Hello there, you are now reading Day 12 and the very last post of THE BEST HONG KONG FILMS EVER. It’s been a long journey getting here. We started receiving votes in early November, published our first post on this subject December 17th and now here we are a a full 24 days later, on January 10th, with the final post in this monstrosity.

24 days to reveal this ridiculous countdown (and also that BEST HONG KONG FILM PERFORMANCES feature). That’s a long time for some people.

When Chow Yun-Fat started reading this countdown
he did not have white hair. Or a beard.

This last entry contains only two films because they distanced themselves from all the others on the list early on, and were in a horse race for the number one slot until the very last days. Considering that the #3 film is nearly 100 points behind these two, we felt like separating them would be appropriate.

Also, we should note that thanks to HARD BOILED, THE KILLER and A BETTER TOMORROW placing in slots 6, 5 and 3, John Woo has officially run out aces. No Top 2 finish for you, Mr. Woo.

“Are we done here? I have a more popular Asian film website to visit.”

As usual, if you’re just joining us, you shouldn’t spoil the whole thing by looking at the top film first. Either go back in time using your Flux Capacitor or click one of the below links.

Previous Updates:
Numbers 200-171
Numbers 170-141
Numbers 140-111
Numbers 110-81
Numbers 80-61
Numbers 60-41
Numbers 40-21
Numbers 20-16
Numbers 15-11
Numbers 10-6
Numbers 5-3

So here we go! Hit the jump to see that the #2 film of THE BEST HONG KONG FILMS EVER is…

2. INFERNAL AFFAIRS (2002), directed by Andrew Lau and Alan Mak - 573 points, 14 first place votes - LoveHKFilm Review

For once, INFERNAL AFFAIRS loses and it’s actually kind of surprising. The film not only ranked #1 on our list of the TOP 50 HONG KONG MOVIES OF THE AUGHTS, but it did so by a sickening margin, walloping IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE by over 350 points. INFERNAL AFFAIRS also grossed way more money than you’ll ever see in your lifetime, reignited local excitement for Hong Kong film, and earned untold numbers of awards — and all this despite being a remake of HARD BOILED without the action. Sadly, the film is only number two here so we should just resign ourselves to that fact and move on. Site reader eldridge116 calls INFERNAL AFFAIRS “the best written and edited, most intense crime drama HK ever made and they made quite a few.” INFERNAL AFFAIRS was basically your perfect storm: take a great script, a superb visual director, another director to shore up the first director’s deficiencies, two top-of-the-line superstars, and surround them with an amazing cast of stars and character actors. Ask Christopher Doyle to stop by the set, release at Christmas and you’ve got yourself a mega-blockbuster that hey, also happens to be a damn good movie! INFERNAL AFFAIRS got stretched a little by its quickie sequels but that shouldn’t take away from its accomplishments — which frankly, are too numerous to list so we should just quit now. Know this: INFERNAL AFFAIRS is easily one of the best Hong Kong films ever and probably always will be.

So with INFERNAL AFFAIRS getting the body block on the 2-yard line, THE BEST HONG KONG FILM EVER is…

1. INFERNAL AFFAIRS (2002), directed by Andrew Lau and Alan Mak - 8 million points, 35 million first place votes - Greatest Reviews of the Greatest Film Ever

Haha, did you think INFERNAL AFFAIRS would lose? Nice try. You can’t keep INFERNAL AFFAIRS down. INFERNAL AFFAIRS cannot be contained by just one slot on this list of THE BEST HONG KONG FILMS EVER. A reviewer over at the Hong Kong Movie Database called INFERNAL AFFAIRS “slick but been done before and much better,” but INFERNAL AFFAIRS gave that reviewer the Spock Eyebrow followed by the People’s Elbow and then it was over. Seriously, remember the time that INFERNAL AFFAIRS traveled through time and won our TOP HONG KONG MOVIES OF THE 80s reader vote? If INFERNAL AFFAIRS can win a reader vote about a different decade, what would stop INFERNAL AFFAIRS from cloning itself to take the #1 and #2 slots on this list? INFERNAL AFFAIRS wanted the #3 slot too but Chow Yun-Fat would have no part of that and hey, you have to give Chow Yun-Fat his props. INFERNAL AFFAIRS received stiff competition from THE DEPARTED for this slot, but that cheap copy wasn’t getting anywhere near this list and INFERNAL AFFAIRS obliterated THE DEPARTED with a hearty Hulk Smash. Know this: INFERNAL AFFAIRS is only THE GREATEST MOVIE OF ALL TIME. At least, someone on a forum somewhere said so.

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Sorry, just joking. Actually, due to process of elimination and a hefty point total, the BEST HONG KONG FILM EVER is…

1. CHUNGKING EXPRESS (1994), directed by Wong Kar-Wai - 636 points, 24 first place votes - LoveHKFilm Review

CHUNGKING EXPRESS ranked #1 on our list of TOP HONG KONG FILMS OF THE 90s, but it’s still a surprise to see it take the #1 slot here. It didn’t completely obliterate its competition on the 90s vote like INFERNAL AFFAIRS did in the aughts vote, plus it’s not an overt genre film. And we doubt many will say that CHUNGKING EXPRESS is more accomplished than IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE or (maybe) THE GRANDMASTER. But there’s one thing CHUNGKING EXPRESS has over other Wong Kar-Wai movies, and perhaps all other movies on this list: pure, unconditional love from its fans. Valerie Soe calls it “the cutest, quirkiest little art film ever made. Hong Kong, Tony Leung Chiu-Wai and Takeshi Kaneshiro were never more charming, romantic or swoon-worthy.” Martin says the film is “Exhilarating lightning-in-a-bottle filmmaking from Wong Kar-Wai, the style of which I wish he could reproduce. There is little chance (read none) of that, but we’ll always have CHUNGKING EXPRESS.” Lee Rankin perhaps nails it, saying “I still can’t pin down why I love this movie so much. I just find that every time I watch it, I can’t stop smiling for about two hours afterwards.” CHUNGKING EXPRESS is a movie that can be watched endlessly not just because it’s about love, but because it’s about movie love, i.e., the types of chance meetings and flash opportunities you wish would happen in real life, but seldom do. CHUNGKING EXPRESS takes regret and longing and spins it into surprise and hope. We love this movie to death, too.

Guess what? We are at the end of THE BEST HONG KONG FILMS EVER. Thanks so much for voting, reading along and not complaining that we keep describing John Woo movies in a homoerotic manner. We hope you had fun. We’ll be back in a couple of weeks with the whole list of results plus some nifty facts, number-crunching and other trivia. Also, catch us again in the year 2021 when we run our TOP HONG KONG FILMS OF THE 10s reader vote. We should be alive.

Customary toy photo to end this thing:

“再见!”

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 10th, 2013 at 1:12 pm and is filed under Best Hong Kong Films Ever, Reader Votes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.