Jacky Cheung Movies

This is the third in a series of movies featuring creatures from Chinese ghost stories. It begins with a scene from the first movie of the series, which shows the hero in an epic conflict with something called the Tree Devil, which has been put to sleep for a hundred years. Now it is "later," and the story focuses on two traveling monks, a scholarly disciple and his aged master, who are traveling the countryside bearing an image of the Buddha to be given to a particular shrine. One night they stay at a haunted temple and become the focus of the amorous attentions of two sexy ghosts, who are in league with the Tree Devil. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Hong Kong auteur Wong Kar-wai makes his feature film debut with this gritty romantic crime-drama inspired by Scorsese's Mean Streets. The film opens with young gangster Wah (Andy Lau) getting a visit for the day from his beautiful cousin Ah-Ngor (Maggie Cheung), who is coming into Kowloon from the remote outlying Lantau island to receive medical treatment for a lung condition. At first, the short-fused gangster and the quiet country girl have little in common, but gradually the two start to form a bond of sorts. Meanwhile, Wah's buddy Fly (Jacky Cheung), who has an absolutely volcanic temper, is always getting Wah into hot water. Even though Wah knows that Fly is bound to end up dead soon, he stands by his foolhardy friend. After some hesitation, Wah -- who has fallen for Ah-Ngor -- visits his cousin on Lantau, hoping to make their relationship more than family. Fly later infuriates a psychopathic mob boss, Tony (Alex Man Chi-leung who, along with his henchmen, beats and degrades Fly and Wah. This induces Fly make amends with Tony by undertaking the outrageously difficult task of rubbing out an informant who is in the custody of the cops, before the man has the opportunity to testify in a court hearing.

~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

Master Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Kar-Wai directed this lyrical, dream-like martial arts epic. A famously troubled shoot, the film took two years and 40 million dollars to produce (a shocking sum for a national cinema populated with low-budget quickies) and features a virtual who's who of the Hong Kong film world. Conceived as a prequel to the popular martial arts novel The Eagle-Shooting Hero by Jin Yong, the movie is less a straightforward action thriller than a visually striking meditation on memory and love. It nominally centers on Ouyang Feng (Leslie Cheung), who ekes out a lonely existence as an itinerant hired sword. Getting on in years and tormented by memories of a lost love, he also works an agent for other mercenary assassins from his remote desert abode. Ouyang's old friend and fellow swordsman, Huang Yaoshi (Tony Leung Kar-Fai, who starred in the The Lover) drowns his lovelorn misery in a magical wine that makes him forget. Later, a mysterious young man named Murong Yang (Brigitte Lin) hires Ouyang to kill his sister's unfaithful suitor, Huang Yaoshi. The following day, that spurned sister, Murong Yin (Lin again), hires Ouyang to protect her dearly beloved. Meanwhile, Hong Qi (pop star Jacky Cheung) finds some redemption for a life of killing by accepting a poor girl's offer to avenge her brother's death -- a task that Ouyang brusquely shunned. In another subplot, a master swordsman (Tony Leung Chiu-Wai) is slowly going blind. He agrees to defend a village from horse thieves so that he can afford to go home and see his wife before his eyesight fails completely. This film is one of the most celebrated examples of 1990s Hong Kong cinema: it won multiple awards in its native Hong Kong, along with a Golden Osella for Best Cinematography at the 1994 Venice Film Festival.

In the years following Ashes of Time's initial theatrical release, the original negatives were lost and multiple versions of the film began to crop up all across the globe. As a result, director Wong Kar-wai longed to compile these various versions into a restored, remastered, and definitive final cut. With Ashes of Time Redux, the director restructures the film according to seasons, effectively clarifying the central narratives, and digitally colorizes the film to render cinematographer Christopher Doyle's masterful imagery all the more lavish and intoxicatingly gorgeous. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Following up on his 1989 masterpiece The Killer, superstar action director John Woo directs this emotionally wrenching look at three friends waylaid in war-torn Vietnam. Set in 1967, when clashes between leftists protesting British rule and the police were tearing the colony apart, the film opens with Frank (Jacky Cheung Hok-yau) offering the deed to his parents' home as collateral to a loan shark, so that he can pay for his buddy Ben's (Tony Leung Chiu-wai) wedding party. Unfortunately, Frank is ambushed by a thug named Ringo and his associates who make off with the money. Ben and Frank vow revenge and end up accidentally killing the guy. Wanted by both the law and the triads, Frank, Ben, and their pal Paul (Waise Lee Chi-hung) head for Vietnam with a case of fake Rolexes and dreams of making a quick buck. Immediately upon arrival, those dreams are dashed -- their wares are blown up in a tin-can military coup, they are almost shot by the South Vietnamese army, and their passports are seized. Though tempted to throw in the towel, Frank and Ben are convinced by Paul into joining forces with shady hit man named Luke (Simon Yam Tat-wah) to shake down club owner Leong (Lam Chung). The scheme goes horribly wrong, ending with the death of a beautiful drug-addled singer named Sally (Yolinda Yan Chi-sin) and our three heroes accused of being CIA agents in a North Vietnamese POW camp. Later, though, Frank saves Paul's live and get injured in the process, Paul can only think of financial gain and saving his own neck. He shoots Frank in the head when he fears his friend's cries of agony will tip off the Vietcong. Unfortunately, the bullet doesn't kill Frank, leaving him brain damaged, drug-addled, and in chronic pain. After Ben learns of Frank's condition, he confronts Paul who has since returned to Hong Kong to become a prominent businessman. John Woo was originally planning to make this film under the name A Better Tomorrow 3 until Tsui Hark took the franchise away from him, fashioning his own version. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

