Top Hong Kong Action Flicks

And as ever, if you're interested in checking out the flicks for yourself, just click on the title to be whisked away to Amazon...

• Full Contact
  Starring Chow Yun Fat and Simon Ringo, subtitled in English

  Ringo Lam directed wild crime action melee. Chow Yun Fat, Simon Yam and the sluttiest woman ever to appear on film pull off a gem robbery in Thailand. But things go really bad and Chow is left for dead. This proved to be the dumbest thing that sicko Simon Lam has ever done as Chow returns to Hong Kong in pursuit of them and commences to kill anyone remotely connected to his near demise. This is the one that started the "track the bullet" gimmick that's now a cliché. Tremendous action without then excesses of some of the other heroic bloodshed movies.

• Supercop 3 (Released in the US as Supercop)
  Starring Jackie Chan and Michelle Yeoh

  Jackie Chan reprises his role as a Hong Kong cop who not only always gets his man but will follow him halfway across the planet punching and kicking the whole way. In this one he's teamed with the equally incredible Michelle Yeoh. The action moves from Mainland China to the Golden Triangle to Kuala Lumpur. Bullets and fists fly furiously and the plot twists and turns like a snake as Jackie and Michelle chase after Red China's Public Enemy Number One. The final action scene featuring helicopters, trucks, buses, trains and a dozen badguys has to be seen to be believed. This is the definition of "rising action" as things go from bad to worse atop a speeding train. High octane stuff.

• Bullet in the Head

  John Woo's masterpiece of berserk action. In the 1960's some juvenile delinquents flee Hong Kong to hide out in Saigon. But there's a war on there and they wind up in the middle of the Tet Offensive. Can they survive a gang war in the middle of the largest ground action of the Viet Nam War? This one will make you V chip melt down.

• The Bride With White Hair

  A medieval martial arts fantasy told as a violent fairy tale. Director Ronnie Yu (now relegated to junk like BRIDE OF CHUCKY) presents a movie that is continually amazing. There's a look to this movie that is unequaled in any other film anywhere. Pure escapist entertainment that takes you to another world for its entire running time. Critics who slavered all over CROUCHING PENGUIN HIDDEN PANDA like it was a cinema revelation had obviously not seen this one.

• In the Line of Duty 3

  The third entry in this great series featuring Cynthia Khan as a Hong Kong policewoman who's always in the wrong place at the right time. In this one she faces a male/female robbery team from Japan. These two are the most sadistic killers I've ever seen in a crime film. They're actually frightening. They have no regard for human life including their own. Great chases and amazing gun and martial arts battles in a film that moves at a frantic pace. There's even a great car chase; the one area of the action thriller genre that Hong Kong does NOT do well.

• The Last Blood

  The Dali Lama visits Singapore and is attacked by terrorists who gun him down. They also gun down the girlfriend of a low level Triad gangster. The two are taken to the same hospital where it's discovered that they share the same extremely rare blood type! There's only five people in the Singapore area with this type/ Talk about high concept! The cops and the terrorists race to find the blood donors as the clock ticks. The terrorists are one step ahead of the cops at every turn. And this is all complicated by a low-level hustler who's the key to everything. More time intensive than two Die Hard movies put together. It never slows down for a second. The action is brutal and intense and the plot twists race by like the cars at Indy! This movie is NUTS!

  Only available on VHS

• Burning Paradise (aka THE RAPE OF THE RED LOTUS TEMPLE)

  Ringo Lam's only entry into the martial arts genre. In this period martial arts actioner legendary martial arts figures Wong Fei Wei and Fong Sai Yuk meet. For us this is like having Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone in the same movie. The two are taken prisoner by an evil, evil, EVIL warlord who runs the mysterious Red Lotus Temple, a subterranean labyrinth that makes the Temple of Doom seems like a trip to Wal-Mart. The warlord takes great pleasure in torturing his slaves and setting his army of killers on them for the slightest infraction. But he didn't bargain for having China's two greatest fighting legends in da house. This one eschews the usual wire-work found in these movies and goes for straight kung-fu battling. My brother in law who's a fifth degree black belt went crazy when I sent him a tape of this one.

  Only available on VHS

• Iron Monkey

  Consistently action wracked throughout. Donnie Yen is a masked outlaw hero back in the days of the Chinese Dynasties. Directed by fightmaster Yuen Woo Ping. Think Zorro with some of the most stunning kung-fu action ever filmed. The fight scenes are blistering. And the pace is fast.

• The Heroic Trio

  Three super-chicks (one is even referred to as Wonder Woman in the laserdisc I own). Michelle Yeoh, Anita Mui and Maggie Cheung take on some seriously creepy badguys in a weird Gotham City/post apocalypse world. This is THE most comic bookish comic book of a movie ever made. Moody and violent. It a generally inferior sequel called THE EXECUTIONERS.

• TIGER CAGE 2

  Here's a sequel superior to its original. Donnie Yen with Yuen Woo Ping again.
  Great girl-fight action in a plotline that threatens to veer off the road and never come back. Filled with multi-level fights and stirring action scenes.

  Not available via Amazon

• Thunderbolt

  A Jackie Chan action flick that, mysteriously, has never appeared here. Jackie's a race car driver who runs afoul of the mob. He's not as jokey in this one and that's reflected in the action which gets brutal. There's a jaw-dropping one-against-all fight in a Japanese pachinko house (that strange vertical-pinball game with the hundreds of tiny ballbearings.). Then an absolutely astounding fight inside of a mobile home suspended over an auto-junkyard by a swinging crane. Some of Jackie's most incredible and imaginative gags in addition to his most heartfelt performance. And the climactic car race is edge of the seat stuff.

©2004 by Chuck Dixon. All Rights Reserved. No part of this article may be reproduced without permission.

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