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Richard James Havis

It was not all John Woo Yu-sum when it came to Hong Kong crime films in the late 1980s – filmmakers were still making a variety of interesting cops-and-robbers movies.
Here, we look at two hidden gems produced by Tsui Hark that were directed by Johnnie To Kei-fung and Kirk Wong Chi-keung, respectively.
The Big Heat (1988)
This skilfully executed police thriller features some gruesome violence – it opens with a dream sequence in which an electric drill rips through a hand – but the sometimes macabre scenes do not seem gratuitous in a tough story of ruthless individuals committing terrible acts.
It is a straightforward, no-frills action film without any postmodern touches of irony – a simple story of detectives battling criminal forces that are better connected and armed than they are.


“The Big Heat is a serious dose of ultra-violence, Hong Kong style, an intense mix of action, intrigue and politics,” Lisa Morton wrote in her book The Cinema of Tsui Hark (2001).
Of interest today is that Johnnie To was credited as co-director alongside debuting filmmaker Andrew Kam Yeung-wah. While it is tempting to draw parallels with To’s career-defining auteurist crime movies of the mid-1990s, this first shot at the genre contains nothing foreshadowing those stylised works.
The production was an early, controversial example of Tsui taking over a shoot from the directors he had hired. He reportedly brought To on to replace Kam, grew unhappy with To’s work, and finished the film himself – perhaps with help from frequent collaborator Tony Ching Siu-tung (1987’s A Chinese Ghost Story).
The idea for the gore came from Tsui, and the producer was typically mercurial.
“Tsui had lots of ideas, and changed the script all the time,” To told Hong Kong International Film Festival interviewers Athena Tsui and Cochran Fong. “Watching today, The Big Heat is good in places, but it’s chaotic.”

Written by a young Gordon Chan Kar-seung a year before he started helming his own films, the script is very loosely based on Fritz Lang’s 1953 classic of the same name.
Waise Lee Chi-hung stars as a good policeman losing sensation in his trigger hand. When his former police partner is murdered in Malaysia – suffering horrific burns gleefully shown on camera – Lee vows to track down the killer, with all clues pointing to a wealthy, seemingly untouchable Hong Kong businessman.
The Big Heat was produced a couple of years after John Woo’s A Better Tomorrow reinvented the gangster genre in 1986, but stylistically, it looks like it was made a little earlier.
Its action is hard-hitting and brutal, lacking “bullet ballet” stylisation until the final shoot-out. The set pieces mostly consist of well-choreographed gunfights and great old-school stunts, particularly some exciting leaps from moving vehicles.

Lee, who became popular in the late 1980s after A Better Tomorrow, proved a great choice for the heroic protagonist, bringing a thoughtfulness to the character that remains even while he fires his standard-issue revolver at all and sundry.
Philip Kwok Chun-fung (of the Venom Mob) plays his cheerful sidekick, adding cheekiness to the violent proceedings while also handling some of the action choreography.
Gunmen (1988)
Directed by Kirk Wong Chi-keung, Gunmen is an unusual 1920s police story of a Shanghai officer and his ex-army brothers on the trail of the opium smuggler who killed their superior.
The film is very violent, but the gritty set pieces and top-tier acting lend it credibility. It is also infused with carefully etched melodrama that, unusually for a Hong Kong action film, effectively drives the plot.


Although primarily a fighting film, its illicit romance is thoroughly integrated rather than tacked on to give those interested something to watch between the action scenes.
As with The Big Heat, conflict between Tsui Hark and his director resulted in large budget cuts during shooting, forcing Wong to improvise. Yet the final product still looks fine.
Loosely based on Brian De Palma’s 1987 film The Untouchables, the somewhat muddled historical setting seems to start around 1926 during the Communist-Nationalist conflict in mainland China.
Chun-bei (Tony Leung Ka-fai) and his three friends are communist soldiers who narrowly escape execution by Nationalist Captain Haye (Adam Cheng Siu-chau). Following a truce, Chun-bei becomes a Shanghai policeman.
When Haye resurfaces as an opium dealer and kills Chun-bei’s boss, he vows revenge, and his three wartime buddies, led by Waise Lee, decide to help him out.

