Tag Archives: Francis Ng

The Hong Kong Film Corner – THE BRIDE WITH WHITE HAIR (1993), starring Brigitte Lin and Leslie Cheung!

Posted on by Bradley Crain

THE BRIDE WITH WHITE HAIR (1993), a Hong Kong fantasy film directed by Ronny Yu (THE BRIDE OF CHUCKY, Jet Li’s FEARLESS), follows Zhuo Yihang (Leslie Cheung), a master swordsman and reluctant young leader of the Wudang Sect, who is tasked with protecting his clan’s interests during a time of political turmoil and clan rivalries. The Ming Dynasty is weakening, and various factions vie for power, including an evil cult led by sinister conjoined twins, Gei Mou-Seung (Francis Ng and Elaine Lui). During a mission, Zhuo encounters Ni-Chang (Brigitte Lin), a fierce female warrior raised by the cult but disillusioned with their cruelty. Despite their opposing allegiances, Zhuo and Ni-Chang fall in love, drawn together by their unique senses of honor and a shared desire for freedom. Their romance faces intense opposition from both the Wudang Sect and the cult. A series of misunderstandings, betrayals, and tragic events, culminating in Zhuo’s hesitation to fully trust Ni-Chang, leads to her heart breaking. Will she be able to forgive Zhuo for breaking his promise to “always trust her” or will the pain of a broken heart transform her into the “Bride with White Hair,” where everyone else on Earth needs to watch TF out?!!

With its blend of fantasy action, romance and tragedy, THE BRIDE WITH WHITE HAIR is a visually spectacular and emotionally powerful masterpiece of Hong Kong cinema. In collaboration with cinematographer Peter Pau (Oscar winner for CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON), director Ronny Yu creates a dreamlike atmosphere with surreal imagery that helps elevate the film into the unique awesomeness of early 90’s Hong Kong. The inventive choreography of the somewhat gory fight scenes, combined with flowing costumes and foggy landscapes, creates an exciting world for this film. This is bold visual and emotional storytelling, and I loved it. Brigitte Lin is amazing as Ni-Chang, balancing powerful strength with a surprising amount of vulnerability, which makes her ultimate transformation into the white-haired Bride both devastating and badass, cementing her as one of Hong Kong cinema’s most memorable heroines. Leslie Cheung is good as Zhuo Yihang, portraying a man who longs to be free, especially after he falls in love with Ni-Chang, but circumstances have a way of keeping him bound to his clan. The chemistry between Lin and Cheung drives this film, which makes the ultimate outcome of their romance very moving. Francis Ng and Elaine Lui are appropriately insane as the deadly and dangerous conjoined twins and cult leaders. The fact that Francis’ character is evil and in love with Ni-Chang himself ensures that our lovers are not going to get an easy path for flying off into the sunset together.

Ultimately, I consider THE BRIDE WITH WHITE HAIR to be a must-watch for fans of action-based fantasy films, or anyone drawn to stories of forbidden love and personal sacrifice. It’s one of the first “non-Chow Yun-Fat” Hong Kong movies I ever watched. The moving romance at the film’s center and the excellent performances from Lin and Cheung make it a standout of Hong Kong cinema. 

The Hong Kong Film Corner – THE MISSION (1999), directed by Johnnie To!

Posted on by Bradley Crain

(Bottom to Top) Francis Ng, Roy Cheung, Lam Suet, and Anthony Wong!

THE MISSION is the 1999 film that helped me fall back in love with Hong Kong cinema after many of its great actors and directors had left for Hollywood in the mid 90’s. With Chow Yun-Fat, Jackie Chan, Jet Li, and John Woo no longer working in Hong Kong, there was a huge void, and Director Johnnie To stepped in and helped fill it with some of the best Hong Kong crime films ever made. Through his Milkyway Image production company, To directed THE LONGEST NITE (1998), EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED (1998), A HERO NEVER DIES (1998), RUNNING OUT OF TIME (1999), ELECTION (2005), and MAD DETECTIVE (2007), to name a few, all of which are crime film masterpieces in my opinion, and feature some of the best actors still working in Hong Kong at that time. I put Johnnie To’s body of work up against the best directors working anywhere in the world in the last 40 years. The quality and volume of his movies are outstanding, and they’re prime to be discovered for the uninitiated!

THE MISSION has a relatively simple plot…five bodyguards are assembled to protect Hong Kong triad boss, Lung (Eddy Ko), after assassins try to take him out while he’s having dinner at the Super Bowl restaurant. Lung’s brother, Frank (Simon Yam), puts together quite the badass group: Curtis (Anthony Wong), a completely trusted former associate who’s now working as a hairdresser; James (Lam Suet), a firearms expert and nonstop eater of pistachios; Roy (Francis Ng), a super busy guy who seems to be rising in the ranks as a local criminal leader; Shin (Jackie Lui), Roy’s underling and the inexperienced, weak link of the team; and Mike (Roy Cheung), a guy who’s awesome with a gun and currently stuck in the pimp game. We follow this group as they protect their boss from repeated attempts on his life, and also try to help figure out who’s ordered the hits. Needless to say, their mission takes a few detours along the way, and the men will ultimately have to decide where their true loyalty lies! 

THE MISSION is a crime film masterpiece, and I give Johnnie To most of the credit. Clocking in at just 84 minutes, the film is so simple, and yet it creates such a distinctive vibe that you can’t take your eyes off of the screen. To seems most interested in building the relationships between his main characters during the boring downtimes of their mission. We see them go from not talking to each other, to begrudgingly acknowledging each other, to finally playing soccer with a paper ball as they wait for their boss to leave his office. Just as we’re really getting to know and like our characters, the film will spring an intense action sequence out of nowhere. The director’s signature restraint is on full display in these limited action scenes, which are built around our characters’ professional expertise and a rising spacial tension with the would-be assassins. The action is incredible without relying on the over the top action sequences expected of the genre. As a matter of fact, I rank the “mall shootout” from THE MISSION as one of the best action scenes that Hong Kong cinema has to offer.

The cool poster for THE MISSION (1999)

The writing is also top notch in THE MISSION, which is not a real surprise because Nai-Hoi Yau has written almost all of Johnnie To’s best films. Yau and To have quite the working relationship as the screenplay, like the movie, hints at way more than it says. The audience isn’t spoon fed everything that happens, but it’s easy to look back upon repeat viewings and see that the clues are there based on what we know of the characters. There are also some interesting surprises sprinkled throughout the film. For example, a character shown as a coward in the opening scene re-emerges later in the film and redeems himself in a completely unexpected way. These moments are fun and exciting even for a film that is often relatively still and quiet. One other technical credit I want to mention is the film’s musical score by Chi Wing Chung. I’m not the kind of reviewer to spend too much time on a score, but I haven’t been able to get THE MISSION’s theme out of my head from the first time I saw it. Like the rest of the film, it’s simple, but it is the perfect synthy, background music for men walking and looking cool. I absolutely love it. 

Last, but not least, I have to highlight the cast that Johnnie To assembled for THE MISSION. It’s full of Hong Kong film award winners, beginning with five time winner Anthony Wong, and then Francis Ng and Simon Yam, also single winners of the Hong Kong Film Award for Best Actor. Each of these guys are outstanding here, with Anthony Wong and Francis Ng as the standouts of the movie. Anthony Wong, known for so many over the top characterizations in the classic Hong Kong films of the 90’s, delivers a perfectly understated and subtle performance here, which makes him that much more powerful when he needs to be. Francis Ng has a lot more dialogue, but his underlying sense of frustration and boiling-over intensity is the perfect counterpoint to Wong’s patience and calm. Roy Cheung, Lam Suet, Eddy Ko, and Tian-Lin Wang (Wong Jing’s dad) are all perfectly cast and bring excellent characterizations to the table. My only complaint about the cast is the fact that Lau Ching-Wan isn’t in the film. He’s been the star of so many of To’s best films, that I wish there would have been a part for him here.

Overall, THE MISSION is an incredible crime drama with a simple plot that primarily focuses on loyalty and betrayal within the triad underworld, punctuated by intense and precise action sequences, and performed by many of the very best actors in the Hong Kong film industry. It gets my highest recommendation and is well worth searching out. 

I’ve included a trailer for THE MISSION below. I honestly don’t think it’s a great representation for the movie itself, but it appears to be the best we’ve got!

