star Media

Cecilia Yip Tung as Kiddo in a still from Swordsman (1990). Photo: Fortune Star Media

Lau Shun in a still from Swordsman (1990). Photo: Fortune Star Media

Sharla Cheung Man in a still from Swordsman (1990). Photo: Fortune Star Media

Brigitte Lin Ching-hsia in a still from Swordsman II (1992). Photo: Golden Princess Film Production

Cecilia Yip Tung as Kiddo and Sam Hui Koon-kit as Ling-wu Chung in a still from Swordsman (1990). Photo: Fortune Star Media

The Last Dance movie review: Dayo Wong, Michael Hui impress in exquisite funeral drama

Dayo Wong (left) and Michael Hui in a still from The Last Dance (category IIB; Cantonese), directed by Anselm Chan. Michelle Wai co-stars. Photo: Emperor Motion Pictures

Michelle Wai in a still from The Last Dance. Photo: Emperor Motion Pictures

Chu Pak-hong in a still from The Last Dance. Photo: Emperor Motion Pictures

Lifestyle

Entertainment

Culture

Film & TV

Classic Hong Kong cinema

Classic Hong Kong cinema: John Woo on action, violence, influences, growing up in poverty and working in Hollywood in 1997 interview

Legendary Hong Kong action film director John Woo in 1990. Photo: SCMP

Famous Hong Kong action film director John Woo talks about his life and work in a 1997 interview. Photo: SCMP

John Travolta (top) and Nicolas Cage in a still from Face/Off.

John Woo during an interview in 1996. Photo: SCMP

Tony Leung (left) and Chow Yun-fat in a still from Hard Boiled (1991), directed by Woo.

Woo (left) shakes hands with actor Tom Cruise at a photo call in Tsim Sha Tsui in 2000.

Danny Lee (left) and Chow Yun-fat in a still from The Killer, a 1989 film directed by John Woo.

Woo in his office in 1993. Photo: SCMP

Woo on the set of Red Cliff, with actor Takeshi Kaneshiro.

How Ringo Lam crime thriller Full Alert mixed realistic action on Hong Kong streets with premonition of 1997 handover

Lau Ching-wan in a still from Full Alert.

Lau Ching-wan hunting down an escaped robber in the mean streets (Bird Street) of Mong Kok in Ringo Lam’s 1997 movie Full Alert.

Ringo Lam, pictured in 1995. Photo: SCMP

Lau Ching-wan (left) and Francis Ng in a still from Full Alert.

Amanda Lee (front) in a still from Full Alert. Photo: Eureka Entertainment

Francis Ng in a still from Full Alert.

Ringo Lam in an interview with the Post in 1997. Photo: SCMP

Hong Kong’s first art-house film, Cecille Tong Shu-shuen’s The Arch, starring Crazy Rich Asians’ Lisa Lu Yan, was ahead of its time

Lisa Lu in a still from Cecille Tong Shu-shuen’s The Arch (1970), considered to be Hong Kong’s first art-house film.

Cecille Tong and members of her staff at Joss, the Chinese restaurant she runs on Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles.

Lisa Lu, who starred in The Arch and The Empress Dowager, poses with her daughter Lucia Hwong in 1978. Photo: SCMP

Lisa Lu in a still from The Arch.

Promotional stills for Sup Sap Bup Dup (1975), directed by Tong.

A scene from the 1974 film China Behind, directed by Tong.

How Bruce Lee’s Way of the Dragon made Chuck Norris a star with their fight in Rome’s Colosseum, and what the film showed about Lee’s directing

Bruce Lee in a still from The Way of the Dragon (1972). Photo: Criterion Collection

Bruce Lee in a still from The Way of the Dragon (1972), which he starred in and directed. Photo: Criterion Collection

Bruce Lee as Ah Lung (front) and Nora Miao as Chen Ching Hua in a still from The Way of the Dragon. Photo: Golden Harvest

Chuck Norris and Bruce Lee in a still from The Way of the Dragon. Photo: LCSD

Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris in a still from The Way of the Dragon. Photo: Criterion Collection

Maggie Cheung in her own words, on Wong Kar-wai and In the Mood for Love, marrying Olivier Assayas and being an actress, not just a film star

Interview with award-winning actress Maggie Cheung Man-yuk at Grand Hyatt Hotel.

