What HK films should I check out?

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 18 Jan 2006, 08:43

Hey,

After watching Jonathan Ross's HK programme last night I realised there's loads of recent HK films I'd never seen before, wondered if these were any good?

Breaking News
Running Out of Time 1 and 2
One Nite in Mongkok
God of Cookery (looks very funny)

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 18 Jan 2006, 10:29

Breaking News : Not Johnnie To's best, but still a nice film (especially if you like Kelly Chen). Nice gunfights, good atmosphere.

One Nite in Mongkok : Much Much better than Breaking News. ONIM is a very dark cop movie which mainly focuses on the characters (Daniel Wu is great in this film) instead of the action.

God of Cookery : Not Stephen Chow's best in terms of character development (King of Comedy is better), but GOC probably is his funniest movie ever.

Mordib · Post by **Mordib** » 18 Jan 2006, 10:38

I absolutely love breaking news, I bought it totally randomly during one of my 'sale' visits to dddhouse, wasnt expecting anything from it and found myself being drawn in to a great little film.

One night in mongkok (I havent seen last nights jonathon ross thing but it looks like he was hiding in my room for a particular buying session) I was less a fan of, for exactly the same reasons as Tom is more a fan of it

soooo slow... rather like ping pong which Mr Ross advised last week which I watched a few days ago.

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 18 Jan 2006, 10:47

I heard Ross mentioned King of Comedy as well as probably Chow's overall best movie.
He mentioned Lost In Time also. BTW, though ACGS is an absolute classic, hadn't there been wuxia pictures before 1987?

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 18 Jan 2006, 13:03

When is this on again? I've been missing it.

If you get "Breaking News" definitely get the R4. At the moment you can only get the HK R3 or R4 (I've not checked Mainland Europe), there is no R1 or UK R2.

The R4 has an exclusive interview plus subtitles extras from the HK DVD. It's anamorphic + DTS.

ACGS???

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 18 Jan 2006, 13:08

Probably A Chinese Ghost Story.

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 18 Jan 2006, 13:45

Yes thats' right.
Its' on Tuesdays (the JR programme) at 10.00pm on BBC4 Brad. If you didnt see the HK one next week is the last one, about Korea.

brooce-leroy · Post by **brooce-leroy** » 18 Jan 2006, 15:47

Running Out of Time is an excellent thriller/caper movie with Andy Lau and Lau Ching Wan bouncing off each other (not literally) brilliantly. I liked the sequel too, although the plot makes less sense, and just seems there to service the "cat and mousery" between Lau Ching Wan and Noodles.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 18 Jan 2006, 21:14

If you didnt see the HK one next week is the last one, about Korea.

I take it you mean last week otherwise that makes no sense.

Thanks btw.

romerojpg · Post by **romerojpg** » 18 Jan 2006, 21:24

Breaking News is CACKA, worth seeing once maybe, but so forgetable its just well below average.

BiscLimpkit · Post by **BiscLimpkit** » 18 Jan 2006, 23:31

Running out of Time 2 is a terrible sequel but is sort of ok-ish as a standalone title.

Johnie To is a great director and I also loved Breaking News. One Nite is a great watch as well (not a To title btw).

Running out of Time 1 is superb min. Try and locate the UK R2, it's said to be spot on.

Hey you know what's a seriously cool Johnnie To movie?

My Left Eye Sees Ghosts. Omg that's so awesome. Also that fat film with Andy Lau. Forget what it's called... erm... Eat Drink Fat Woman or something? Sammi Cheng is in it.

thelostdragon · Post by **thelostdragon** » 18 Jan 2006, 23:33

You mean "Yesterday Once More".

A great Johnnie To-film is "All About Ah long" with Chow Yun-fat.

thelostdragon · Post by **thelostdragon** » 18 Jan 2006, 23:37

Oh... fat... you could also be talking about "Running on Karma".

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 19 Jan 2006, 01:52

grim_tales wrote: He mentioned Lost In Time also.

Lost in Time is manipulative contrived garbage. The sickening piano and string solos, the little kid spouting lines like "What is dead?" "I miss you daddy.", ugh.

For what it's worth Cecilia Cheung's and Lau Ching Wan's acting in it is top notch.

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 19 Jan 2006, 08:53

The film is garbage but the acting is great.. okay.

