Best Hong Kong war movies

Three childhood friends from the slums of Hong Kong flee to war-time Saigon after accidentally murdering a gang leader, but their troubles only escalate.

The film is a graphic depiction of the war atrocities committed by the Japanese at Unit 731, the secret biological weapons experimentation unit of the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. The film details the various cruel medical experiments Unit 731 inflicted upon the Chinese and Soviet prisoners at the tail-end of the war.

Disheartened by futile combat, appalled by the corruption of their South Vietnamese ally, and constantly endangered by the incompetence of their own company commander, the young men find a possible way out of the war. They are told that if they purposely lose a soccer game against a South Vietnamese team, they can spend the rest of their tour playing exhibition games behind the lines.

In 1942, Henan Province was devastated by one of the most tragic famines in modern Chinese history, resulting in the deaths of at least three million men, women and children. Although the primary cause of the famine was a severe drought, it was exacerbated by locusts, windstorms, earthquakes, epidemic disease and the corruption of the ruling Kuomintang government.

Eric Liddell - China's first gold medalist and one of Scotland's greatest athletes - returns to war-torn China.

In 370 B.C, China was separated as seven nations and several other small tribes, one of these being the city state of Liang. The nation of Zhao is led by the terrifying Xiang Yangzhong who orders his troops to conquer the small city. Leaping to the defense of the people of Liang is 'Ge Li' from the Mo-Tsu tribe, their last hope from the terrors of Yangzhong's troops.

A motley group of Chinese prisoners held in the US is sent on a covert mission with the promise of a pardon: to go deep into Vietnam and destroy a secret depot of missiles that the US left behind during the pull-out.

Lei Li lost his right-arm in a sword duel with the master of a martial arts school, long ago. Now, he is able to defend himself well with just his left arm, and kung fu techniques. That he proves with just the help of his friend Chung-Chieng, when he crosses his path with a beautiful girl in need, Pao Chiao. Even against impossible odds, he will prove a great warrior.

The Thai government hires a group of Chinese mercenaries to capture a powerful drug lord from the Golden Triangle. The mercenaries manage to capture the drug lord, but soon find themselves pursued by his forces, and the forces of a bitter Thai officer. The Chinese mercenaries are vastly outnumbered, and as their numbers begin to dwindle, their desperation pulls them into a corner as their enemies close in on them.

Stretching across the canvas of the Sino-Japanese War of the 30s, the subsequent Japanese surrender in 1945, and the onslaught of Communism, this film depicts an ill-fated romance between a talented lady novelist and a Chinese traitor working with the Japanese who fall victim to the mayhem of war and their tragic inability to reconcile political differences.

In the spring of 1945, Japan established a secret base, Unit 731 in Manchuria, where many innocent Chinese, Korean and Mongolian people were killed in grotesque experiments. An idealistic young doctor , Morishima, is horrified by the experiments being performed in the camp and when his fiancée arrives disguised as a Chinese prisoner he sets out to liberate the camp. A docudrama sequel to the notorious Men Behind the Sun, which pulls no punches when it comes to delivering the shocks!

Black Sun: The Nanking Massacre depicts the brutal events behind the Nanking Massacre committed by the Imperial Japanese army against the Chinese people during the Second Sino-Japanese War.

A nurse in a Japanese women's POW camp during World War II masterminds an escapee.

In the early 1920's of China, seven former soldiers band together to defend a helpless village against a group of vicious bandits in this Hong Kong remake of Seven Samurai.

In the waning days of the Ming dynasty, Japanese marauders raid villages on the Chinese coast. A wandering swordsman single-handedly dispatches a group of the foreign thugs, and agrees to help defend the town. He assembles a core team of highly skilled warriors, and together they train the townsfolk to stand up to the foreign pirates, using strategy and skill. When the army launches an all-out assault on the town, a ferocious battle rages, leading to final conflict on the Beach of the War Gods.

About a woman who disguises herself as a man to take her father's place in the army.

