It’s never a bad time to celebrate the golden age of Hong Kong cinema (running roughly between 1980 and the early 2000s) but the festive season is fitting, due to Channel 4’s Asian season of films, which ran late into the night, over Christmas and New Year in the early ‘90s. Luckily the below titles are now available on Blu-ray or on various streaming services, to watch at your leisure, with Eggnog and a mince pie in hand! We start with the exploits of the Royal Hong Kong Police…

POLICE STORY (Dir. Jackie Chan, 1985)

The one film to rule them all! Jackie Chan’s magnum opus is a reactionary picture, to show James Glickenhaus (who directed Chan in the lacklustre The Protector, released 6 months earlier) how to make a police procedural. The story of Inspector Chan Ka-Kui being framed for murder by the drug dealers he helped bust, is surprisingly poignant, illuminating the price of fame and vanity. But you are here for the action, and boy does it deliver, with two bone-crunching set pieces in the opening scene. The shantytown dash and Chan hanging from a bus, merely warm you up for the glass-soaked finale, set in a Hong Kong shopping mall, it is one of the finest action montages ever committed to celluloid.

TIGER CAGE (Dir. Yuen Woo Ping, 1988)

A surprisingly gritty movie from veteran Yuen Woo Ping. It concerns the classic theme, to be found in so many HK Cop Dramas; corruption in the force. Featuring great performances by Jacky Cheung, Simon Yam, and a brief role for a young Donnie Yen, the police battle a nasty group of drug kingpins, who have bent coppers hiding behind every corner. It perfectly captures the zeitgeist of the time; neon lights, food stalls, and corruption. It’s filled with shoot-outs, bombastic car chases, and plenty of murder. The other two films in the series are lighter with more martial arts action but don’t contain the realism and sense of danger that this hidden gem exhibits.

TIGER ON THE BEAT (Dir Lau Kar-Leung, 1988)

Even though a Tiger is also featured in the title, this is a much lighter affair than Tiger Cage. Chow Yun Fat is a womanising detective, who likes to drink raw eggs for breakfast. He is teamed up with Conan Lee’s straight-laced Kung-Fu cop, to take down some drug dealers (drugs really were the hot issue of the 1980s). So, we get a liberal sprinkling of shoot-outs, hand-to-hand combat, and a car chase for good measure. The two mismatched leads bounce off each other beautifully and look like they are having as much fun as the audience. All the action is first class, especially the concluding chainsaw fight between Conan and Gordon Liu. If that doesn’t sell the movie, then nothing will!

HARD BOILED (Dir John Woo, 1992)

Chow Yun Fat and John Woo were a match made in heaven, producing a plethora of films together. Hard Boiled (famous for its cover featuring Chow, a baby, and a shotgun) is one of the most polished, featuring some outrageous action scenes, which made Hollywood truly take notice. The fabulously named Inspector Tequila Yuen (Chow Yun Fat) is your standard tough-as-nails cop who teams up with an undercover agent (Tony Leung) to take down a triad boss. The gunplay on show is exemplary, starting off in a claustrophobic tea house, birdcages littering the scene, while multiple handguns are drawn to inflict chaos. The film never lets up, skilfully walking a tightrope between fun and serious. We end up in a hospital with said baby and shotgun, in one final, spectacular shoot-out. Simply great filmmaking.

INFERNAL AFFAIRS (Dir. Andrew Lau, Alan Mak, 2002)

As we come to the end of the golden era, The Unceasing Path (the literal Chinese and far superior title) is an example of how far the industry had come. Hong Kong cinema was known, more for its action than its storytelling. However, this film concentrates on the latter in a taut and twisting thriller. Tony Leung plays a police officer who is placed undercover in a triad organisation, whereas Andy Lau is a triad, hidden in the police force. Each of them must gain as much information as possible over a ten-year period. An all-star cast, which also features Eric Tsang, brilliantly playing against type as the mob boss, really delivers. The emotional stress of the assignment is conveyed to aplomb here, and as an audience, you are on the edge of your seat to see who comes out on top, no real heroes here. It is no coincidence that Martin Scorsese won his only Best Picture Oscar for The Departed, a remake, which diverges very little from this masterpiece. For an industry obsessed with police corruption, this is the finest example.

Click here for ESSENTIAL HONG KONG TOP 5: SUPERNATURAL KUNG-FU

Click here for ESSENTIAL HONG KONG TOP 5: MARTIAL HEROES

For more from author Jacob Walker, visit his website www.jakeonfilm.com