February 12th, 2010
Top 50 Hong Kong Movies of the Nineties - Voting now open!
Happy Lunar New Year! This photo is from last year, but Stephy Tang wants to wish you a great Year of the Ox Tiger.
“This year, I want to play a smart person!”
She can do it! You go, Stephy!
Anyway, there’s a lot coming up for Hong Kong movies and LoveHKFilm.com this year, but we’ll start by partying like it’s 1999. Late last year, we completed a reader vote for the Top 50 Hong Kong Films of the Aughts. Even though it’s only February 2010, we’re going to be running yet another reader vote.
“Really, again? Can’t you try
something a little more original?”
We pretty much like to run things into the ground around here. Sorry, Fiona.
In the second of LoveHKFilm.com’s intermittent, poorly scheduled reader votes we’re asking for site readers to help select the Top 50 Hong Kong Films of the Nineties. By readers, we mean everyone: teenagers, sixty year-old retirees, single mothers, agoraphobic technophiles, and even Donnie Yen. You all have an equal say.
“You’re going to vote for all my movies, right?
Don’t forget about COME FLY THE DRAGON!”
We’ll run this vote in a much more relaxed fashion than the last one, as timeliness is not an issue. It’s not like the nineties are going anywhere. To participate, please follow these handy rules:
- Use the LoveHKFilm.com Contact Form to send a list of your top films from the years 1990-1999.
- You may list either 10 or 20 films* on your vote, and order them with #1 being the top-rated film and #10 or #20 being at back of the pack.
- Please print in the subject line of your email “TOP 90s MOVIES”.
- It’s optional, but you can write a few sentences or words about your faves. We may end up using them when the results are published.
- Send in your votes by end of day on February 28th. I’m not pushing the whole GMT, PST, EST thing so there’s some leeway. As long as I don’t get your vote on March 2nd, you’l be fine.
*The big asterisk is here to explain why we’re letting you rank 10 or 20 films for your list. Simply put, a ton of movies came out during the nineties, and people may want to list more than just 10. If that’s your deal, go ahead and list 20.
However, please note that this WILL make a difference for the points that your films get. If you vote for only 10, then #1 gets 10 points and #10 gets 1 point. However, if you vote for 20 films, then #1 gets 10 points, #2 gets 9.5 points, and so on. To illustrate, a #10 film gets 5.5 points, and #20 gets 0.5 points. Voting for 20 films means 1/2 point steps between each films, as opposed to the 1 point step between each film.
Are you getting this? Probably not, but rest assured it’s all being done to make this vote even more complex for me to run. I’m all about doing things the hard way.
“I know you’re voting for my films,
so I won’t even act like I care. I shouldn’t
even bother to make movies. Just hand me cash
and we can cut out the middleman.”
Now, which films qualify? During the last vote, the question “What is a Hong Kong film?” was quite tricky. There were foreign co-productions, Pan-Asian casts, movies with Jude Law, etc. It got kind of messy.
However, identifying qualifying films is much easier for this vote as the nineties were a simpler time. Aside from more appearances by Michael Wong and Chingmy Yau, few if any films from the nineties qualified as foreign co-productions. Here are the simplified rules:
- The film has to be from Hong Kong and released theatrically during the years 1990-1999.
- Not a single Zhang Yimou film qualifies for this vote. Sorry.
- If Chen Kaige is your 5th generation director of choice, you may only vote for TEMPRESS MOON.
- RUSH HOUR, THE REPLACEMENT KILLERS, and any John Woo film after 1992 do not count.
- Is Jean-Claude Van Damme in the movie? Then it doesn’t count.
- All series can only be voted for via their individual entries, e.g. the YOUNG AND DANGEROUS movies do not count as a vote. You have to vote for YOUNG AND DANGEROUS, YOUNG AND DANGEROUS 2, and SEXY AND DANGEROUS as separate films. The exception: CHINESE ODYSSEY 1 and CHINESE ODYSSEY 2 can count as a single film.
- If you’re curious if a film qualifies or not, feel free to ask in the blog comments. I’ll say “yes”, “no” or “nice try, buddy.”
There, totally simple. The most important rule is this one, though: HAVE FUN. You don’t have to select the most award-worthy or acclaimed films - you can just choose movies that you enjoy. As such, I expect to see appearances on this vote from BOYS ARE EASY, SATAN RETURNS, I’M YOUR BIRTHDAY CAKE and, of course, GIRLS UNBUTTON. Loletta Lee fans, this is your time.
This is the only Loletta Lee picture on my
hard drive where she’s wearing clothes.
If you can’t figure out what movies came out when, uh, sorry. There are some online resources that you can use, however, including a downloadable PDF from the Hong Kong Film Archive which lists every film up to 2006. The nineties comprise 99 out of 749 pages, so happy reading. Thanks to Tim Youngs and Kevin Ma for pointing me in its direction!
Alternately, you can use the Awards Archives on LoveHKFilm.com to jog your memory of films released during the nineties. Also, you can visit the handy database at Hong Kong Cinemagic, where you can sort by year to figure out what came out when.
Results will be up sometime in March! I’m hoping for a similar turnout to last time. However, if the results are as diverse as I hope they are, I may expand this whole Top 50 thing to a full Top 100. As usual, tell your friends and enemies to participate to make it this a more comprehensive, interesting and/or exciting vote. Hopefully, the results will better introduce people to recommended films than the incredible denseness of the site review archive. That would be nice anyway.
Vote early to support nineties-era Ekin!
During the nineties, Ekin Cheng was
more popular than this stuffed bunny.