The "Godfather Of The Kung-Fu Film" created this rousing epic of a seemingly suicidal mission to destroy the Japanese Navy's flagship in 1937, featuring many great actors he had worked with over the years. Their courageous and desperate attempts to do just that comprise the remarkable action in this rousing epic, featuring some of the greatest actors Chang had ever made, was making, and would ever make famous. (IVL)

In 1933, 20,000 Japanese soldiers and 50 tanks invaded the Pa Tou Lou Tzu, a strategic key point of the Great Wall. With only seven men stationing, these heroes took on the entire army for five days before succumbing. Director Chang Cheh recreated this epic battle with his favorite cast including Ti Lung, David Chiang, Alexander Fu Sheng and Chen Kuan-tai, as a celluloid tribute to these nameless souls.

This film is based on the life of Kawashima Yoshiko, originally Manchu princess who was the 14th daughter of Emperor Xu, later brought up as a Japanese and served as a spy in the service of the Japanese Kwantung Army and Manchukuo during the Second World War.

Years later, a woman narrates her personal story of the Japanese takeover of Hong Kong in 1941. She's Nam, young, attractive, daughter of a wealthy rice merchant, and prey to painful, disabling seizures. Her boyhood friend is Coolie Keung, whose family used to have wealth; he's now impoverished, a tough kid, a leader, in love with her. Into the mix steps Fay, cool and resourceful, an actor from the north, intent on getting to Gold Mountain in the US or Australia. They form a threesome, but the day they are to leave Hong Kong, the invasion stops them. Fay must rescue Keung from collaborators, Nam falls in love with Fay, and danger awaits their next attempt to escape.

Taking place in 1941, Love in a Fallen City centers on Pai, a young woman who has been ostracized by her family for divorcing her rich husband. A local match-maker, Mrs. Hsu, takes pity on Pai and decides to bring her to Hong Kong, under the guise of employing her as the Hsu's nanny, but in reality to introduce her to Fan. Pai and Fan seem to hit it off, but Fan's refusal to marry Pai soon sours things. However, as the Japanese begin to invade Hong Kong, the two begin to realize their true feelings for each other.

Also known as Hong Kong.

In the last days of WWII, a Japanese platoon is attacked by headhunters while attempting to hide millions in gold. Thirty-six years later, a grizzled guide is hired to lead an expedition into a jungle inferno of greed, violence, nudity, and murder.

No list of the screen's comic geniuses would be complete without Michael Hui Kwun-man. He created a hilarious and lovable comic persona that was both uniquely Asian but also universally beloved. This, his first film, not only showcased his incomparable sense of humor but revolutionized Hong Kong comedy. Evoking Chaplin, he plays a warlord in early 20th Century China, but makes the role his own with both laughs and some of the sexiest ladies on the Shaw Brothers lot.

A tragic love story set against the always volatile and oftenviolent backdrop of Shanghai during the Japanese occupation and at the opening of the Pacific Theater of the Second World War. A nightclub singer becomes involved with both a member of the Chinese resistance and an officer of the Japanese army.

In 1941, Hong Kong was the Casablanca of the East, a city full of war refugees, profiteers and spies. With the sudden attack by Japanese troops, a Canadian soldier's Christmas promise is broken during the Battle of Hong Kong.

Lau Tin Wai is a fighter pilot in the Chinese airforce who is forced to ditch in a field; he is taken in by the remote community of farmers who nurse him back to health, here he meets Ting Siu Wo, a young woman who falls in love with him.

It's a powerful melodrama about a thwarted romance in 1930s Tientsin, China, during the Japanese occupation, and it stars Linda Lin Dai, one of the era's most popular stars. It was part of Golden Horse's 100 Greatest Chinese-Language Films.

Besides martial arts, Bruce Lee's contribution to Chinese society was instilling a strong sense of nationalism. After his death, anti-Japanese films found new breathe especially in Taiwan. Based on a King Hu’s script, Heroes Of The Underground tapped into Lee's nationalistic fervor and the Confucian ethic of country above family and starred the popular Ching Li as a World War II, Chinese secret agent planted into the Japanese Headquarters at Changsha. Tears flow in the name of country pride.

The year is 1937, just prior to the Japanese invasion of China. Painters Ju Rui and Lao San stumble upon He Hua, a woman sold into the sex industry at a local brothel.

A family suffers at the hands of the Japanese during the occupation of Hong Kong. On December 25, 1941, the Japanese army occupied Hong Kong. The pawnshop owner, Luo Kai has three daughters, the eldest daughter Wangdi, the second daughter Xindi, and the youngest daughter Aidi. When the Japanese army captured Kowloon, Aidi was violently tortured by the Japanese army and suffered a mental disorder. Xindi followed his lover Shen Fang to rescue the wounded in the temporary hospital. In order to curry favor with the Japanese army, Luo Kai did not hesitate to sacrifice his eldest daughter Wangdi. However, not long after he became a traitor, his second daughter Xindi was attracted by a Japanese military officer. Luo Kai finally couldn't bear to fight against Wangdi to stop him. In the chaos...

The kung-fu kids return to stop an evil dictator.

Part 1 ended with Jianbai and Su Yanan among the students fleeing the invading Japanese. Part 2 follows the efforts of all four characters to participate in the war effort. Su Yanan joins the army and fights. Jianbai enlists to be near her. A-Lan becomes a nurse at a battlefront hospital and Qiuming entertains the troops. (Grace Chang, Cathay's leading musical star at the time, performs some rousing patriotic numbers in these scenes.) Jianbai is reunited with Su in the battlefield, but...

Vietnam. The last days of the war. A crack squad of Army special forces commandos led by Johnny Reynolds undertakes an unauthorized combat mission behind enemy lines with disasterous results.

Part two of the wartime love story

The Russian operations in Asia are ruined by the American agents. Ivan, a KGB, is sent to Kampuchea and terminates the op-posing American forces. John Matthews, an American CIA spy, works with Jim, a patriot to offset the Russian aggression. In Kampuchea, Well’s, a military general, is recruited by the KGB secretly and he makes use of his formal cover to get rid of Jim. Realizing that he’s a traitor, Jim never drops his guard. He concentrates on destroying him along with his gangsters. During the birthday party of Wells' daughter...

A secret mission with the code name Project Daredevil is planned by the notorious Black Ninja Gang.

Spy thriller set in occupied Shanghai. Li Lihua stars as the woman who is thrust into the role of nationalist freedom fighter when she discovers that her husband is a collaborator with the Japanese.

A secret group of warriors for freedom against oppression in the South Pacific. consisting of secretly trained marines, performs surgeries on behalf of an elitist organization, they have in mind when the purpose of recovery of the control of the region achieved not let the group of mercenaries who used to feel strong, from the fear that such mercenary groups very easily can be found on the opposite side. To cover this eventuality hire in Alexander Sampson, not his own secret commando group, the conflict of baroutokapnismenon warriors of two specific groups will be ruthless ...

The Vietnam war and terrorists led by Torosky battle it out with South Vietnamese forces assisted by the American Army. For squad leader Merlin and PFC Bill, the war has become so meaningless that they don't care anymore. Seeing their friends die, they decide to desert and soon discover that there is no sanctuary in the jungle. It's only a matter of time before Torosky catches up with them.

During the anti-Japanese war, truck driver Lee Sing's secret mission is to transport weapons and supplies for the resistance fighters. Sing has to deliver a signal gun to guerrillas at ten on that night for launching an attack against the Japanese soldiers. He works for the Ko's family and he has to send the gun to the provincial city to prevent it from being bombed. Sing carries on his vehicle a group of passengers including a Chinese traitor, a guerilla, a compassionate nurse, a comfort woman on the run, a teacher and his pregnant wife. Sing is given a hard time by the Japanese troops on the road. The Japanese ransack the vehicle and they find the signal gun. All the males on board are being interrogated with torture, but the passengers pool their efforts to subdue the traitor and accomplish their mission.

