The Most Underrated Hong Kong Action Films

Naika

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I don’t count the hopping vampire jawns...those were P O P U L A R.

...but you know who doesn’t get his due?

¡Lam
Ching
Ying!

He is my favorite.

Lam Ching Ying is a fucking beast. If you saw Prodigal Son with Yuen Biao then you'd know what I mean.

Another underrated one I'd suggest aside from Full Contact and On the Run from my earlier posts is The Blade. So underrated and, frankly, the last time Tsui Hark decided to actually make a fucking movie.
 

HDRchampion

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If you guys are fan of Lam and haven't seen Pom Pom Hot Hot, he's pretty badass in that.

I really wouldn't consider Full Contact underrated...During the 90s that was consider a top 5 gun/action film. Was also an essential hong kong film to watch. Also Heroic Trio, Executioners, & Painted Faces were super popular films.

As for the Blade, man i love that movie so much. Im not sure if i would put that as underrated either. Have you seen What Price Survival? Its a modern sword flick. Barefoot Kid i think was the last shaw bros kung fu film in the 90s that has been forgotten. Also Blade of Fury, Sammo directed this badass wire-fu flick, one of the best that no one heard about. This one got lost because Jet Li dominated this genre but man the choreograph is on point, dont care for wirefu stuff but the weapons fighting is great. Also the lead character, who the fuck is this guy. I've never seen him in another film ever again.
 

wataru330

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I know there is more than one ‘Hero.’

The Yuen Biao ‘Hero’ is the one I like the best. From Country Mouse to City Mouse, to running the City tale.
 

HDRchampion

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I know there is more than one ‘Hero.’

The Yuen Biao ‘Hero’ is the one I like the best. From Country Mouse to City Mouse, to running the City tale.

I love Biao & like Kanshiro but doesn't come close to the awesomeness of the original Boxer from Shantung. The kungfu is pretty dated but the raw emotions and swagger was oozing from both David Chiang & Chen Kuan-Tai. Yall know when the setting is in a Tea House, you're going to expect a freaken amazing ending! One of the most memorable brutal endings!
 

wataru330

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You ain’t wrong, HDR.

Speaking of oldies, I love Come Drink With Me.

Damn near the entire Shaw Bros. body of work is on Amazon Prime right now.
 

Naika

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You ain’t wrong, HDR.

Speaking of oldies, I love Come Drink With Me.

Damn near the entire Shaw Bros. body of work is on Amazon Prime right now.

Come Drink with me is fly as hell. Cheng Pei Pei kicks all kinds of ass in that film.

If there's one underrated person I wish had a bigger fanbase would be Moon Lee, though it's hard to get films officially. Iron Angels is on Amazon Prime though.
angel_ii.jpg
 

bubba966

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this thread has gone from ‘under rated’ to ‘shit I like’ lol.

They aren’t mutually exclusive! If there is a flick or flicks you love and don’t think enough beer bellied share croppers have seen them, chime in!

I’ve said it a bunch in other threads, but it is worth repeating:
Benny The Jet Urquidez is Jackie Chan’s best opponent. Those two fights=. 1) Wheels on Meals
2) Dragon’s Forever

*never* get old.

I'd not say Wheels on Meals or Dragons Forever are underrated. Both are excellent films and are frequently brought up in best HK action discussions in my experience.

Ughhh... Now I want to watch em both again as it's been too long since I last saw either movie.
 

HDRchampion

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i think the femme fatales are extremely underrated as a whole genre...They kick just as much ass!

A list - Brigitte Lin, Michelle Yeoh, Kara Hui, Anita Mui, Maggie Cheung

B List - Cynthia Khan, Moon Lee, Yukari Shima, Michiko Nishiwaki, Sibelle Hu, Cynthia Rothrock, Joyce Godenzi

Brigitte Lin is my goddess and had huge crush in forever but I think Cynthia Khan is my goto badass, she absolutely just rocks in all her films. Especially In the Line of Duty 3 & 4 and the more underrated Queens High.
 

Naika

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i think the femme fatales are extremely underrated as a whole genre...They kick just as much ass!

A list - Brigitte Lin, Michelle Yeoh, Kara Hui, Anita Mui, Maggie Cheung

B List - Cynthia Khan, Moon Lee, Yukari Shima, Michiko Nishiwaki, Sibelle Hu, Cynthia Rothrock, Joyce Godenzi

Brigitte Lin is my goddess and had huge crush in forever but I think Cynthia Khan is my goto badass, she absolutely just rocks in all her films. Especially In the Line of Duty 3 & 4 and the more underrated Queens High.

My wife grew up watching Cynthia Khan as a kid and always thought she was underrated. Yeoh gets the most limelight but not Khan by a long stretch.


Sibelle Hu's action is also vastly underrated but don't expect her to be in movies anytime soon give that her husband was recently charged with embezzlement and other financial crimes.


I have to also share that one very underrated movie which is terrible but oh so good has to be the Seventh Curse. Has anyone seen that?
 

Xavier

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I bought a Blu-ray of Monkey King 2 at the Dollar Tree.
Watched it with my boys. It was alright, totally worth $1.
Hella high quality CGI and special effects.
It wasn't dubbed so I had to pause and read the subtitles to them.
 

Burning Blade

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Great fucking list!