Now the reverse is true.
February 12th, 2010 at 5:37 am
Dear Kozo,
thank you for this reader poll, the results of the previous one were most illuminating.
It would be great if you could somehow publish a list of eligible movies — as this will be infeasible, perhaps you could publish a list of movies in the lovehkfilm.com database that fall in the time bracket. Readers could then check for themselves which ones will fit the criteria for “HK films”.
I really think doing this would greatly improve the results, as it would avoid a bias towards films that are simply more memorable, whether it is for good or bad reasons. The truth is that the 1990s were an awful long time ago, so apart from the great classics it won’t be easy to remember all movies we loved back then (unless all readers had documented their impressions as well as you have).
Just my opinion
Best wishes,
Viktor
February 12th, 2010 at 6:05 am
After many days thinking which movie would be my number one, my favorite movie from 90’s is not from Johnnie To, John Woo, Wong Kar Wai or stars Stephen Chow, Leung Chi Wah, Ekin Cheng, Donnie Yen, Chow Yun Fat, Andy Lau. But don’t think it is Untold Story, even though I think it will appear in my list. rsrsrs
Except my number one, the other choices will be pretty obvious, like Chunking Express, God of Cookery, Running out of Time and The Mission. These four will certainly be in the Top5 when Kozo post the final result.
February 12th, 2010 at 11:57 am
I think Hard Boil and Untold Story. But, I think A Man Call Hero have a good chance because of the graphics they have but the acting sucks.
February 12th, 2010 at 2:23 pm
After going through the list of movies from the 90’s, I must say that it was a great decade for HK films. Could have easily made top 50 list.
February 12th, 2010 at 3:34 pm
Wohoo! Already!?! I need to start researching
Luckily I still have more than two weeks. Already know which one will be ranked #1, but the rest is more tricky.
February 12th, 2010 at 3:53 pm
@Viktor,
There were A LOT more movies in the 90s than in the Aughts, which puts many people at a huge disadvantage. Even using the HK Cinemagic database is tough because there are simply so many films to dig through.
Not sure what I can accomplish on this site to make the task much easier for people, since the data is hardcoded and I can’t just run some searches and create tables or anything. One way to use the site is to just type the year in the site search box. Everything that falls under that year will appear easily, but since LoveHKFilm is VERY incomplete, you won’t get the full picture.
If I can think of better resources, I’ll update this blog entry.
February 12th, 2010 at 4:39 pm
Hi Kozo, Can stuff like Royal Tramp I, II or A Chinese Odyssey I, II be counted as one film? Because they have a really strong connection between them, just like an openning and ending of one story (different than Young and Dangerous series).
February 12th, 2010 at 5:01 pm
Hi Grenouille vert, good point. However, even then I’d say that only CHINESE ODYSSEY really fits the 1 movie, 2 parts bill. ROYAL TRAMP 2 feels like a sequel, while CHINESE ODYSSEY 1 pretty much needs CHINESE ODYSSEY 2 to make sense.
I think we should allow it for CHINESE ODYSSEY but not for ROYAL TRAMP. By the same token, FONG SAI YUK and FONG SAI YUK 2 are separate films, really.
February 13th, 2010 at 4:09 am
Hi Kozo,
I think Royal Tramp should fit as one movie since both movies came out the same year and the fact that both movies tell one complete story. Royal Tramp I ended on a cliffhanger that II finished up on. One wouldn’t really be complete without the other.
February 13th, 2010 at 5:33 pm
[…] LoveHKFilm.com has opened voting for the Top 50 list of HK films for the 1990s. I am currently working on a list but this would be my top 20. Unordered at the moment. Here is my list, yet to be ranked: […]
February 13th, 2010 at 6:08 pm
Hi Garvin, I understand what you mean, but I’m still sticking with ROYAL TRAMP 1 and 2 as two separate films for the purposes of this vote. Despite both films coming out the same year and the fact that they’re closely connected, part 1 doen’t really end on a “cliffhanger”, or a precarious dilemma or situation that needs to be immediately resolved.
It’s kind of like STAR WARS and EMPIRE — the bad guy gets away and is out there to create future problems for our heroes in part 2 of the series, but in part 1, the good guys essentially won the battle. In CHINESE ODYSSEY, part 1 ends with the hero stuck in time and the whole premise on which the film is built - that Stephen Chow is the Monkey King - not even delivered yet! That’s a cliffhanger.
Also, at one point, CHINESE ODYSSEY 1 and 2 were cut into 1 film just like RED CLIFF 1 and 2. That didn’t happen with ROYAL TRAMP. Anyway, this whole discussion is kind of why I wanted to go with “no series as a single film” rule for all the Reader Votes, because there really is no right or wrong answer to what we should count. Last time, some people even wrote in demanding that INFERNAL AFFAIRS 1-3 count as a single film because they were so tightly intertwined. I just ended up not counting those, to be honest.
February 14th, 2010 at 12:54 am
Kozo,
I’m not sure but I think you might run into problems with your scoring system. Suppose I only rank 10 films, but Susie ranks 20. In this case she has 18 films that will score higher than my 10th ranked film. Her film #18 is worth 1.5 pts while my 10th film is worth 1 pt. In fact, all of her films ranked 11-18 will get more pts than my 10th ranked film!
It seems to me that if you let people choose either 10 or 20, then the scoring system should be 20 pts for #1, 19 pts for #2, and so on. The 10th film in either list gets 11 pts. Then if people choose to rank additional films 11-20, those films get decreasingly less points, but they are still worth less then the #10 film on either list.
