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Richard James Havis

Hong Kong filmmaker Johnnie To Kei-fung was already a powerful producer and director when he formed his production company Milkyway Image with Wai Ka-fai in 1996.
The idea was for To to make more personal works within the Hong Kong commercial cinema set-up, but the films took off internationally on the festival circuit and saw him acclaimed as an auteur. Wai was the screenwriting yin to To’s directing yang, and defined Milkyway’s story focus and preferred subject matter.
The company, which is still operating, is known for hits like Running Out of Time, but some of its earlier creative successes have been largely forgotten.
Below we revisit and rate Milkyway’s first five releases.
1. Beyond Hypothermia (1996)
4/5 stars


Beyond Hypothermia was made just before To officially founded Milkyway Image, and was the first film to be released under the new company’s banner.
The hit-girl drama is much more stylised than what was to come, and it looks as if To was trying to work out how to break away from the solid genre conventions which underpinned Hong Kong cinema.
“Beyond Hypothermia sets the tone of death and annihilation in the Milkyway canon,” film historian Stephen Teo wrote in his erudite analysis Johnnie To and the Hong Kong Action Film.

The story features Taiwanese actress Wu Chien-lien, then one of Hong Kong cinema’s top female stars, playing against type as an ice-cold killer who is trying to break away from her life of crime.
She meets a noodle seller (played by Lau Ching-wan) and slowly overcomes her aversion to her feelings to fall in love with him. Unfortunately, the gangs will not let her escape her old life and a tragic bloodbath ensues.
To intended Milkyway Image to be a training ground for up-and-coming filmmakers, such as his former assistant director Patrick Leung Pak-kin. Beyond Hypothermia was the second feature film Leung directed.

Leung had trained under John Woo Yu-sum and the action maestro’s influence shows in the Chang Cheh-like emotions that explode in the film’s gun battles.
To has said that he contributed much to the direction of Milkway’s early films – “the directors were not experienced enough to control the whole production”, he told the Post – but these action scenes show that Leung put his training to good use.
2. Too Many Ways to Be No. 1 (1997)
4/5 stars
This weird triad fantasy, Milkyway’s first official production, showed the co-founders letting their imagination run wild as they looked for where they could take the triad film genre.

Fuelled by dark humour and a desire to experiment, it depicts an inept petty gangster (Lau Ching-wan) who imagines two different paths for his life while talking to a fortune-teller. It was the second film Wai directed fully.
“Too Many Ways to be No. 1 is unique in its derivations,” Paul Fonoroff wrote in a positive Post review. “Its first half is a kind of Chinese Pulp Fiction, but by the end, it’s more akin to It’s a Wonderful Life. Director Wai Ka-fai and his co-scriptwriters Matthew Chow [Hoi-kwong] and Szeto Kam-yuen play with notions of time and fate in a novel manner for local cinema.”
“Too Many Ways To Be No 1 had a good script,” Lau Ching-wan told this writer. “I loved that script and I found it very interesting to act in the film.”
3. The Odd One Dies (1997)
3/5 stars


Although To has always denied it, this fragmented hit man/hit girl story is heavily influenced by the early works of Wong Kar-wai – something abetted by the presence of Takeshi Kaneshiro, who rehashes the performance he gave in Wong’s Fallen Angels.
To and director Patrick Yau Tat-chi’s decision to model the cinematography on that of Wong’s Fallen Angels, using Dutch (tilted) angles and a constantly moving camera, also encouraged comparisons to Wong’s work.
Kaneshiro plays a slacker gangster who takes on a dangerous hit – then wins a lot of money gambling and decides he does not want to do it. So he uses some of the money to hire another killer, played by a scuzzy-looking Carman Lee Yeuk-tung.

The two develop loving feelings for each other, but the hit still has to be carried out.
“The fingerprints of scriptwriter Wai Ka-fai and Johnnie To are all over it, from the oblique narrative, the strikingly offbeat use of music, and the view of life as a shifting kaleidoscope in which people’s fortunes can change dramatically from one moment to the next,” wrote Variety film critic Derek Elley.
4. The Longest Nite (1998)
5/5 stars


To finally defined the general direction for Milkyway Image with The Longest Nite, and it is likely that he directed most of the film and put his personal stamp on it, even though direction is credited to Patrick Yau.
The film plays out like a neat French policier, with solid character development, a neat – if complicated – plot, smooth cinematography, and action scenes which are fully integrated into the storyline.
“The Longest Nite is a milestone in the Milkyway project because it contains those elements of To’s auteurship identifiable through the interplay of the police officer and the killer. It is clearly a product arising from To’s exertion of artistic control,” wrote Teo.

It is one of To’s grittiest films, shot in dusky nighttime light on the streets of Macau. In it, Tony Leung Chiu-wai’s violent and corrupt police officer tries to keep the peace between two gangs who are bracing for the return of a powerful triad elder.
The protagonist is framed for a hit on a triad boss that he did not commit, and desperately needs to find out who carried out the killing – could it have something to do with the arrogant stranger played by Lau Ching-wan?
The film is extremely violent and gory, even by the standards of Hong Kong cinema. It is inspired by a real – and equally violent – triad turf war that took place in Macau in the mid-1990s, which frequently made headlines in Hong Kong.
5. Expect the Unexpected (1998)
5/5 stars


A beautifully crafted crime film, Expect the Unexpected integrated the personal lives of police officers into its story.
It also lives up to its title, providing a totally unexpected – and narratively subversive – ending in which an entire police squad is wiped out in a protracted and pathos-filled gun battle worthy of martial arts maestro Chang Cheh.
“The film represents a character-driven spin on genre cinema at its best,” Derek Elley wrote in Variety.
Simon Yam Tat-wah and Lau Ching-wan head a squad of the Hong Kong police force’s Organised Crime and Triad Bureau who are tracking two sets of criminals: a cruel local gang and a rough and ready bunch of amateurs from mainland China.

Much of the picture details Lau’s efforts to get his boss Yam a date with a woman shopkeeper who’s actually in love with him. But coincidences and random occurrences – two key themes of To’s oeuvre – abound, and finally lead to unexpected disaster.
In this regular feature series on the best of Hong Kong cinema, we examine the legacy of classic films, re-evaluate the careers of its greatest stars, and revisit some of the lesser-known aspects of the beloved industry.
Want more articles like this? Follow SCMP Film on Facebook


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Tony Leung Chiu-wai in a still from The Longest Nite, a 1998 Milkyway Image production.

A still from Too Many Ways to Be No. 1, one of the early films released by production company Milkyway Image, formed by Hong Kong filmmakers Johnnie To and Wai Ka-fai in 1996.

Wu Chien-lien and Lau Ching-wan in a still from Beyond Hypothermia (1996).

Filmmakers Johnnie To Kei-fung (left) and Wai Ka-fai, co-founders of Milkyway Image, at an interview with the Post in 2011. Photo: SCMP

Francis Ng in a still from Too Many Ways to Be No. 1 (1997).

Takeshi Kaneshiro and Carman Lee in a still from The Odd One Dies (1997).

Tony Leung Chiu-wai in a still from The Longest Nite (1998).

Simon Yam (left) and Lau Ching-wan in a still from Expect the Unexpected (1998).

The film that saved Hong Kong’s Cantonese cinema, Chor Yuen’s House of 72 Tenants recalled

A still from The House of 72 Tenants (1973). Photo: Celestial Pictures

A still from The House of 72 Tenants (1973). Chor Yuen’s film took in more money in Hong Kong than Bruce Lee’s Enter the Dragon, and the decision to make it in Cantonese and not Mandarin was a pivotal one for the city’s film industry. Photo: Celestial Pictures

Bruce Lee (right) in a still from Enter the Dragon (1973). Photo: Golden Harvest

Lo Lieh in a still from King Boxer (1972), a Mandarin-language film. Photo: Shaw Brothers Studio

Lily Ho (left) and Betty Pei in a still from Intimate Confessions of a Chinese Courtesan (1972), directed by Chor Yuen. Photo: Shaw Brothers

Hu Chin (second from right) plays the wicked landlady in The House of 72 Tenants.

Chor Yuen (left) speaks before receiving his Lifetime Achievement award at the 37th Hong Kong Film Awards in 2018. Photo: AP

Quotable quotes from Sylvia Chang on Asian stereotypes, Hollywood and making women’s films

Sylvia Chang at the Golden Horse Awards in Taipei, in 2022. Photo: AP

Sylvia Chang in 2015. Over the years, the Taiwanese actress-director has talked with the Post about everything from turning down Hollywood and Asian stereotypes to finding roles as she ages. We revisit some of the conversations that stand out. Photo: SCMP

Takeshi Kaneshiro (left) and Gigi Leung in a still from Chang’s film Tempting Heart (1999).

Chang in a still from M*A*S*H in 1979.

(From left) Sam Hui, Chang and Karl Maka in a still from Aces Go Places (1982).

Chang in a still from That Day, on the Beach.

Chang at an interview with the Post in 1995. Photo: Eric Li

(From left) Rene Liu, Chang and Angelica Lee at the 2004 Berlin International Film Festival, where they presented the film 20 30 40. Photo: Reuters

Chang and Tian Zhuangzhuang in a still from Love Education (2017).

Chang holds her award for best leading actress at the 2022 Golden Horse Awards, in Taipei. Photo: AP

9 reasons Hong Kong films are loved globally, beyond stars like Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan

Bruce Lee in a still from Enter the Dragon. Photo: Golden Harvest

Jackie Chan (left) and Sammo Hung in a still from Project A (1983). Martial arts stars like Chan, Hung and Bruce Lee helped boost the popularity of Hong Kong films abroad, but many other factors also contributed to their success. Photo: Golden Harvest

(From left) German Cheung, Terrance Lau and Tony Wu in a still from Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In, by far the biggest Hong Kong blockbuster of 2024. Photo: Media Asia Films

Roy Cheung in a still from The Mission, the 1999 film directed by Johnnie To. Photo: Milkyway Image

Bruce Lee in a still from Fist of Fury (1972). Photo: Hong Kong Film Archive

Lo Lieh in a still from the 1972 film Five Fingers of Death, aka King Boxer. Photo: Shaw Brothers Studio

Brigitte Lin in a still from Chungking Express (1994). Photo: Jet Tone Production

Andy Lau (left) and Tony Leung in a still from Infernal Affairs (2002). Photo: Media Asia Distribution

Gordon Liu and Lily Li in a still from Executioners from Shaolin (1977). Photo: Shaw Brothers

Martial arts director King Hu’s forgotten film The Valiant Ones was his most action-packed

A still from The Valiant Ones. King Hu’s 1975 martial arts drama spent two decades “lost” before being rediscovered. A film critic tells the Post why the movie stands out among the maestro’s other films. Photo: King Hu Foundation

(From left) Lau Kong, Bai Ying and Roy Chiao in a still from The Valiant Ones. Photo: King Hu Foundation

King Hu pictured on a film set, in a still from the documentary The King of Wuxia Part 1: The Prophet Was Once Here.

Sammo Hung in a still from The Valiant Ones. Photo: King Hu Foundation

Hsu Feng (left) and Bai Ying in a still from The Valiant Ones. Photo: King Hu Foundation

Ng Ming-choi (left) and Lau Kong in a still from The Valiant Ones. Photo: King Hu Foundation

(From left) Hsu Feng, Bai Ying, Yiu Wai, Roy Chiao, Lau Kong and Lee Man-tai in a still from The Valiant Ones. Photo: King Hu Foundation

Is Simon Yam Hong Kong’s most fearless actor? Triads, gigolos, killers, he played them all

Simon Yam at the 2017 Hong Kong Film Awards presentation ceremony. Photo: Edward Wong

Hong Kong actor Simon Yam at an interview with the Post in 2013. Yam is known for his work ethic, his roles in 1990s adults-only films, and for playing triad criminals. Photo: Antony Dickson

Simon Yam pictured in 1988. Photo: SCMP

Simon Yam (left) and Sandra Ng in a still from Echoes of the Rainbow (2010).

Chou Han-ning (left) and Simon Yam in a still from A Light Never Goes Out (2022).

Simon Yam in a still from Dr Lamb (1992).

Simon Yam (front) in a still from The Mission (1999).

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Milkyway Image brought global acclaim for Johnnie To as a director. Among its early releases were The Longest Nite and Expect The Unexpected


From a Tony Leung Chiu-wai crime thriller to a stylised hit-girl drama to a weird triad fantasy, we revisit and rate the first five films from Milkyway Image, formed by producer-directors Johnnie To and Wai Ka-fai.
