{"id":66312,"date":"2026-07-05T16:51:05","date_gmt":"2026-07-05T08:51:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=66312"},"modified":"2026-07-05T16:51:05","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T08:51:05","slug":"why-danny-lees-best-police-movie-isnt-the-killer-but-his-own-law-with-two-phases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=66312","title":{"rendered":"Why Danny Lee\u2019s best police movie isn\u2019t The Killer, but his own Law with Two Phases"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n

For decades, the quintessential image of a Hong Kong big-screen detective was defined by a familiar face sporting signature braces and a gun holster: Danny Lee Sau-yin.<\/p>\n

The actor and filmmaker achieved international fame playing the policeman who bonds with Chow Yun-fat<\/span>\u2019s good-hearted hitman in John Woo Yu-sum<\/span>\u2019s legendary action epic The Killer<\/em><\/span> (1989), and he often feels typecast by his success in Woo\u2019s smash hit.<\/div>\n
Lee built a career playing police officers \u2013 ultimately donning the uniform across dozens of his many films \u2013 but The Killer<\/em> and his turn as a gang boss in Ringo Lam Ling-tung<\/span>\u2019s 1987 classic City on Fire<\/em><\/span> remain his most famous works.<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n
\"Chow<\/div>
Chow Yun-fat (left) and Danny Lee in a still from City on Fire (1987). Photo: courtesy of Hong Kong Film Archive<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Yet, Lee put in his most nuanced performance in a lesser-seen project: 1984\u2019s Law with Two Phases<\/em> (or Law with Two Faces<\/em>), which he also co-wrote and directed. Playing a conflicted detective trying desperately to do the right thing, Lee was named best actor at both the 1984 Golden Horse Awards in Taiwan and the 1985 Hong Kong Film Awards.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor director, co-writer and star Danny Lee, it\u2019s virtually a one-man show, and he pulls it off well,\u201d noted critic Terry Boyce in a South China Morning Post review at the time of its release.<\/p>\n

It is often said that Lee gravitated towards law enforcement roles because he harboured a real-life desire to join the Royal Hong Kong Police Force.<\/p>\n

From boyhood dreams to the director\u2019s chair<\/h3>\n

Born in Shanghai in 1952, Lee moved to Hong Kong as a young child. Growing up in a squatter settlement in the Kwun Tong district, he was deeply impressed by a local patrolman.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


\n


\n
Read Full Article At Source <\/a>
\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For decades, the quintessential image of a Hong Kong big-screen detective was defined by a familiar face sporting signature braces and a gun holster: Danny…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":66313,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[24396,605,7221,863,6738,1543,24788,1273],"class_list":["post-66312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bored-interesting","tag-danny","tag-isnt","tag-killer","tag-law","tag-lees","tag-movie","tag-phases","tag-police","wpcat-33-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66312","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=66312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66312\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/66313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=66312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=66312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=66312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}