Naturally you can still rank them 10, 9.5, 9, etc. but in that case people who only rank 10 get scores of 10 through 5.5.
Finally you can just make everyone submit the same number and this of course solves all your problems.
Btw, your decade list was a great idea. I (like many others) actually awaited the top 10 eagerly–it was better than the Oscars! Plus it highlighted quite a few films that I hadn’t yet but will soon see. Thanks for the effort then, again, and for this website.
February 14th, 2010 at 5:32 am
How unfair that we can’t vote for Farewell My Concubine!!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!
February 14th, 2010 at 10:20 am
Hi Ray, I understand what you mean about the points system. I did consider the 20 points for #1 idea, but in the end I decided to have everybody’s #1 film weigh equally, while also favoring people who would list 20 rather than 10 films. I’m hoping this invites more diverse films to be mentioned.
Alternately, I might run two voting systems simultaneously to see what occurs. I can’t be sure yet, but your concern was factored into my original decision.
And I’m glad that you enjoyed the Decade List. I had a lot of fun putting it together so that’s why I was determined to do another one. Sadly, I’ll probably run out of feasible lists later and be reduced to doing a “Who’s the cutest?” poll.
Hi Peach, sorry about FAREWELL MY CONCUBINE. I didn’t include it because it’s weighed as a China film, as opposed to TEMPTRESS MOON, which was nominated at the Hong Kong Film Awards.
February 14th, 2010 at 5:52 pm
Is anyone else having an incredibly difficult time with this list? I could probably make 20-movie lists for all the different genres. But its nearly impossible when it comes to comparing across genres for an overall list.
February 15th, 2010 at 3:19 am
Lol at the Stephen Chow caption. That’s pretty much what my list is going to look like, unfortunately.
February 15th, 2010 at 3:59 am
This is going to be fun — but, as Garvin wrote, incredibly difficult. I’ll have to list twenty movies.
February 15th, 2010 at 12:28 pm
[…] to remind you that voting is underway for the “Top Hong Kong Films of the 1990s”. Go here for […]
February 15th, 2010 at 3:28 pm
First I’d like to thank you for putting the time into compiling these Top Hong Kong Movies of the Decade polls.
However, in assembling my list for the Top Movies of the Nineties, I trust that my vote for Fruit Chan’s “Little Cheung” will count despite the fact that your site has the film listed as a 2000 release. According to my references, which include IMDb and even the closing credits of the film, Little Cheung was in fact of a 1999 vintage.
So, how about it? Will my vote count or will I earn a “nice try, buddy” from the webmaster?
February 15th, 2010 at 4:43 pm
Ah, another Top 50. Superb.
Now, whose willing to bet Leslie Cheung will have more films in the Top 10 than the Four Heavenly Kings combined?
And which Heavenly King do you anticipate will have the most films in the final result?
February 15th, 2010 at 9:06 pm
Hi M, yeah LITTLE CHEUNG is a 1999 film. The Fruit Chan people page is wrong — I’ll have to fix it in another update.
And Garvin, I’m having a tough time with my list too. My initial list had 70 films on it! I’ve since knocked it down to 30.
February 15th, 2010 at 10:17 pm
@Rich Also think Leslie will have a lot of top10s. I’m guessing Jacky Cheung will have two, Leon Lai one and maybe good old Andy one if he’s lucky.
Finally finished my list. Looking forward for the result. Maybe I’ll find out that I’ve missed a lot of good movies.
February 16th, 2010 at 10:20 pm
@Nil
Andy Lau will get at least a film in the Top 10 list if not Top5. Many people will vote Running out of Time. It will be hard Leon Lai get TOP 10 with A Hero never dies.
Besides Ashes of Time, that I have doubts if it will get Top10, what other movies starring Leslie Cheung was good and popular enough to reach TOP10?
February 17th, 2010 at 8:09 pm
Hi Leemoy,
In my humble opinion, Leslie Cheung’s Days of Being Wild (1990) is a classic, and stands a good chance of making it into the Top 10 list.
February 17th, 2010 at 10:14 pm
@Leemoy Leslie Cheung is in Days of Being Wild and Once a thief, don’t know how popular John Woo and Wong Kar-wai is compared to Johnnie To though. Leon Lai is in Fallen Angels and Jacky Cheung is in both Days of Being wild and Bullet in the head. But there are so many good movies from the 90s…, who knows maybe there will only be Stephen Chow or Jet Li movies in the top10. Anyways, I guess the one I voted for as number one, will probably win.
February 17th, 2010 at 10:36 pm
Bullet in the Head is a good damn movie, one of his best, however I dont know how many people who likes John Woo liked the pessimist tone of this movie.
Fallen Angels is good, but not so good to persuade the Stephen Chow fans in my opinion (I didnt remember Leon Lai participation. I dont like his acting). And Days of Being Wild it is very difficult to find a copy and it is not well known movie from Wong Kar Wai, except for his fans.
Certainly the massive Johnnie To fans will vote in Running Out of Time.
The Kung Fu fans will put Jet Li in Top10, I hope.
It is pretty clear for me that God of Cookery, The Mission, Running Out of Time and Chunking Express will be in Top5. But which one will be the number one I am not sure. But the favorites are Chungking and God of Cookery. The others six movies that will make the Top6 I have no idea. Could be any movie.
February 18th, 2010 at 2:30 am
[…] LoveHKFilm best films of the 90s (LoveHKFilm.com) […]
February 18th, 2010 at 9:42 am
The Top10 is pretty obvious to me. I’m not going to vote for the obvious. Will throw in surprise cards to shuffle the results >:)
Speaking of which, are we seeing ASHES OF TIME “again”? Seems like the only movie that is eligible for both polls. Rewatched the 1994 original (with the white opening credit), unlike REDUX it requires painkiller to finish. Maybe my VHS copy is just bad. Watch it if you dare.
February 18th, 2010 at 11:10 am
Hi AlHaru, you’re right that the Top 10 is obvious. I suspect it will be these movies:
10. SIX DEVIL WOMEN
9. HONG KONG X-FILE
8. RUMBLE AGES
7. EXTREME CRISIS
6. THE PROFESSIONALS
5. DON’T FOOL ME
4. PRETTY WOMAN
3. COME FLY THE DRAGON
2. TEN BROTHERS
1. SUPER ENERGETIC MAN
Anyhow, about ASHES OF TIME, it didn’t place in the Top 50 at all in its REDUX version. It will likely have a lot better luck this time.
February 18th, 2010 at 10:23 pm
Hey Kozo, I tought about the score system trouble. And I suggest you use one system score instead of one for those of choose list 20-movies and a diferent for 10-movies. It would have the same decreasing rating. So it means 1st-10, 2nd-9.5, 3rd-8,…,10th-5,11th-4.5,…,20th-0.5.
Those who want to make a Top10 list, the tenth will score 5 points, the same score for those who will list 20 movies. In my opinion adopting it will not create distortions.
And thank god, I never watched this movies you listed above. lol
February 19th, 2010 at 2:59 am
Oh c’mon, Kozo! Surely Future Cops would crack the top 10, if not be at the very top
The sad thing is that it probably would be on my list if I counted stuff that was enjoyable for me at age 12. That, along with such classics as What a Hero!, The Top Bet, and Daddy, Father and Papa. *sigh*
February 19th, 2010 at 9:26 am
Ah man, don’t spill the beans will ya? More than half of those movies are already out of stock at your employer’s site. You’re just making them harder to find!
j/k. I thought PRETTY WOMAN would be fun to watch, LOL
ASHES OF TIME will definitely receive more love this time. My concern is how many voters are going to base the votes on the 1994 original, with REDUX completely put behind the mind. Ah, it can be tricky too, since the original can be (1) difficult to find (2) difficult to watch if you can find it.
Who’s to blame? WKW of course. I’ve decided not to vote for him, trust me
February 19th, 2010 at 1:43 pm
An update to the post: if people are having a hard time determining what came out during the nineties, they can get a downloadable PDF at the HK Film Archive, which lists everything up to 2006.
http://www.lcsd.gov.hk/CE/CulturalService/HKFA/form/7-2-1.pdf
Hi Viktor, I hope that helps. According to Tim Youngs, the nineties take up 99 out of 734 pages, so you can scan those.
February 20th, 2010 at 2:50 am
There are a ton of great kung fu movies in the 1990’s. It was a very strong decade for martial arts. Hopefully people recognize this. Iron Monkey is a movie that I hope gets recognized.
February 20th, 2010 at 10:18 am
IRON MONKEY will be there. I’m not worrying about it or any of its legitimate Wong-Fei-Hung cousins. What they called “New Wuxia”, martial arts and wuxia flicks assumed heavy roles in the 90s, indirectly KO’ed the hype of “gun-fu” led by John Woo. The 90s was a successful chapter compiling of blossoming and varying genres, of dedicated and ambitious young directors like UFO’s Peter Chan, and of superstars who are still at the top of the game. HK Cinema has never been like that before or after. This is also the most complicated timeframe for selecting favourite movies. To be precise, the 90s can be divided into 3 sections - the beginning, the experimental (Fruit Chan), and the rise of Johnnie To (and towards the Millennium).
I’m foreseeing the amount of workload Kozo and his associates will put together to bring up the results.
Don’t be shocked when FUTURE COPS shows up
The guilty pleasure for Gen-X grew up in the 90s might take you by surprise; Chingmy Yau as Chun Li could be the hottest and closest impersonation the videogame icon will ever get (sorry Jackie). Sadly, Gen-Xer Maggie Q will have no chance beating that.
February 20th, 2010 at 11:27 am
Rule #6 is clear, but opening another debate won’t hurt anyone; so what about “Lee Rock I & II?” I do believe part one can stand on its own, but in terms of character development (which is what it’s all about anyway) the two parts seem inseparable.
February 21st, 2010 at 2:48 am
I’m in!!! Sent along. Didn’t take me that long to compile mostly because of the hundreds of films I own most are from the 90’s and I know which ones I watch over and over again.
Anyway here’s my list for you to nitpick poop on and discuss!
1. The Mission - “god awful soundtrack but the Template for the Modern Johnnie To experience with our favorite bromance team of Francis, Anthony, Lam and Simon
2. Young and Dangerous - Ekin!! but of course it’s Jordan that steals the show. A pure Hong Kong film that oozes 90’s but does not play dated to me in the slightest. Think I prefer #2 to the first one but I recocnize the significance of the first. Sttuuuu-Stammer
3. Full Alert - I love Full alert. Lau is one of my three favorite actors and it also happens to star one of my other three favs!! And this is a perfect action film, and to top that it’s also thoughtful not just 90 minutes of mayhem. Perfect in every way. The ending will blow you away (literally)
4. The Tricky Master - I love this movie, the poop shoe gag gets me every time. Chow at his best and Wong Jing to boot. A goofy looking young Nick Cheung is funny as well. Who could of thought Nick Cheung gettting gang raped in prison would bring laughs? Wong Jing did and I agree!!
