Cheung Hong-tat Movies
- 2009
An Asian police sniper team gets cross-sectioned in this slick, über-masculine thriller from Hong Kong director Dante Lam. At the heart of it all is the warped, ongoing rivalry between psychotic ex-leader Lincoln (Huang Xiaoming) and current leader-commander Hartman (Richie Jen). Lincoln just finished four years of incarceration for manslaughter thanks to a job that didn't go as planned, leaving him with bitter hostility and resentment; moreover, each leader carries around a twisted, complicated personal history. These factors repeatedly put the two at odds, leading to an eventual onslaught of orgiastic violence and a rapidly-escalating body count. This film gained some unanticipated notoriety when, on a deeply tragic note, star Edison Chen committed suicide following production. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richie Jen, Huang Xiaoming, (more)
A hotheaded cop seeks repentance for a mistake from the past by rescuing the kidnapped daughter of a high profile lawyer. Police sergeant Tong (Nicholas Tse) is dressing down his crew following a botched stakeout when he spots the fugitive attempting a daring escape. Hastily speeding to catch the fleeing triad boss, Tong inadvertently kills one of lawyer Ann Gao (Zhang Jingchu)'s twin daughters. Ann is the lawyer preparing to try the boss' case, and she's resisting pressure to fix the trial. When Ann's other daughter is kidnapped by volatile hit man Hung (Nich Cheung), Tong vows to control his impulsive temper long enough to rescue the frightened young girl. But in order to save Ann's daughter Tong will need some serious help from the same colleagues he once so callously abused. Getting the girl back will be a serious gamble, but as Tong and Hung engage one another in a treacherous game of cat and mouse, the trial looms closer and the stakes get higher. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- 2008
Fulltime Killer and Mad Detective director Johnny To shifts gears from the usual action fare for his forty-eight feature film, a romantic fantasy about a student athlete who won't let death keep him from the woman he loves. Dong (Taiwanese pop singer Vic Zhou) was a handsome student athlete who suddenly lost his life while playfully chasing a car driven by pretty coed Yan (Li Bingbing). Three years later, Yan is a rising law clerk defending a brash young client who bears an uncanny resemblance to her late love Dong. As Yan findsw her memories drifting back to the time days before Dong's death, grief begins to take hold and the spirit of the deceased athlete returns to accomplish some unfinished business. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Roy Cheung, Li Bingbing, (more)
A homicide detective, a botanist with some unconventional theories, and his tabloid TV reporter girlfriend attempt to solve a gruesome murder in this high-concept thriller from The Eye and Bangkok Dangerous director Danny Pang. Botany student Steven is convinced that plants are sentient. He's recently written a doctorate paper on the theory, and spends much of his spare time attempting to prove that plants have a language all their own. Steven's girlfriend Mary works for a major television station, and thanks to a series of sensationalistic reports her career is on the upswing. When the Prime Minister's daughter is abducted, raped, and murdered, the police quickly arrest the prime suspect, a man named Eric. But is Eric really guilty of this heinous crime? In order to find out the truth, Steven conducts a series of tests in hopes that the forest itself may provide an eyewitness account of the brutal crime. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Shu Qi, Ekin Cheng, (more)
- 2007
A man trying to run away from a personal tragedy finds out the hard way how much one of his best friends has changed in this action drama. In 2003, Lau Ching-hei (Tony Leung Chiu-wai) and Bong (Takeshi Kaneshiro) are a pair of police detectives who are both partners and close pals. While Bong respects Lau's abilities as a detective, he's wary of his friend's uncertain temper, and he has enough problems of his own to deal with after the suicide of his long-time girlfriend. Three years later, Bong has left the force to become a private investigator and has developed a serious drinking problem, while Lau is one of the top detectives with the Hong Kong police and has married Susan (Xu Jinglei), a respected reporter. Susan and Lau approach Bong and ask him for help with a case -- Susan's father Chow (Yueh Hua) was murdered, and while the team investigating the crime has found two of the men responsible, a third culprit is still at large. Bong agrees to help, but what he and Susan don't know is that Lau is the missing man who helped kill Chow, and he's playing an elaborate game of cat and mouse with his fellow police officers as well as his best friend. Also featuring Shu Qi, Emme Wong and Chapman To, Seung Sing (aka Confession Of Pain) was directed by Andrew Lau and Alan Mak and written by Mak and Felix Chong, the same team responsible for the international hit Infernal Affairs. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, Takeshi Kaneshiro, (more)
Three best friends who are barely getting by as fishermen in the small village of Zhujiajiao depart to seek their fate in Shanghai in director Alexi Tan's reworking of the John Woo action classic Bullet in the Head. Feeling trapped by circumstance in the only place they have ever known, Kang, his brother Hu, and their best friend Fung decide to take their fate into their own hands by moving to Shanghai. Upon arriving in the bustling city, the naïve trio gradually finds their innocence corrupted as they fall into the deepest depths of the criminal underworld. The starting point for their harrowing descent is the infamous Paradise Club: the most popular - and dangerous - nightclub in all of Shanghai. In the Paradise Club, Lulu is the songbird that every man wants to capture, yet she remains locked securely in the cage of owner and underworld crime kingpin Boss Hong - or so he thinks. Because when the stage lights go down and the big guy isn't around, his right hand man Mark starts making the moves on Lulu. Of course Lulu is no innocent either, and as this pair conduct their dangerous affair both enemies and allies alike begin plotting a way to wrestle control of the city from the ruthless Boss Hong. As the tense situation between Boss Hong and his many conspirators begins to boil over, Kang, Hu, and Fung make a desperate grab for power that quickly pays off. But success in Shanghai doesn't come cheap. With their power nearly cemented in the land of plenty, Fung will be forced to choose between love and a life of crime while wrestling with his troublesome conscience, Hu will enter into a monumental struggle against his own inner weakness, and power-hungry Kang will allow nothing to prevent him from realizing his own ambitions. Now, as lives hang in the balance and blood begins to flow, the chance for redemption fades with each passing day. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- 2007
A poor film projectionist witnesses forty years of Hong Kong history in this socially themed family melodrama starring acclaimed Hong Kong character Anthony Wong. Idealistic leftist Zuo Kong (Wong) has been threading the projector since the 1960s, and from the riots of those early years through the prosperity of the 1970s, the growth of the 1980s, and the tensions of the 1990s, there's little he hasn't seen from his cramped perch behind the bulb. A modest family man whose political beliefs at times seem in direct conflict with his home life, Kong struggles to remain a loving husband and a good father as he gradually shrinks away from doctrinaire idealism. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anthony Wong, Ronald Cheng, (more)
A mentally disturbed girl mistakes a man on the street for the boyfriend who walked out of her life without a sound, only to find out just how deceiving appearances can be in director Oxide Pang's mind-bending psychological thriller. Winnie Leung (Charlene Choi) is a rather plain girl who spends most of her days in her apartment cooking, carving wooden dolls, and waiting quietly alone for her boyfriend, Seth (Shawn Yue), to return. One day, after recording Seth's furtive departure in her diary, Winnie ventures out onto the streets and makes acquaintances with a kind and handsome stranger named Ray (also Yue) after mistaking him for the missing Seth. Later revealing over lunch that Seth had apparently been killed in a tragic car accident, Winnie and Ray form a warm bond, and she eventually invites him to move in with her. As Winnie and Ray gradually begin to grow closer, the parallels between her new relationship with Ray and her old relationship with Seth begin to shed an entirely different light on the events of the recent past. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charlene Choi, Shawn Yue, (more)