Maggie Cheung at an interview with the Post in 2001. Photo: SCMP.

Maggie Cheung (left) and Cherie Chung in a still from Prince Charming (1984).

Maggie Cheung (left) and Andy Lau in a still from As Tears Go By (1988).

Maggie Cheung in a still from the 1996 film Irma Vep.

Maggie Cheung (left) and Tony Leung in a still from In the Mood for Love (2000).

Peter Chan’s early films, featuring the two Tony Leungs and Maggie Cheung, were a breath of fresh air in Hong Kong

Anita Yuen (left) and Leslie Cheung in a still from He’s a Woman, She’s a Man (1994).

A promotional image of He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Father (1993), starring Tony Leung Chiu-wai (first from right) and Tony Leung Ka-fai (second from right). Peter Chan Ho-sun’s early films “have an international, almost placeless feel” despite their local issues and references.

Film director Peter Chan Ho-sun in 1995. Photo: SCMP

Eric Tsang (left) and Leslie Cheung in a still from He’s a Woman, She’s a Man, the 1994 film directed by Peter Chan.

Fallen Angels: Wong Kar-wai on casting Leon Lai, Michele Reis, Charlie Yeung and Karen Mok against type in 1995 film

Michele Reis and Takeshi Kaneshiro in a still from Wong Kar-wai’s Fallen Angels. Photo: Block 2 Pictures and Jet Tone Contents

Leon Lai in a still from Wong Kar-wai’s Fallen Angels, the 1995 film that was almost part of Chungking Express.

Wong Kar-wai in front of a promotional poster for Fallen Angels in 1995. Photo: SCMP

Takeshi Kaneshiro in a still from Fallen Angels.

Leon Lai (left) and Michele Reis in a still from Fallen Angels.

Michele Reis in a still from Fallen Angels.

(Clockwise from top left) Charlie Yeung, Michele Reis, Leon Lai and Takeshi Kaneshiro in a still from Fallen Angels.

Leon Lai plays a hitman in a still from Fallen Angels.

How Running Out of Time, starring Andy Lau and Lau Ching-wan, helped shape the ‘Johnnie To Cinematic Universe’

Andy Lau in a still from Johnnie To’s Running Out of Time (1999).

Andy Lau, pictured with Helena Law at the 19th Hong Kong Film Awards in 2000, where he was named best actor for his role in Running Out of Time. Photo: SCMP

A still from The Mission (1999).

Lau Ching-wan (left) and Andy Lau in a still from Running Out of Time (1999).

Johnnie To in his Kwun Tong office in 1999. Photo: SCMP

Ekin Cheng in a still from Running Out of Time 2.

Likened to Hollywood hit Love Story, this film beat Jackie Chan, Jet Li at the Hong Kong box office in 1993

Anita Yuen (left) and Lau Ching-wan in a still from C’est La Vie, Mon Cheri.

Anita Yuen (left) and Lau Ching-wan in a still from C’est la Vie, Mon Cheri. It beat films starring Jackie Chan and Jet Li to become a box-office hit in 1993. Photo: courtesy of LCSD 

Film director Derek Yee Tung-sing giving a thank-you speech after being awarded the best director prize at the 13th Hong Kong Film Awards for his film, “C’est La Vie, Mon Cheri”. Photo: SCMP

Lau Ching-wan (left) and Anita Yuen in a still from C’est La Vie, Mon Cheri.

Winners at the 13th Hong Kong Film Awards pose for a group picture. From left in the first row are best supporting actor Paul Chun Pui, best actor Anthony Wong Chau-sang, best actress Anita Yuen Wing-yee, best supporting actress Fung Bo-bo and best director Derek Yee Tung-shing. With the exception of Wong, all the others worked on C’est La Vie, Mon Cheri. Photo: SCMP

Brigitte Lin’s first gender-neutral role, Sally Yeh’s butch Beijing Opera performer make Tsui Hark’s 1986 period comedy Peking Opera Blues highly enjoyable

Peking Opera Blues starring Brigitte Lin remains an enjoyable tale of espionage, Chinese opera and gender bending. Mark Cheng (left) and Brigitte Lin in a still from Peking Opera Blues. Photo: Peking Opera Blues

Playwright Raymond To Kwok-wai, pictured in 1994, was the screenwriter behind both Shanghai Blues and Peking Opera Blues. Photo: SCMP

