Long Arm of the Law

Johnny Mak's 1984 Hong Kong film is regarded as a turning point in the city's crime cinema. A group of desperate criminals from mainland China hope to make an easy score in Hong Kong; the job goes wrong and they have to hide, stained with the blood of an undercover officer they killed. The film addresses directly the unease Hong Kong felt toward the mainland as 1997 approached. Mak refuses the heroic policeman narrative entirely; the criminals are drawn as desperate, hungry and short-sighted people, and the viewer stays with them. The finale was shot in the Kowloon Walled City as it was being demolished and counts among the harshest chase sequences in the genre's history. The documentary-like shooting method influenced the Hong Kong crime films that followed. Who it's for: viewers interested in Hong Kong crime cinema and 1980s genre production. Who it's not for: anyone uncomfortable with dense, graphic violence, or wanting a story with a hero.