Nightfall Blu-ray & DVD (Well Go USA)
Cityonfire.com and Well Go USA are giving away 3 Blu-ray copies of Nightfall to three lucky Cityonfire visitors. To enter, simply add a comment to this post telling us what your favorite Hong Kong crime film is, along with a brief explanation of why it’s your favorite. We will be selecting three winners at random. Be sure to include your email address in the appropriate field so we can contact you for your home address. Additionally, please ‘Like Us‘ on cityonfire.com’s Facebook by clicking here.
The Blu-ray & DVD for Nightfall will be officially released on May 21, 2013. We will announce the 3 lucky winners on May 18th and ship out the prizes immediately.
CONTEST DISCLAIMER: You must enter by May 17th to qualify. Also, because Well Go USA holds the film’s U.S. rights, only U.S. residents may enter the contest. We sincerely apologize to our non-U.S. visitors.
WINNERS: Congratulations to Kyle, Anthony Crabtree and Nick. You have all been notified via email. Thanks to all for playing!
My favorite is Police Story 1 & 2. I love that Jackie Chan did his own stunts. I love the story, action, and everything about it.
So far, Infernal Affairs is my favorite Hong Kong crime film. Andy Lau and Tony Leung Chiu-Wai play characters I can sympathize with equally.
The original Police Story. Jackie Chan was my introduction to Hong Kong cinema and Police Story stands as one of his finest films.
I really need to watch more Hong Kong crime films. For now, my favorite one is probably Flashpoint. I love the doube crossing, the mole, the undercover cop aspects and of course, the action. The fights are top notch with great performances from Collin Chou and Donnie Yen. This film also does a good job of giving you characters that you care about, which makes everything happening around them more meaningful and engaging.
Who could forget the mind blowing,action packed Hardboiled by J.Woo.
Breaking News by Johnnie To.
Sha Po Lang. Donnie Yen and Sammo Hung represented a major comeback for HK cinema when the film was released. We had our classics, but to be honest, there were more films coming out at the time that were not living up to par. S.P.L. changed all that, and that, to me, is part of why HK action cinema is still alive.
The Mission by Johnnie To-it just has the right amount of coolness, brotherhood/loyalty theme, action, and a lil bit of overacting by Simon Yam that I’ve come to love from To!
I love Johnnie To, and I loved the Infernal Affairs trilogy, but if we’re talking favorite Hong Kong crime films of all-time, then I have to pick something by John Woo. Hard-Boiled might be my favorite film of his, but as far as calling it an “HK crime film” is concerned, it just doesn’t feel right to me for some reason. I remember more the action in the film, not so much the crime. With that said, I would have to pick the original A Better Tomorrow. It gives you three great performances, HK gangsters who are the heroes of the story (along with one policeman), and still has some great action.
Johnnie To’s EXILED.
Featuring some of the best cinematography and choreography in the past decade, EXILED is visual satisfaction at its finest. Johnnie To’s gangster actioner includes a fun story that, with its hyperrealistic style, is brooding, tense, emotional, and entertaining. People withstand plethoras of wounds and live to laugh about it, policemen are useless, and protagonists are gangsters. The result? An ideal plot for sustaining gorgeously crafted scenes of bullet and bloodshed ballets – beautiful from the slow-motion photography to the hard and precise lighting to the variety of different and constantly-interesting color palettes. The exquisite and warm production design brings 1998 Macau – a Portuguese colony in Southeast China about an hour away from Hong Kong – to life. It allows Cheng Siu-Keung – To’s reliable and excellent DP – to design shadows and balance the dark atmosphere with evocative lighting setups in order to consistently emphasize danger and insurmountability for the protagonists. Anthony Wong leads a great cast with his subtle and imposing presence, complemented by Francis Ng’s staccato outbursts and feisty demeanor, and offset by Simon Yam’s fun and villainous role as a Triad boss. To top it off, Canadian composer Guy Zerafa provides a score filled with stringy and metallic guitar riffs that intricately builds the tension and results for an even more stylized experience. With actors who are suave, fitting, and flat-out cool, combined with the experienced technical team at Milky Way Images helping to realize the eloquent vision of their prolific director, EXILED is a fantastic action film where To’s signature touch is unmistakable. I hope Cityonfire agrees!
Most stylist HK crime films are the Election series directed by Johnnie To. Any crime films with Johnnie To directed is considered good. His next film I can’t wait to see is Drug War.
Drug War premieres in North America at the LA Film Fest in mid-June, which I will surely not miss!
A Better Torrow 2. It’s a classic and better than the original.
Protege with Andy Lau and Daniel Wu. I it’s an underrated gem with nice action pieces, a good story and Andy Lau playing a character closer to his age.
As much as I would like to say “SPL” or “Infernal Affairs”, I am gonna have to say my favorite crime film is “Legacy Of Rage”. It’s low on the fist-a-cuffs, but the few scenes where Brandon Lee got to show off his skills were nice to witness. The (really really quick) fight with Bolo was the one of the highlights. The movie takes its time to build up the tension between Brandon Lee and Michael Wongl, but when the final reel goes down, it matches the likes of a John Woo and Ringo Lam film.
Totally agree with you. The lack of action throughout the film makes the finale more meaningful. Brandon’s best movie no doubt. Totally underrated.
I can’t watch Hard Boiled enough. Probably my most watched film of all time and while there are tons of HK crime film I love, nothing tops that.
I’ll go with SPL. The fights are just incredible and it really brought the genre back.
Hard Boiled. It was a Hong Kong film making a big Hollywood type film that made it more Hong Kong’ier. The shootouts were great. The movie never gets old. I own it on DVD. Hope one day they’ll release the Criterion edition on blu-ray.
Either the Election films or On the Edge. Election because of its scope and grandeur, which is rare in the shoot-em-up genre, On the Edge because it uses it’s atypical structure to add unexpected emotional weight and complexity to the genre. It also takes a unique look at undercover policing, by examining its after effects, rather than the process itself. Obviously Infernal Affairs and Hard Boiled are classics, and I love Fallen Angels and, as mentioned above, Exiled. But those are my favorites right now.