5. Tricky Brains - More Chow, more Tricky but this time with Uncle Tat which for the most part determines the quality of a chow film (Tat + Chow = Funny with the exception of Kung Fu Hustle and Tricky master) and Andy Lau. The funniest scene in the film and there are many is still the Bald Wong scene at the danceclub.Love this movie and I love that it likely offends the politally correct nazis!
6. Lifeline - More Lau more To more goodness. HK’s answer to Backdraft is actually a beautifully shot, intense film that stands on it’s own. The fire cinemotography is stunning and all the more impressive that the stars did their own stunts. Great tribute to heroic firemen. Lau is brilliant again
7. Lee Rock Series - I love Lee Rock. It has alot going for it. Young Andy Lau once agin playing the naive young hero trying to do good but sucked into a corrupt world against his will. Some beautiful 50’s sets and costumes. Paul Chung doing what Paul Chun does best, playing a corrupt oily, villian. Hot chicks. Terrific action pieces, Uncle Tat and in Lee ROck two, Andy lau doing a horribly over the top Robert DeNiro impression. A compelling somewhat true story
8. Shanghai Grand - another tale of a reluctant good guy Andy lau being sucked into gang corruption. This time another period piece. Beautifully shot, terrific film holds up to this day. I find myself watching this film often. Leslie Cheung is pretty good as well.
9. Drunken Master II - Jackie Chan’s last great true martial arts film and still regarded as good as it gets. Costarring one of my favs of all time Ti Lung as his daddy (even though he’s about the same age as Jackie and could likely kick his ass in a real fight) Filmed by the master of all HK martial arts masters, Lau kar Leung. Amazing fighting and jackie type stunts
10. Where a Good man Goes - everyone thinks Stephen Chow and Andy Lau owned the 90’s but Lau Chin Wang could lay claim to it with the greatest quality of hits. This movie is sappy but it also has action, a corrupt Lam Suet, triad brotherhood and honor themes, cute mom and kid factor and a hard ass Lau as the gangster with a heart of gold
*Runners Up*
God of Cookery - The molesting monk gag has me rolling everytime and I can’t belive that hottie karen mok is under that subtle makeup!
Chunking Express - a beautiful film. Wish it would have focused entirely on Tony and Faye it would have made the list as a slam dunk. I find myself fast forwarding through the Takeshi stuff. I wanted to have a Tony Leung film on the list
Hard Boiled - Maybe the best straight out actioneer of the 90’s. My favorite Venom steals the show as Mad Dog. Plays a bit dated though compared with others on my list. Still if you asked me to compile a greatest HK films of all time it would be on it.
February 21st, 2010 at 5:51 pm
@Lord Garth: fast forwarding Kaneshiro’s part in Chungking Express? what about Brigitte Lin??
February 21st, 2010 at 6:34 pm
The case of the cold fish is my favourite. The way Michael Wong laughed at himself and Chow Man Kin’s portraited laziness in the movie were hilarious.
February 22nd, 2010 at 1:56 am
Kyra
Never was attracted to bridget Lin the chin thing always threw me
February 22nd, 2010 at 5:07 pm
hi kozo!
do you like hard boiled as much as you like the muscles from brussels? please answer sincerely! thanks . . .
February 22nd, 2010 at 5:13 pm
Hi Tristan, sorry for not answering earlier. I will have to say no to LEE ROCK 1 and 2. I agree that they’re 2 parts of one story, but since the whole “series counts as a single entry” thing is such a tough debate, I’ve decided to make it super simple by adding this one criteria: Were the films at any time combined into a single film? If that’s the case, then CHINESE ODYSSEY and RED CLIFF can easily be counted as a single film, while LEE ROCK, ROYAL TRAMP, etc. can’t.
Ironically, INFERNAL AFFAIRS was put into a single film too for a home video release, but I will choose to conveniently forget that.
Hi captain barbell, I like HARD BOILED much more than the Muscles from Brussels, though Van Dammage has his positive points, especially for hilarious, homoerotic entertainment. I haven’t seen JCVD though - I’m sure I’d respect him a lot more if I did.
February 22nd, 2010 at 5:24 pm
i see! how bout Takeshigemichi or bullet in the head?
February 23rd, 2010 at 1:48 am
I just got home from vacation and the voting is already underway. Damn… I need to get studying. So, is the scoring still the same (my brain melted around post #25). If we only do 10 is our scoring lower than those with 20?
Not sure if I know that many from the 1990’s, but I would like my top ten to have the highest scores possible (10.. 9.5… 9… 8.5). I’m going to make two lists.. if I can’t go all the way to 20 can I list some of the numbers as empty picks, or should I just place in random Ekin movies to fill in the blanks?
February 23rd, 2010 at 2:01 am
Hi Mat, sorry to make things so difficult. Your highest ones will count the most. You can always choose lesser films for your bottom 10 as those will count the least. But yeah, your Top 10 does count more if you do a full list of 20.
February 23rd, 2010 at 2:59 am
Hey Kozo!
You hamstrung my list on Lee Rock!! You’re killing me man.
I watched the gloriously craptacular Meh Ah copy of Moment of Romance III last night in all it’s grey, washed out glory
It will not be replaceing Lee Rock. The I watched Escape From Hong Kong Island which will also not be replaceing Lee Rock regardless of what decade it was filmed though it has some terrific one off gags.
So, for my list, Lee Rock I please in lieu of Lee Rock (1+2)
Danke!
February 23rd, 2010 at 8:07 am
aiyo kozo,can you answer my question?
what do you prefer, Takeshigemichi or bullet in the head?
hope my question is significant enough to merit a response!
