{"id":48479,"date":"2026-04-30T02:47:34","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T18:47:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=48479"},"modified":"2026-04-30T02:47:34","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T18:47:34","slug":"review-cold-war-1994-movie-review-hong-kong-crime-thriller-prequel-is-a-star-studded-blast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=48479","title":{"rendered":"Review | Cold War 1994 movie review: Hong Kong crime thriller prequel is a star-studded blast"},"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\/29\/590572d9-6df3-4ca0-ad59-4a957a9614d8_c84ea077.jpg?itok=AEgqFlZO&amp;v=1777454348\" \/><\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\"><strong data-qa=\"ContentSchemaRender-defaultRenderMapFunctions-Component\" class=\"css-1mniedq ex3nmsa17\">3.5\/5 stars<\/strong><\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The blockbuster prequel <em data-qa=\"ContentSchemaRender-defaultRenderMapFunctions-Component\" class=\"css-1mniedq ex3nmsa15\">Cold War 1994<\/em> delivers exactly what it promised. Viewers come for the ridiculously overstuffed cast but stay for the relentlessly \u2013 almost ostentatiously \u2013 convoluted tale of power, corruption and betrayal. While you may not find its plot realistic, it is undeniably entertaining throughout.<\/p>\n<div datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1xdhyk6 ec74h0k0\">The new release opens with a quick recap of <span data-qa=\"Component-Text\" class=\"css-0 ef9u0v00\"><em data-qa=\"ContentSchemaRender-defaultRenderMapFunctions-Component\" class=\"css-1mniedq ex3nmsa15\">Cold War<\/em><\/span> (2012) and <span data-qa=\"Component-Text\" class=\"css-0 ef9u0v00\"><em data-qa=\"ContentSchemaRender-defaultRenderMapFunctions-Component\" class=\"css-1mniedq ex3nmsa15\">Cold War 2<\/em><\/span> (2016), before moving six months forward to Hong Kong in 2017. <span data-qa=\"Component-Text\" class=\"css-0 ef9u0v00\">Louis Koo Tin-lok<\/span>\u2019s new character, Adrian Yip, is the chief executive-elect, while <span data-qa=\"Component-Text\" class=\"css-0 ef9u0v00\">Tony Leung Ka-fai<\/span>\u2019s former deputy police commissioner, M.B. Lee, goes missing from his home.<\/div>\n<div datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1xdhyk6 ec74h0k0\">When police chief Sean Lau (<span data-qa=\"Component-Text\" class=\"css-0 ef9u0v00\">Aaron Kwok Fu-shing<\/span>) and senior counsel Oswald Kan (<span data-qa=\"Component-Text\" class=\"css-0 ef9u0v00\">Chow Yun-fat<\/span>) dig into M.B.\u2019s classified 1990s background file for clues, however, their only observation of note is that his record appears far too detailed to be authentic.<\/div>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The furiously paced film then spends the rest of its runtime in the good old days of 1994, when policemen and gangsters could still become best buddies, Britain was the natural \u201cbig bad\u201d, and screenwriters did not feel obliged to dedicate their mega-budget action spectacles to praising Hong Kong for upholding the common law system.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/lifestyle\/entertainment\/article\/3351833\/cold-war-1994-movie-review-hong-kong-crime-thriller-prequel-star-studded-blast?utm_source=rss_feed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>3.5\/5 stars The blockbuster prequel Cold War 1994 delivers exactly what it promised. Viewers come for the ridiculously overstuffed cast but stay for the relentlessly&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48480,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[3359,5349,1372,3569,5231,1543,13579,28,16240,7333,3544],"class_list":["post-48479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bored-interesting","tag-blast","tag-cold","tag-crime","tag-hong","tag-kong","tag-movie","tag-prequel","tag-review","tag-starstudded","tag-thriller","tag-war","wpcat-33-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48479","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=48479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48479\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/48480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}