Sally Yeh (left) in a still from Shanghai Blues, which was released two years before Peking Opera Blues. Photo: Hong Kong Film Archive

(From left) Brigitte Lin, Cherie Chung and Sally Yeh in a still from Peking Opera Blues. Photo: Peking Opera Blues

Tsui Hark, posing beside the poster for another of his movies, A Better Tomorrow III, in 1989. Photo: SCMP

Brigitte Lin (right) in a still from Peking Opera Blues. Photo: Peking Opera Blues

A change from Jackie Chan and Jet Li – Beast Cops’ Gordon Chan on how directing the Hong Kong gangs vs police film was not like his previous work

A still from Beast Cops. Photo: Handout

(From left) Sam Lee, Anthony Wong and Michael Wong in a still from Beast Cops, a Mong Kok-set gangs vs police action drama directed by Gordon Chan.

Best actress Sandra Ng Kwan-yu (left) and best actor Anthony Wong Chau-sang with their awards at the 18th annual Hong Kong Film Awards in 1999. Ng starred in Portland Street Blues and Wong in Beast Cops. Photo: SCMP

Jet Li in a still from Fist of Legend, the 1994 film directed by Gordon Chan.

Michael Wong (front) in a still from Beast Cops.

Directors Gordon Chan (left) and Dante Lam, pictured in 2006. Photo: SCMP

(From left) Anthony Wong, Kathy Chow and Michael Wong in a still from Beast Cops.

Anthony Wong in a still from Beast Cops.

Romance meets ghost story in Hong Kong movie masterpiece Rouge, starring Anita Mui and Leslie Cheung and directed by Stanley Kwan

Anita Mui and Leslie Cheung in a still from Rouge.

Leslie Cheung and Anita in a still from Rouge (1988), directed by Stanley Kwan, in which she plays a 1930s courtesan who returns 50 years later as a ghost seeking her lover, played by Cheung.

Anita Mui (centre) alongside Alex Man (left) and Elaine Chu in a still from Rouge.

Stanley Kwan in an interview with the Post in 1988. Photo: SCMP.

Anita Mui and Leslie Cheung in Rouge.

Made in Hong Kong, Fruit Chan’s take on grim reality of 1997 for many in the city, and how the groundbreaking independent film was conceived

Sam Lee in a still from Made in Hong Kong. Photo: Focus Films Limited

Sam Lee in a still from Made in Hong Kong, Fruit Chan’s 1997 film about the grim reality of life for many people in Hong Kong. Photo: Golden Scene

(From left) Wenders Li, Sam Lee and Neiky Yim in a still from Made in Hong Kong.

Fruit Chan (centre), winner of Best Director and Best Picture at the 3rd Golden Bauhinia Awards Ceremony, alongside actors Neiky Yim (left) and Sam Lee, in 1998. Photo: SCMP

Sam Lee and Neiky Yim in a still from Made in Hong Kong. Photo: Golden Scene

Sam Lee and Neiky Yim in Made in Hong Kong. Photo: Nicetop Independent

Why Boat People, starring Andy Lau and George Lam, Ann Hui’s hit film about post-war Vietnam, displeased the Chinese and French authorities

Andy Lau as To Minh in a still from Boat People (1982). Ann Hui intended the film to tell a human story that explained why refugees were fleeing Vietnam. Hong Kong film-goers saw it as an allegory of the city’s future under Chinese rule. Photo: Bluebird Film Company

George Lam (left) and Season Ma in a still from Boat People. Photo: Bluebird Film Company

Ann Hui won the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 77th Venice Film Festival in 2020. Photo: Reuters

A still from Boat People showing Vietnamese military personnel in the streets.

Andy Lau as To Minh (left) and George Lam as Akutagawa in a still from Boat People.

Andy Lau as To Minh in a still from Boat People.

