{"id":45699,"date":"2026-04-19T12:23:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T04:23:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=45699"},"modified":"2026-04-19T12:23:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T04:23:19","slug":"why-these-1980s-hong-kong-crime-movies-produced-by-tsui-hark-are-hidden-gems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=45699","title":{"rendered":"Why these 1980s Hong Kong crime movies produced by Tsui Hark are hidden gems"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.i-scmp.com\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/1280x720\/public\/d8\/images\/canvas\/2026\/04\/16\/8776fa4d-23ab-4353-a91d-1429a7e88845_475f202f.jpg?itok=ZIpXFNDr&amp;v=1776326819\" \/><\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<div datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1xdhyk6 ec74h0k0\">It was not all <span data-qa=\"Component-Text\" class=\"css-0 ef9u0v00\">John Woo Yu-sum<\/span> when it came to Hong Kong crime films in the late 1980s \u2013 filmmakers were still making a variety of interesting cops-and-robbers movies.<\/div>\n<h3 type=\"h3\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"eh0yk8h0 css-17x7qa9 e1pqa4re1\">The Big Heat (1988)<\/h3>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">This skilfully executed police thriller features some gruesome violence \u2013 it opens with a dream sequence in which an electric drill rips through a hand \u2013 but the sometimes macabre scenes do not seem gratuitous in a tough story of ruthless individuals committing terrible acts.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">It is a straightforward, no-frills action film without any postmodern touches of irony \u2013 a simple story of detectives battling criminal forces that are better connected and armed than they are.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201c<em data-qa=\"ContentSchemaRender-defaultRenderMapFunctions-Component\" class=\"css-1mniedq ex3nmsa15\">The Big Heat<\/em> is a serious dose of ultra-violence, Hong Kong style, an intense mix of action, intrigue and politics,\u201d Lisa Morton wrote in her book <em data-qa=\"ContentSchemaRender-defaultRenderMapFunctions-Component\" class=\"css-1mniedq ex3nmsa15\">The Cinema of Tsui Hark<\/em> (2001).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/lifestyle\/entertainment\/article\/3350298\/why-these-1980s-hong-kong-crime-movies-produced-tsui-hark-are-hidden-gems?utm_source=rss_feed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It was not all John Woo Yu-sum when it came to Hong Kong crime films in the late 1980s \u2013 filmmakers were still making a&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45700,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[1542,1372,1035,20889,3020,3569,5231,3345,20887,20888],"class_list":["post-45699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bored-interesting","tag-1980s","tag-crime","tag-gems","tag-hark","tag-hidden","tag-hong","tag-kong","tag-movies","tag-produced","tag-tsui","wpcat-33-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45699\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/45700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}