February 23rd, 2010 at 9:41 am
Hi captain barbell, does anyone prefer Steven Seagal over BULLET IN THE HEAD? If so, I hope I don’t know them.
Lord Garth, sorry for pulling the rug out from under you on LEE ROCK. This is always the hardest part of running these votes. That and actually counting them up.
February 23rd, 2010 at 5:12 pm
the top 3 movies are so obvious, as a matter of fact, i like them oh so too damn very much, and i think you too kozo
1. gen x cops
2. gen y cops
3. gen z cops
ain’t i right? guilty? just tell the truth, okay? thanks!
February 24th, 2010 at 9:18 am
Not much of a hindsight, but LEE ROCK was in fact one movie split into two; for three reasons: (1) length (2) sales (3) Andy Lau. The movie was created at the peak of the so-called “biopic drama” craze. It was intended to move Andy Lau up the Best Actor rank. Producers were confident to split LEE ROCK into two, by doing so Andy Lau would have better chance bringing his first trophy home; splitting created the hype, illusion, and tension of a “serious biopic” that was “so intense” it had to be divided into two, such gossips helped create stimulation to see it in theatre. They were indeed one movie made coordinately.
If judged by quality and consistency, Kozo is probably right on.
I am going to submit my votes today. To be fair, LEE ROCK isn’t on my list.
February 24th, 2010 at 2:59 pm
Hi Nicholas, sorry but GEN-Y COPS was made in 2000, so it can’t qualify for this vote. Otherwise your list is dead-on. We should just close the voting right now.
February 24th, 2010 at 9:01 pm
Kozo,
JVCD is a good movie. But as well that movie improves people opinion about his acting abilities, he bite the hands that fed him.
February 25th, 2010 at 1:48 am
My vote is in - gosh this one was hard. Tried not to check the message board in case it influenced my voting but I have a feeling that my list is entirely different from everybody else. Kozo - I might write you later to count my bottom 10 in the vote - I haven’t decided yet but I assume I have until the 28th?
February 25th, 2010 at 2:03 pm
Hi QQ, of course you have until the 28th…and actually maybe a few days more than that. I’ll probably continue tallying this weekend (only tallied up about 10 votes thus far) so it’ll be a long haul. Not as much interest in this vote as the last one, but there’s still more than enough entries to come up with a Top 50.
February 26th, 2010 at 12:35 am
hope that you guys are also all considering putting the masterpiece A Moment of Romance and Corey Yuen’s Hero in your lists!
February 26th, 2010 at 4:36 am
Well this one is probably much harder considering the time frame and number of films. I watched a ton of movies during the 90s but still only recognized less than 400 titles out of the 2000+ movies in the 1990s. Then slicing it down to 20 took me 3 days (well 4 hours on three separate days).
February 26th, 2010 at 11:55 am
I sent my list in a while ago but thinking back on it I wish I’d put Eagle Shooting Heroes in there. Hopefully it’ll be in the top 50!
February 27th, 2010 at 10:38 pm
Greetings, Webmaster! What about Stanley Kwan’s documentary “Yang +/- Yin: Gender in Chinese Cinema”? Would definitely be in my top 20 if not 10.
Thanks for doing this, it’s a hoot, as was the last one. I vote for a Best of ’80s poll, but not until later this year, to give me some more time to catch up on some of the unwatched ones sitting on my shelf.
February 28th, 2010 at 10:52 am
I just finished my list…I feel so bad for leaving out so many of my favorites. =/
February 28th, 2010 at 11:05 am
1. A Chinese Odyssey
2. Chungking Express
3. He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Father
4. Ashes of Time
5. Comrades, Almost A Love Story
6. Fong Sai Yuk
7. Love on Delivery
8. Swordsman II
9. King of Comedy
10. The Mission
11. From Beijing With Love
12. God of Gamblers Return
13. Hard Boiled
14. Lost and Found
15. Beast Cops
16. Once Upon A Time In China III
17. The Chinese Feast
18. Forbidden City Cop
19. Dragon Inn
20. Bullets Over Summer
Feel free to pick my list apart!
March 1st, 2010 at 12:29 am
Well, just turned in my list. Compiling it made me realize again how narrow my viewing of HK film is (similarly to many Westerners, I’m sure). Tsui Hark (as director and/or producer) took 7 spots and Wong Kar-wai took 4. That’s slightly over half the list split between two filmmakers. One genre dominated: Martial arts movies took 9 or 10 or 11, depending on how strictly you define the category. Only 4 or 5 titles weren’t action movies of some variety.
I’ve got to wade some more into the Ann Hui/Stanley Kwan/Fruit Chan arthouse dramas, the Peter Chan/UFO type contemporary romances, and the early Milkyway stuff. Oh, and Stephen Chow, I guess - I’ve only ever seen SHAOLIN SOCCER and KUNG FU HUSTLE. So sue me.
March 1st, 2010 at 8:39 am
I just finished my list, and boy am I excited, because I often miss these things!
Feeling like sharing, so here’s my list–with comments!
10. The Blade–That’s pretty dang good and hated to put it at number 10, but some movie had to be there. Vincent Zhao is my boo!
9. Young and Dangerous 2–One word: Fei.
8. Once Upon a Time in China–This is a great movie that does a really good job of honoring the long legacy of Wong Fei Hung.