What they said about In the Mood For Love: director Wong Kar-wai and stars Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung on filming the romantic drama

Maggie Cheung in a still from In The Mood For Love. Photo: Jet Tone Films

Maggie Cheung Man-yuk and Tony Leung Chiu-wai in a still from In the Mood for Love, directed by Wong Kar-wai. Photo: Jet Tone Films

Tony Leung (left), Maggie Cheung and director Wong Kar-wai during the promotion for In the Mood For Love in Cannes, in 2000. Photo: AFP/Jack Guez

Maggie Cheung in a still from In the Mood For Love. Photo: Jet Tone Films

Tony Leung in a still from In The Mood For Love. Photo: Jet Tone Films

Tony Leung (left) and Zhang Ziyi in a still from 2046. Photo: Block 2 Pictures and Jet Tone Contents

Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung in a still from In the Mood For Love. Photo: Jet Tone Films

Jackie Chan focused on ‘real kung fu’ in Drunken Master II in reaction to shoddy ‘wire fu’ martial arts films of the early 90s

Jackie Chan in a still from Drunken Master II (1994). The movie focused heavily on real kung fu by real martial artists, as an antidote to the slew of shoddy ‘wire fu’ movies in the early 1990s.

Jackie Chan at an interview with the Post in 1994. Photo: SCMP

Jackie Chan in a still from Drunken Master (1978). Photo: Golden Harvest

Jackie Chan (left) on the set of Drunken Master II.

Jackie Chan (right) and Felix Wong in a still from Drunken Master II (1994).

Stephen Chow’s Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle were not the films that made the Hong Kong comedian famous – so which ones did?

Stephen Chow as Trinket in a still from the film Royal Tramp.

Stephen Chow (left) and Ng Man-tat in a still from Royal Tramp. Critics called Chow 
 “the finest Hong Kong comedian of his generation” and “Hong Kong’s hottest actor” of the 1990s.

Stephen Chow at an interview with the Post in 1989. Photo: SCMP

Stephen Chow at a film shoot in 1989. Photo: SCMP

Ng Man-tat (left) and Stephen Chow in a still from All for the Winner.

Stephen Chow (left) and Anita Yuen in a still from From Beijing with Love.

Gong Li (left) and Stephen Chow pose for photographers to promote The Flirting Scholar in 1993. Photo: SCMP

Stephen Chow in a still from Shaolin Soccer.

‘I am not Jackie Chan or Chow Yun-fat’: Hong Kong actor Lau Ching-wan on why Hollywood doesn’t need him, bad guy roles, and The Godfather

Lau Ching-wan during an interview with the Post in 1996. Photo: SCMP

Lau Ching-wan during an interview with the Post in 1996. He reveals why he measures his English comprehension against The Godfather and why Hollywood does not need him. Photo: SCMP.

Leon Lai (left) and Lau Ching-wan in a still from A Hero Never Dies (1998).

Lau Ching-wan in a still from Full Alert (1997).

Lau Ching-wan (left) and Anita Yuen in a still from C’est La Vie, Mon Cheri (1993).

Lau Ching-wan in a still from Too Many Ways to be Number One.

Lau Ching-wan (third from left) in a still from Big Bullet (1996), directed by Benny Chan.

Lau Ching-wan in a still from Lifeline (1997).

Lau Ching-wan and his wife, Amy Kwok, pose for photographers on the red carpet of the 32nd Hong Kong Film Awards at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre in Tsim Sha Tsui in 2013. Photo: SCMP

What they said about The Killer: director John Woo and stars Chow Yun-fat and Sally Yeh on shooting the classic Hong Kong action movie

Chow Yun-fat and Danny Lee in a still from The Killer (1989), directed by John Woo.

Chow Yun-fat (right) as the hitman Ah Jong and Danny Lee as Detective Li Ying in a still from The Killer (1989), directed by John Woo.

Chow Yun-fat plays hitman Ah Jong in a still from The Killer.

John Woo in his Hong Kong office, pictured in 1993. Photo: SCMP.

Sally Yeh as Jennie the nightclub singer and Danny Lee as Detective Li Ying in a still from The Killer.

Chow Yun-fat (left) and Danny Lee in a still from The Killer.

Chow Yun-fat in a still from The Killer.

Hong Kong horror cinema, from kung fu ghost movies to adults-only shockers like the human flesh eaters of The Untold Story

A still from Mr Vampire (1985). Produced by Sammo Hung, the film about reanimated corpses spawned a series of sequels and imitators. Photo: Golden Harvest

From Initial D to Sausalito, 5 films that show Hong Kong director Andrew Lau’s range

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Known for the Infernal Affairs trilogy and Young and Dangerous films, Andrew Lau’s output is wide-ranging. We recall some lesser known films

Known for the Infernal Affairs trilogy and Young and Dangerous films, Andrew Lau’s output is wide-ranging. We recall some lesser known films