While prefiguring the brotherhood dynamics of John Woo’s 1990 epic Bullet in the Head, the film adds intrigue with a glammed-up Elizabeth Lee Mei-fung playing a bona fide femme fatale pulled straight from a 1950s American noir.
Classic femme fatales are rare in Hong Kong films, and Lee plays seductive to the hilt. Chun-bei falls for her character, Mona, but does not want to leave his wife (Carrie Ng Ka-lai). When Mona becomes Chun-bei’s police informer, mixing business with pleasure has disastrous effects.
Choreographer Fung Hak-on’s frantic action is not meant to be stylish; it is just characters hitting each other as hard as possible with whatever is at hand.
This culminates in an ending that surpasses the usual shoot-out, amping up an emotional scenario in which Chun-bei and his wife, child and mistress – who naturally has a heart of gold – must all make sacrifices. It is action-melodrama par excellence.
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.


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Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

Waise Lee Chi-hung in a still from The Big Heat (1988).

Elizabeth Lee Mei-fung (left) and Tony Leung Ka-fai in a still from Gunmen (1988), a Hong Kong cops-and-robbers movie produced by Tsui Hark.

Tsui Hark is pictured beside the poster of his movie, A Better Tomorrow III, in 1989. Photo: SCMP

Adam Cheng Siu-chau in a still from Gunmen (1988). Photo: Fortune Star Media Limited

3 Hong Kong comedy classics from the 1970s and 80s that became local favourites

Jacky Cheung (left) and Sammo Hung in a still from Where’s Officer Tuba?, a popular Hong Kong comedy film from 1986.

Richard Ng (centre) in a still from Itchy Fingers (1979).

Richard Ng (centre) and John Sham (right) in a still from Pom Pom (1984).

How did Ann Hui bring Eileen Chang’s Love in a Fallen City and Eighteen Springs to life?

Chow Yun-fat (left) and Cora Miao in a still from Love in a Fallen City (1984), directed by Ann Hui.

(From right) Cora Miao and Chow Yun-fat in a still from Love in a Fallen City (1984).

Director Ann Hui at an interview with the SCMP in 1984. Photo: Yau Tin-kwai

Leon Lai (left) and Wu Chien-lien in a still from Eighteen Springs (1997).

Anita Mui in a still from Eighteen Springs.

3 Anthony Wong films from the early 1990s that show the Hong Kong actor’s wide range

Anthony Wong in a still from Full Contact. The Hong Kong actor’s restrained turn as a cowardly gangster brought realism to the otherwise comic book-style 1992 action film.

Anthony Wong (front) and Chow Yun-fat in a still from Full Contact.

Anthony Wong in a still from 3 Days of a Blind Girl (1993).

Anthony Wong in a still from Rock N’ Roll Cop (1994).

Cecilia Cheung: Hong Kong actress, sex scandal victim and Chinese social media star

Cecilia Cheung at the 23rd Hong Kong Film Awards in 2004. The actress’ personal life garnered a lot of attention in the 2000s, with tabloids covering scandals and her high-profile romantic life. Photo: SCMP

Cheung in 1999. Photo: Oliver Tsang

Cheung speaks after receiving the award for best new performer, as veteran actors Liza Wang and Danny Lee look on, at the 19th Hong Kong Film Awards in 2000. Photo: Martin Chan

Cheung and Nicholas Tse in 2001. Photo: Reuters

Cheung in a still from Lost in Time (2003), for which she won best actress at the 23rd Hong Kong Film Awards. Photo: China Star Entertainment Group

Cheung and Tse at the 30th Hong Kong Film Awards in 2011, the year they filed for divorce. Photo: K. Y. Cheng

Cheung and Stephen Chow in a still from King of Comedy (1999). Her feature-film debut remains one of her most memorable roles. Photo: The Star Overseas

Cheung and her three sons. Photo: Weibo

Cheung in a photo she posted on her Weibo account in 2023. Photo: Weibo

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The Big Heat and Gunmen, both released in 1988, are brutal action thrillers full of violence, brotherhood drama and intrigue


The Big Heat and Gunmen, both released in 1988, are brutal action thrillers full of violence, brotherhood drama and intrigue.


Why these 1980s Hong Kong crime movies produced by Tsui Hark are hidden gems

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}The Big Heat and Gunmen, both released in 1988, are brutal action thrillers full of violence, brotherhood drama and intrigue

The Big Heat (1988)

The Big Heat and Gunmen, both released in 1988, are brutal action thrillers full of violence, brotherhood drama and intrigue