I knew this thread would divide opinions

Brad,

Sorry I should have used a comma.

If you didnt see the HK one, next week is the last episode which is about Korea

Also sorry for accidentally editing your post (but I changed it back).

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 19 Jan 2006, 10:19

Aren't there two ROOT DVDs, one is remastered with anamorphic picture/DTS and all that gubbins.

thelostdragon · Post by **thelostdragon** » 19 Jan 2006, 10:39

"Lost in Time" rocks.

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 19 Jan 2006, 11:14

Different opinions, I knew it

BiscLimpkit · Post by **BiscLimpkit** » 19 Jan 2006, 12:15

thelostdragon wrote:Oh... fat... you could also be talking about "Running on Karma".

Not that one. Andy Lau and Sammi Cheng are both fat in this film..

Love on a Diet? I think... man that rocks. Reminds me of Crying Fist.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 19 Jan 2006, 21:02

There's a remastered ROOT 1 yes.

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 20 Jan 2006, 09:19

R2 UK from Tai Seng (who apparently don't suck anymore) is the best ROOT1 release since it has a commentary from the writers and it probably uses the master as as the MeiAh remaster since the disc is anamorphic and has reportedly good PQ.

Risk · Post by **Risk** » 16 Mar 2006, 17:16

Does anyone else have any other recommendations? I don't know what good films have come out over the last few years from HK; I would like some enlightenment, please.

Election sounds good. I'm thinking of getting the 2 disc job at CD-Wow, are there any other better versions out or are planning to come out?

I've heard good things about SPL and Fearless but is Full Time Killer or PTU recommended? Also are the Kung Fu Mahjong releases at CD-Wow the only ones available.

Thanks in advance for any help.

dragonhero005 · Post by **dragonhero005** » 16 Mar 2006, 18:53

Risk wrote:but is Full Time Killer or PTU recommended? Also are the Kung Fu Mahjong releases at CD-Wow the only ones available.

Fulltime Killer is good. Not as good as Running out of Time for example (IMO), but it has some nice action and a very stylish Andy Lau as a killer, wanting to become the best of all killers. Give it a try.

PTUs atmosphere was great, but the rest was quite boring and disappointing IMO. It´s not bad, but I had expected more...

Risk wrote:I don't know what good films have come out over the last few years from HK; I would like some enlightenment, please.

Come on... I´m sure you´ve heard of Infernal Affairs.

This one was really great. A superb thriller dealing with cops and triads. Part two of the trilogy is also worth a big recommendation. If you like those two movies, you can also go for part 3...

A bit short, but not bad at all (don´t expect too much), was "Jiang Hu" from 2004.

And of course, SPL and Election.

If you want to see more light-hearted movies, I can recommend "Wait ´til you´re older" and "Beyond our Ken"

Risk · Post by **Risk** » 22 Mar 2006, 12:45

dragonhero005 wrote: Come on... I´m sure you´ve heard of Infernal Affairs.
This one was really great. A superb thriller dealing with cops and triads. Part two of the trilogy is also worth a big recommendation. If you like those two movies, you can also go for part 3...

Thanks for the reccomendations, huge help. Yep I've got Infernal Affairs 1 and seen the other 2 I forgot that they came out quite recently. It seems alot of the films I've been looking at in general feature Daniel 'I Can Speak English' Wu, one of my least favourite actors, is he HK's new poster boy or something? What has Anthony Wong been up to? He is one of my favourite actors; I see he is in Election but besides that has he been in any other recommended films? Also are there any new good films with Tony Leung (Bullet In The Head, Hard Boiled Tony Leung not the other ones) as well?

Is One Nite In Mongkok recommended (another bloody film with Daniel Wu).

On a technical aspect, if a disc such as Kung Fu Mahjong has DTS/5.1 and it looks like it only has that track according to specs, does this mean if I don't have DTS/5.1 I will get rubbish/annoying/no sound when I watch the film? I would research the question myself but have an essay to do so hope you guys understand.

Thanks in advance.

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 22 Mar 2006, 12:55

Risk wrote: Also are there any new good films with Tony Leung (Bullet In The Head, Hard Boiled Tony Leung not the other ones) as well?

Dunno about new films but have you checked out Chungking Express, In The Mood For Love and/or 2046 yet?