20 Facts About Classic Hong Kong Action Movies (To Dual-Wield In Slo-Mo)

Under the big umbrella of the action genre, Hong Kong action movies are a breed of its own. Yet even this label is wide, as it includes everything from wuxia movies to John Woo flicks. In this Pictofacts, we focus on the latter, or more precisely on the ultra-violent, emotionally-corny, high-octane action movies Hong Kong produced during the ‘80s and ‘90s. Yeah, because nothing says action like semantic distinctions. Seriously, though, if we’re being accurate with our language – and we here at Cracked take language very seriously – then we’re not discussing martial arts movies in what follows.

So we’re focusing on strictly action movies, and hence on the actor-endangering madman that is John Woo, a man whose name is synonymous with the genre. Now, our John Woo is a bit rusty, so just as we won’t be discussing martial arts movies, we won’t be discussing Woo’s post-Mission: Impossible 2 Chinese movies either. Honestly, we hope they’re good just because we just love the guy. And even if they’re not, the fact remains that during the ’80s and ’90s Hong Kong action movies were greatly influenced by him. As we celebrate the man’s silent return to Hollywood (and we hope for a Face-Off-centered John Woo biopic), we now discuss some facts about his movies, but also about other aspects of classic Hong Kong action cinema.