The Hong Kong Film Corner: THE BIG BULLET (1996), starring Lau Ching-Wan!

Posted on by Bradley Crain

The first time I ever remember seeing Hong Kong actor “Sean” Lau Ching-Wan on the screen was in the Jet Li film, BLACK MASK. I was watching the film because of Jet Li, who had recently hit it big in America as a bad guy in LETHAL WEAPON 4, but I remember thinking that Lau’s cop character was pretty darn cool too. I didn’t think of him again for awhile, but then I bought a book about Hong Kong movies called “Hollywood East: Hong Kong Movies and the People who Make Them,” from author Stefan Hammond. This book was Hammond’s follow up to “Sex and Zen and a Bullet in the Head,” one of the books that truly educated me on the cinema of Hong Kong. “Hollywood East” spent a whole bunch of pages discussing Lau Ching-Wan and his movies. I connected the dots between this very interesting actor I was reading about and that cool cop in BLACK MASK. So I did what I do. I bought one of his movies, and then another, and then another. Soon I was obsessed with watching all of his movies. One of those first movies I remember reading about in “Hollywood East” was THE BIG BULLET. 

In THE BIG BULLET, Lau Ching-Wan is the badass cop-with-an-attitude, Sergeant Bill Chu, who doesn’t take crap off of anyone, including his superiors on the force. After belting one of his so-called superiors following a botched raid, Chu finds himself transferred to the Hong Kong police force’s “Emergency Unit,” a clear demotion for a man of his experience and arrest record. Here, the loner must work as part of a team to answer the various calls that come their way on a daily basis. This isn’t always easy, as one of the fellow cops on the unit is the extremely by-the-book Inspector Jeff Chiu (Jordan Chan). They clash immediately. Other members include the spunky Apple (Theresa Lee), the nerdy gun nut (Cheung Tat-Ming), and the old guy (Spencer Lam). This somewhat ragtag group finds themselves in the uneviable position of trying to stop an extremely dangerous group of thieves, led by The Professor (Yu Ronguang) and Bird (Anthony Wong). We’ve seen their willingness to kill at the drop of the hat, and the Emergency Unit doesn’t seem to be a proper match for these criminals. Or are they?? 

If you’re looking for a strong action film, and you’ve never seen it before, I present THE BIG BULLET. Director Benny Chan was emerging as a top notch Hong Kong film director, and THE BIG BULLET seemed to announce that he was throwing his hat into the ring as an action specialist when some of Hong Kong’s best action directors were taking their talents out west. There’s a sequence about 25 minutes into the film where our heroes find themselves in a shootout with the main villains that will leave your heart racing in the same manner as some of John Woo’s or Ringo Lam’s best work. And the actors are the very best that Hong Kong has to offer. Lau Ching-Wan, while not a dashing star in the mold of Chow Yun-Fat, easily carries the film on his shoulders with his natural charisma and tremendous screen presence. Even now, almost 30 years later, Lau Ching-Wan continues to dominate the Hong Kong film industry from an acting standpoint. He is nominated in 2025 for the Hong Film Award for Best Actor for his role in the film PAPA (2024). The excellent Francis Ng has a small, but pivotal role as Chu’s friend and colleague on the police force who helps him save his job at the beginning of the film. I also like Jordan Chan as the by-the-books member of the team who comes to realize that there are times when you may have to bend the rules to stop dangerous criminals. In a role that starts out extremely unlikable, he wins us over as the film progresses. As far as the criminals go, it would be hard to get much better actors for the parts than Yu Rongguang (IRON MONKEY) and Anthony Wong (BEAST COPS, THE MISSION). These excellent actors are cool and evil and we definitely want to see them get their comeuppance before the credits roll. 

Overall, THE BIG BULLET may lose a little bit of steam in its second half, but it’s still a great example of how strong Hong Kong action films were in the late 90’s. It’s also an example of the excellent talent in Hong Kong films even as Jackie Chan, Chow Yun-Fat, Jet Li, and John Woo had already moved on to Hollywood. THE BIG BULLET has a special place in my heart since it was one of those formative Lau Ching-Wan films in my life. But nostalgia aside, it’s still a damn good action film, and I recommend it without any reservations!