Hong Kong filmmaker Johnny To directed this all-star holiday comedy, another in a string of popular Lunar New Year entertainments for actor/producer Raymond Wong, who engineered the similar All's Well, Ends Well series. As usual, the plot line is just an excuse for a series of amusing cameos and comic routines, but provides a number of laughs as it tells the story of three brothers, the mincingly effeminate Fang Chien-lang (Chow Yun-fat), cartoonist Chien-sang (Jacky Cheung), and their middle-aged older sibling, Chien-hui (Wong). Chien-lang romances both a stewardess (Carol Cheng) and a hedonistic department store saleswoman (Cherie Chung) who has a boyfriend (Lawrence Cheng); Chien-sang falls for a jogger named Ying-ying (Fennie Yuen); and Chien-hui romances a Chinese opera singer (Petrina Fung) whom he isn't aware is the same person who has been crank-calling him. As a result of some telephone problems, all three brothers experience some wild ups and downs in their respective relationships before finally attaining romantic bliss following a climactic opera performance involving all the main characters. As with Wong's other holiday films, genre aficionados will have a field day spotting familiar faces, including Karl Maka and Teddy Robin Kwan in the audience, and City on Fire director Ringo Lam as Fung's husband. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide

A subtle study in the deterioration of relationships and the strains of a broken marriage, director Ann Hui's character driven drama draws on Chinese poetry to tell a tale of infidelity and pensive yearning. Tempted by the advances of an amorous student, Chinese Literature professor Lam (Jackie Cheung) considers an extramarital affair while still reeling in the pain of wife Man Ching's (Anita Mui) previous infidelity. As depression and boredom push the couple further apart, Professor Lam's moral devotion to his wife places him at odds with the pain he harbors from their tumultuous past. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Though generally unknown to Western audiences, Tsui Hark is considered a giant among Asian filmmakers and this exceptional epic, combining hard-hitting martial-arts action with romance, comedy, history, genuine poignance, and sharp insight into the effects of the century-long encroachment of Western civilization in Asia more than amply demonstrates why. The story centers on the exploits of Master Wong Fei-hung (a familiar figure in Hong Kong cinema) a 19th-century doctor, Confucian, and exceptional martial artist. As the film begins, he has just opened a new clinic in Canton Province. To help him with patients, he hires a few apprentices including Porky Lang (the comic relief) and Buck Teeth Sol, who was raised outside China and barely can speak the language. Wong is platonically involved with the lovely, worldly Aunt Yee, who has been abroad most of her life. Wong soon gets in trouble when he begins using his skills to protect and assist the poor and helpless in his community. As a result, someone torches his clinic, forcing Wong and his compadres to set off and get spectacularly staged revenge. They also try vainly to stop Western culture from changing traditional Chinese ways, but they soon find that they may as well be shoveling sand against a rising tide. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Joseph Cheung Tung-cho returns to direct this name-only sequel to the popular buddy cop Pom Pom series. In this go around, Shin (Jacky Cheung Hok-yau) and Chiang (Stephen Tung Wai) are happy-go-lucky partners investigating a particularly notorious crime syndicate. Unfortunately, Shin's Mainland relatives -- Cha Chiang (Alfred Cheung Kin-ting) and his beautiful sibling Cha Shi (Loletta Lee Lai-chun) -- decide to drop by. While Chiang insists on accompanying his cousin on the job, Shin starts to make eyes with Shi. Meanwhile, Chiang runs into his ex-girlfriend Nancy (Bonnie Fu Yuk-ching). When Nancy witnesses a gangland hit, she and everyone around her are threatened by the mob. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

In this martial arts adventure set in the Ming Dynasty, a young swordsman named Fox (Sam Hui) gets involved in a quest for a scroll that contains invaluable secrets of swordsmanship. Many warring factions are after the scroll, and they are more than willing to kill Fox to get it. A conflict with the film's producer, Tsui Hark, caused the director King Hu to quit the film during production, and Hark and some other directors took over. However, the subsequent inconsistencies do not detract from the film's spectacular swordfights. ~ Jonathan E. Laxamana, All Movie Guide

This black comedy satirizes Mainland China and examines the relations between Hong Kong and China as Hong Kong fast approaches its Chinese take-over in 1997. When a strange healer with ESP disappears into Hong Kong, a wealthy mainland business man hires a rumpled, beer-guzzling detective to find him. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Director turned hot Hollywood fight choreographer Yuen Woo-ping spins this propulsive action-thriller. When officer Hsiu (Leung Kar-yan) successfully cracks into a major drug ring, he is able to arrest everyone except the group's ruthless ringleader, Swatow (Johnny Wang Lung-wei). The following day, Hsiu ends up full of holes and the police department launching a desperate manhunt to find Swatow. When they eventually track him down, the criminal is set up to be murdered by crooked cop named Feng (Ng Man-tat), who is working for a rival smuggler. When protagonist Fang (Jacky Cheung Hok-yau) stumbles upon evidence that Feng is working for the crime world, he quickly learns that Feng is not the only dirty cop in the department. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide