Directed by Wong Kar Wai • 1988 • Hong Kong
Starring Andy Lau Tak Wah, Maggie Cheung Man Yuk, Jacky Cheung Hok Yau
Wong Kar Wai’s scintillating debut feature is a kinetic, hypercool crime thriller graced with flashes of the impressionistic, daydream visual style for which he would become renowned. Set amid Hong Kong’s ruthless, neon-lit gangland underworld, this operatic saga of ambition, honor, and revenge stars Andy Lau Tak Wah as a small-time mob enforcer who finds himself torn between a burgeoning romance with his ailing cousin (Maggie Cheung Man Yuk, in the first of her iconic collaborations with the director) and his loyalty to his loose-cannon partner in crime (Jacky Cheung Hok Yau), whose reckless attempts to make a name for himself unleash a spiral of violence. Marrying the pulp pleasures of the gritty Hong Kong action drama with hints of the head-rush romanticism Wong would push to intoxicating heights throughout the 1990s, AS TEARS GO BY was a box office smash that heralded the arrival of one of contemporary cinema’s most electrifying talents.
Up Next in Hong Kong Action Classics
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Police Story 2
Directed by Jackie Chan • 1988 • Hong Kong
Starring Jackie Chan, Maggie CheungJackie Chan followed up the massive success of POLICE STORY with an even bigger box-office hit. Having been demoted to a lowly traffic cop for his, ahem, unorthodox policing methods, Chan’s go-it-alone officer Ka-K...
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Miracles
Directed by Jackie Chan • 1989 • Hong Kong
Starring Jackie Chan, Anita Mui, Gua Ah-lehJackie Chan pays homage to classic Hollywood spectacle in this 1930s-set gangster-musical romp. An inspired reworking of a Damon Runyon story (previously filmed twice by Frank Capra as LADY FOR A DAY and POCKE...
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Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky
Directed by Lam Nai-choi • 1991 • Hong Kong
Starring Fan Siu-Wong, Gloria Yip, Yukari OshimaThe ultimate Hong Kong black-comic gorefest, this live-action adaptation of the cult manga is a blood feast of entrail-wreathed splatter and literally eye-popping ultraviolence. After he’s sentenced to a...