7. Dragon Inn: Fun in the desert! I love Maggie Cheung and Bridgette Lin. Oh yeah, Tony Leung and Donnie Yen are ok too.
6. Century of the Dragon: You know why, Sanjuro!
5. Running Out of Time: Thus began my love affair with Lau Ching Wan.
4. Beast Cops: Anthony Wong is the kind of cop I want in my neighborhood!!
3. Fong Sai Yuk: Although this is my favorite Jet Li movie, Josephine Siao steals the show.
2. Bullet in the Head: This movie is exhausting, and the best use of a couple of hours.
1. The Mission: Unlike most people, I groove on that sucky soundtrack song. I know the exact second in the movie where I was like, “Oh YES!!!!!!”
March 1st, 2010 at 12:19 pm
Nice list Ceefu!
I’m a bit embarrassed to say that, as a life-long watcher of a HK movies, I still haven’t seen Bullet in the Head yet!
March 1st, 2010 at 8:06 pm
My Top Ten should be any HK movie that Hollywood won’t be able to make it or when they remade it, it will looks crap.
Here the list:
1. Once Upon A Time in China 2: All OUATC series are good but the 2nd one is the best in terms of story & action. Watch it over & over again for the last 2 final fight.
2. A Chinese Ghost Story 2: Great action design on chinese fairytale between good & evil. Fall in love with Joey wong & Michele reis.
3. Fist of Legend: Jet lee best fighting movie so far. Any martial art fan MUST watch this movie.
4. Sex & Zen: Fun, sexy & entertain. It had great production design on a Category 3 movie. And of course Amy yip.
5. Young & Dangerous: Ekin & Jordan is great in this movie, but Francis stole the movie as Ugly Kwan.
6. Casino Tycoon: I remember watch it with bunch of my friends during school holiday. All girl started to cry during the last scene when Andy lau character visited his wife in the hospital. Love the way he defeated his enemy too, so cruel.
7. All For the Winner: After this movie, any Stephen Chow movie is guarantee fun & hillarious.
8. Shanghai Grand: Leslie cheung is amazing in this movie, love the story, the scenery, action design & soundtrack of this movie (I haven’t seen the TV series).
9. A Moment of Romance: Good romance story between bad boy & good girl that will make you feel sympathy for them. Great chemistry between both stars.
10. Swordman 2: Best wu xia pian so far. Fantastic swordplay and of course Lin Chin Hsia best role so far.
March 2nd, 2010 at 1:03 pm
CeeFu: Nice, Y&D 2 was my favorite too. Focusing on Jordan Chan’s character instead of Ekin’s was a vast improvement. I saw it in the theaters when I was living in Taipei - it was a hoot.
March 3rd, 2010 at 5:45 am
01 Bullet In The Head (1990)
02 Days Of Being Wild (1991)
03 A Moment Of Romance (1990)
04 Casino Raiders 2 (1991)
05 Fallen Angels (1995)
06 C’est La Vie, Mon Cheri (1993)
07 Chungking Express (1994)
08 He’s A Woman, She’s A Man (1994)
09 Running Out Of Time (1999)
10 King Of Comedy (1999)
11 Hard Boiled (1992)
12 Once A Thief (1991)
13 God Of Gamblers 2 (1990)
14 The God Of Cookery (1996)
15 The Blade (1995)
16 Fist Of Legend (1994)
17 Drunken Master II (1994)
18 Swordsman 2 (1992)
19 Big Bullet (1996)
20 Fight Back To School (1991)
March 3rd, 2010 at 2:01 pm
I was not watching HK movies in the 1990s, other than Kung Fu/WuXia, so I’ve been working my way backward with other genres. Therefore in order to get a more representative list of my tastes, movies such as Once Upon a Time, Fong Sai Yuk, I’m only listing one of them.
#1 BULLET IN THE HEAD
Punishing. I’m the guy who had Dog Bite Dog near the top of the 2000-2009 list.
#2 CHUNGKING EXPRESS
Faye Wong’s charm here is nearly unmatched in motion picture history. I could do without the entire half with
Gum Sing Mo and Lin Tsing Hsia and this still makes the list near the top.
#3 ASHES OF TIME
Repeated viewings necessary, but it gets better each time. Original better than redux.
I own the Mei Ah release which seems to be good quality.
#4 DRUNKEN MASTER 2
It’s often easy to forget this movie because EVERYONE knows the first one and even if they know this,
they don’t know Lau Kar Leung AND the problems making this amazing piece of film.
#5 FONG SAI YUK
The action, the humor, the Jet Li smile….unbeatable. Too bad Jet can’t speak Cantonese.
#6 HARD BOILED
Turn the volume up and strap on your seatbelt!!
#7 ONCE UPON A TIME IN CHINA
An inspiration.
#8 FIST OF LEGEND
Jet Li can do it all.
#9 TAI CHI MASTER
Michelle Yeow steals the show.
#10 POLICE STORY 3
Action action and more action. Jackie Chan is marvelous.
#11 SKINNY TIGER AND FATTY DRAGON
I can’t imagine Hung Kam Po being anything other than a terrific guy. He’s like the high school quarterback everyone looks up to!
#12 A KID FROM TIBET
Yuen Biao fading away these days is just depressing.
#13 ORGANIZED CRIME AND TRIAD BUREAU
No fluff, just a real solid triad flick.
#14 THE MISSION
I was late getting into The Mission, having seen so many other To films first, otherwise it would have been higher.
#15 SWORDSMAN
A very important and influential film that led the way for the rest of the decade.
#16 IRON MONKEY
Donnie Yen has to make the list.
#17 FALLEN ANGELS
Gritty and delicious.
#18 LEGEND OF THE WOLF
Look at that, Donnie made it twice in fact! It’s nice to watch something a bit different for once.
