The controversy deepened when Ten Years was nominated for (and subsequently won) Best Film at the Hong Kong Film Awards. This, in turn, resulted in 40 public screenings in defiance of this supposed suppression of the film. Despite being hugely popular with local audiences, the movie was swiftly pulled from local cinemas – supposedly after pressure from Beijing. Yet the film’s critique of Mainland rule was only the beginning of the controversy. RECOMMENDED: More of a funny romance kind of person, then check out Hong Kong's best romcoms, or settle in for some laughs with the best of Stephen Chow's movies.ĭir Jevons Au, Kiwi Chow, Ng Ka-Leung, Wong Fei-Pang, Kwok Zune (Kin-Ping Leung, Neo Yau Hawk-Sau, Liu Kai-chi, Ng Siu Hin, Wan Hongwei)ĭescribed as a ‘virus of the mind’ by China’s Global Times, Ten Years proved hugely controversial for its dystopian vision of Hong Kong in the year 2025. So with such a massive cultural legacy, what are the best Hong Kong movies of all time? We present to you this definitive ranking of the best films made until 2018.

Moonlight owes much to the style of Wong Kar-wai films and the auteur was an influence acknowledged by Soffia Coppola when she collected the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for Lost in Translation. Quentin Tarantino ripped off Ringo Lam’s City on Fire for his debut, 1992’s Reservoir Dogs. The groundbreaking action of The Matrix would never have come about if not for John Woo films and the action choreography of Yuen Woo-ping. Bruce Lee remains a global icon and his martial arts movies are classics. The influence of Hong Kong cinema can be seen far and wide. Hong Kong was once the Hollywood of the East. At its peak, around the early 90s, the local movie industry was the first in the world – in terms of per capita production and the second-largest exporter of films – second only to the US.

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