Goodbye My Friend is a Hong Kong Crime-Drama starring Chow Yun-Fat.

A young nurse meets a tourist from Hong Kong at Angkor Wat, and they fall in love. Later, they encounter each other again, with the nurse in the Cambodian Army and the tourist as a war reporter.

A group of mercenaries are sent into the so-called 'Golden Triangle' to capture a drug baron, but nabbing him is the easy bit. He's not going to go quietly: with both by gangsters and the army on the tail, this wild bunch is going to need all the help it can get...

During the Japanese invasion of China, medical students Sun Yang (Chang Yang) and Xu Ruomei (Bai Luming) pretend to be a doctor and his wife to engage in intelligence work behind enemy lines.

Hong Kong romance set in wartime

Su Fen, a young and frail girl, looked forward to her wedding with her fiancé, Li Kuo-liang. The happy couple's bliss was cut short when war broke out. Kuo-liang was summoned to fight at the front lines. In his absence, Su Fen discovered she had tuberculosis.

The country is in uproar as the Chinese are forced to combat the Vietnamese.

Dream of the Red Chamber, one of the big four of classic Chinese novels, has been adapted for film and television dozens of times over the past decades. Yet this sui generis Great Wall production daringly transposes the setting to modern-day 1950s. The contemporised story revolves nonetheless around the love triangle between Jia Baoyu and his two cousins. Both girls love him but his heart belongs to only one. The ending, however, is remarkably changed to separation of the lovers as a result of war—the war that was surely still haunting the minds of the filmmakers at the time when the film was made. Not only did Great Wall pour money into building extravagant sets just so to recreate down to the smallest detail the grandeur of the legendary Jia mansion, but the film also boasted of its lavish costume designs for the diverse female cast. (From Hong Kong Film Archive)

A hidden gem produced at the height of the Hong Kong left-wing cinema. The Japanese army wants to force resistance leader Cheung (Bow Fong) to appear by capturing his family. Cheung's wife dies and, despite the protection by the nurse Yeung (Chu Hung) and other villagers, Cheung's daughter is captured. In the end Cheung's subordinate Lee Fu (Jiang Han) regroups with the resistance and saves the day, defeating the enemy and rescuing everyone. This film clearly references wartime productions in the mainland of China, with elements such as the Japanese taking hostages, resistance guerilla fighters, and the contrast between ‘heroes' and ‘villains' made obvious through camerawork and make-up designs. Street scenes shot in Macau merge seamlessly with studio scenes to recreate northern Chinese towns. War epics were not a strong suit of Hong Kong cinema. This film takes inspirations from Euro-American spy films and pays attention to character development and the mise-en-scène.

Story of conflict of two opposite ideas, set in a POW camp after the Korean War.

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Yimin, the son of a carriage driver of Xinjiang ethnicity, is in love with Malihan. Malihan's father despises Yimin for his lowly background and forces his daughter to marry Bulate. Min then leaves town for development for 5 years and comes back as an army officer. However, Han has been forced to engage with Te. With Han defying the arrangement, Te challenges Min to a duel. Min catches the bullet meant for Te and wins him and Han's father to his side. But when war beckons, he sacrifices love to join the army. After the war, Min goes back to his hometown but everything has changed. Han and her whole family have gone without a trace. Min can only recall the past alone.

The film was filmed for Chiang Kai-shek's re-election of the president. The history teacher introduced the origin of the Youth Festival to the students: Fujian Lin Juemin left his wife and went to Spike to engage in revolutionary work; Guangxi Wei Yiting took the uprising with the master Li Deshan, Sichuan Yu Peirun and Pei’s brothers fought in the righteousness, and a total of 72 martyrs uprising under the leadership of Huang Keqiang , determined to overthrow the full Qing