#19 THE BRIDE WITH WHITE HAIR
#20 DEADFUL MELODY
Two crazies to finish the list!! Give me a still of Lin Tsing Hsia’s stare and that’ll make the list alone!
AND I totally forgot Running Out of Time when I sent the list. Dumb Mistake. Chris
March 4th, 2010 at 8:17 am
I look at everyone else’s list and see all kinds of stuff I shoulda put on mine!
March 4th, 2010 at 11:08 am
My list:
C’est La Vie, Mon Cherie
1) He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Father
2) The Longest Nite
3) Once Upon A Time In China II
4) Fallen Angels
5) Chungking Express
6) Happy Together
7) Running Out of Time
9) He’s A Woman, She’s A Man
10) Expect the Unexpected
11) Fist of Legend
12) The Tai Chi Master
13) Lifeline
14) The Mission
15) Hard Boiled
16) Dragon Inn
17) Drunken Master II
18) Iron Monkey
19) Police Story III
20) Eagle Shooting Heroes
March 4th, 2010 at 1:23 pm
Paul-
I LOVE your #1 pick
March 4th, 2010 at 8:55 pm
Johnnie To early movies are totally different with The Mission or Running out of time style. I remember he made lots of sad movie with the main character died at the end, such as Casino Raiders 2, The Barefooted Kids, A Moment of Romance series, All About Ah Long, Story of My Son and A Hero Never Dies.
March 5th, 2010 at 3:12 am
A lot of these movies will leave people wondering about me:
1.Iron Monkey-You can hardly go wrong with Yuen Woo Ping and Donnie Yen together…except Iron Monkey 2.
2.Drunken Master 2-for the 15th time being listed
3.Pantyhose Hero-It’s Sammo, it’s un-p.c., it’s entertainment
4.Fist of Legend
5.License to Steal-The best G.W.G. movie to come out of the 90’s
6.Police Story 3: Super Cop
7.Slickers vs. Killers-confusing plot, bad jokes, marritial issues, self conscious killers and Sammo= awesomeness
8.She Shoots Straight-It’s License to Steal, with less jokes and prejudices.
9.Twin Dragons-I can see through this 20 times over and still find funny, awesome and way better than double impact.
10.The Banquet-It was entertaining and for a good cause. I did wonder where was Jackie, Chow Yun Fat, Yuen Biao and Sam Hui though.
March 5th, 2010 at 6:32 pm
[…] is the list I submitted to LoveHKFilm.com for the Top 50 list of HK films for the 1990s. Here is my […]
March 11th, 2010 at 10:02 am
Hey populasian, i just check out your top 50 hk films. I’ve watched them all & They are good, except the legend of liquid sword. The movie was so bad, it gave me headache and disappointed.
I like Aaron Kwok, but the movie was his worse movie along with millionaire cop & love is a fairy tale. My top 5 Aaron Kwok movie in the 90’s are:
1. Somebody up there likes me (He is so cool..)
2. Saviour of the soul (the first time I know him)
3. The bare footed kid (Good tears jerking drama)
4. Rhythm of destiny (Great song)
5. Whatever will be, will be (Good chemistry with Kelly Chen & cute movie)
March 12th, 2010 at 3:12 am
@b3n1. It’s too bad Legend of the Liquid Sword didn’t work out for you. It still is one of my favorites from the 90s due to Chu Liu Xiang (Chor Lau Heung/Chu Lau Heung) being the main character. Chu Liu Xiang is my favorite wuxia character of all time. The movie played to his character very well. On top of that is the who who’s of HK beauties in 1993. It’s too bad they left the ending wide open for a sequel but never made it. Classic HK wuxia flare for me. In and around the time of the film, I must have watched the film every other month for 3 years. Some guy honored the movie by naming an album after it too.
@Paul. I seriously thought Dragon Inn was a 1989 film. I can’t believe I left it off my top 20 since its a 1992 film.
March 15th, 2010 at 12:27 am
@populasian. Yeah, I know Chu Liu Xiang I watched TVB version stared Miu Kiu Wai as Chu Liu Xiang. It was one of my favourite Wuxia during 80’s among The Duke of Mount Deer & Legend of Condor Heroes.
Maybe I have high expectation from Aaron Kwok (he was so hot & popular during that time) as Chu Liu Xiang. But at the end, he did not perform as good as Miu Kiu Wai.
Btw, who is the HK beauties in 1993?
March 15th, 2010 at 4:32 pm
@b3n1 - The beauties were:
Chingmy Yau
Sharla Cheung
Gloria Yip
Winnie Lau
Rachel Lee (Loletta Lee)
Anita Yuen
Fennie Yuen
March 16th, 2010 at 12:01 am
@Populasian. I reckon Chingmy yau, sharla cheung and gloria yip at the time. The others I didn’t know them until later part when they became famous:
-Anita yuen with ‘he’s the woman, she’s the man’
-Loretta Lee with ‘Girls unbutton’ and ’sex & zen 2′ (Can’t believe she really took off her cloth in those movies, what a pity)
-Fennie yuen & Winnie lau, who are they anyway?
March 18th, 2010 at 3:15 am
Winnie Lau was more famous as a singer than actress, retiring mostly from show biz after marrying one of the grasshopper guys. But still a real beauty in that era.
Anita Yuen had won the Miss HK contest and I first saw her in a contest here in the states, prolly in 1990 or 1991 representing HK. She went on to much bigger roles after this.
Fennie was one of my favorites in that era too. I first noticed her in Swordsmen I. I don’t think she ever made it to leading lady status, always playing the supporting eye candy role.