Explainer | From Jet Li’s rise to Wong Kar-wai’s art-house fame, Hong Kong cinema’s last golden age in the 1990s

A slew of imaginative films from Tsui Hark, Peter Chan, Wong Jing, Johnny To and more boosted stars like Maggie Cheung, Karen Mok, Anita Yuen and Lau Ching-wan

Directors brought local touches and a social conscience to filmmaking, while Brigitte Lin became a gay icon. Adults-only movies became mainstream for a while

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Jet Li in a still from Once Upon a Time in China 2. Li was one of the breakout stars of the 1990s, a decade that was the last golden era of Hong Kong cinema. Photo: Golden Harvest

Richard James Havis

Published: 4:15am, 9 Apr 2023

The 1990s were confusing for Hong Kong filmmakers.

On the one hand, the decade signified the end of the dominance of local films at the box office – after 1993, Hollywood films took a greater market share. On the other hand, these years saw an outpouring of imaginative and groundbreaking Hong Kong films which covered a variety of topics in many different styles.

Indeed, the 1990s are now considered the last golden age of Hong Kong cinema.

The decade is also interesting for the absence of many Hong Kong heavy hitters. John Woo Yu-sum moved to Hollywood after 1992’s Hard Boiled, and Chow Yun-fat was relatively inactive at home before joining him in the United States a few years later.

Sammo Hung Kam-bo’s down-to-earth fight choreography saw him sidelined by Ching Siu-tung and Yuen Woo-ping with their more fashionable wirework and acrobatics; even superstar Andy Lau Tak-wah’s output trailed off in the latter part of the decade.

We take a nostalgia-filled look back at the glorious Hong Kong films and filmmakers of the 1990s.