I’d like to to add:
Bodyguard from Beijing
In the Line of Duty 4
Swordsman 2
Tai Chi Master
Fong Sai Yuk
Thunderbolt

My local Chinese grocery shop used to rent VHS tapes (mainly HK action and soft-core porn) and I would watch and record everything I could get my hands on. I think Kung Fu Cult Master may have been the first one I saw, and I was instantly hooked. I was also a fucking HUGE Bruce Lee fan as a kid, bought all his martial art books and rewatched his movies over and over.
 

HDRchampion

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My wife grew up watching Cynthia Khan as a kid and always thought she was underrated. Yeoh gets the most limelight but not Khan by a long stretch.


Sibelle Hu's action is also vastly underrated but don't expect her to be in movies anytime soon give that her husband was recently charged with embezzlement and other financial crimes.


I have to also share that one very underrated movie which is terrible but oh so good has to be the Seventh Curse. Has anyone seen that?

I doubt Sibelle would be doing any kung fu movies, she would have to be in her 60s already. I have to check out Seventh Curse for the cast alone, i never really gotten into the horror genre.

I bought a Blu-ray of Monkey King 2 at the Dollar Tree.
Watched it with my boys. It was alright, totally worth $1.
Hella high quality CGI and special effects.
It wasn't dubbed so I had to pause and read the subtitles to them.

I picked up Merantua at the dollar tree a few months ago. Was surprise they had bluray movies let alone foreign films.


Great fucking list!

I’d like to to add:
Bodyguard from Beijing
In the Line of Duty 4
Swordsman 2
Tai Chi Master
Fong Sai Yuk
Thunderbolt

My local Chinese grocery shop used to rent VHS tapes (mainly HK action and soft-core porn) and I would watch and record everything I could get my hands on. I think Kung Fu Cult Master may have been the first one I saw, and I was instantly hooked. I was also a fucking HUGE Bruce Lee fan as a kid, bought all his martial art books and rewatched his movies over and over.

We had an indy video/record store and they had a bunch of movies from all around the world. They had a pretty decent asian film collection. I had to convince them that the VHS movies they were renting out from (Taiseng A&B) were the same movies and shouldn't be charging me for two rentals. They were also hesitant to buy more if they couldn't charge as a double rental as they were extremely expensive. I did the same and just rented and recorded everything.

I then started trading vhs tapes to other fellow asian film fans online. Started w/ Jackie Chan, then Jet Li, Chow Yun Fat, Sammo, Biao, Stephen Chow, Tony Leung, then Donnie Yen etc...Just branching out each time i found an actor/actress i liked all the way to the villain jobbers.

With my FGC community at the arcades, we would randomly get together to do gaming/movie nights. Iwould bring in my HK films and they were always blown away. They have only experience watching Van Damme, David Dudikoff, Jeff Speakman, & Billy Banks.
 

terry.330

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Oh yeah, my buddy and I used to hustle the shit out of VHS rentals. The local comic store had a pretty good selection on HK, Kung Fu and anime. We used to go in and each rent the max amount of tapes, go back to my place and dupe 2 or three at a time. Return everything and do it again the next day.

Also the local Media Play had a pretty impressive selection of Tai Seng and Media Asia stuff and my friends and I used to have them special order us stuff all the time. Loved those TS clamshell releases.
 

Xavier

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I picked up Merantua at the dollar tree a few months ago. Was surprise they had bluray movies let alone foreign films.

I see there's a Netflix show called the New Legends of Monkey, wonder if it's any good? Looks like there's two season 2018 2020 and it has a imdb rating of 6.5. We watched the trailer and even my kids noticed it looks lower budget. It also stars white looking people.
 

wyo

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You ain’t wrong, HDR.

Speaking of oldies, I love Come Drink With Me.

Damn near the entire Shaw Bros. body of work is on Amazon Prime right now.

Thanks for the tip. So far I've watched The Kid with the Golden Arm and The 36th Chamber of Shaolin :)
 

LoneSage

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This thread makes me sad that Hong Kong cinema has been dead for 10+ years.
 

HDRchampion

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I see there's a Netflix show called the New Legends of Monkey, wonder if it's any good? Looks like there's two season 2018 2020 and it has a imdb rating of 6.5. We watched the trailer and even my kids noticed it looks lower budget. It also stars white looking people.

There was a ton of IP Man craze, now its back to the Monkey King...Ihaven't watch the tv series on Netflix and probably wont...I would recommend Stephen Chow's Chinese Odyssey, its one of my favs.

This thread makes me sad that Hong Kong cinema has been dead for 10+ years.


More like 25 years. Once the legends started venturing out to America in the mid 90s, HK cinema wasn't the same. There was a huge dry spell of MA films, as the only ones left were pop stars with really nice hair. You had only Donnie Yen, Jackie Wu, & Vincent Zhao that were legit doing low budget films. Johnnie To dominated the action/crime drama.

I dont know, its really hard for me to get back into watching hong kong films these days. Korean films are just the best right now.
 

wyo

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There was a magnificent period in the early to mid 90s with lots of insane Cat III rated action and horror movies. All the fun times ended when China took back control in 97.
 

Xian Xi

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Sha Po Lang aka Killzone - Just watch it
Flashpoint - Donnie Yen brings MMA into HK cinema
Gorgeous - Fun fight scenes
 

wataru330

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Sammo is that motherfucking dude in SPL!

Good catch, XX.
 

Naika

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Speaking of Sammo, what are you folks' thoughts about his most underrated work here in the West?
 
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