HK police thrillers keep audiences on edge of their seats

On Aug 13, during a Hong Kong screening of Wilson Yip's 1999 film Bullets Over Summer at Tai Kwun Center for Heritage and Arts, many audience members said they had gained from the struggling characters a sense of cynicism and pessimism in society during the post-1997 Asian financial crisis, which they could relate to.

As audience members left the theater, they were told by organizers to watch out for a long flight of stairs and a small shop next door.

The stairs and shop appeared in the film's first scene, when the store was robbed－introducing Francis Ng and Louis Koo's characters as the responding officers.

Since COVID-19 travel restrictions were imposed, mainland fans of Raging Fire have been unable to visit Hong Kong locations used for the movie. These include a parking lot in Kennedy Town, where Yen leaped from a high rise to chase Tse fleeing on a motorcycle, and Cha Kwo Ling, where police battle the underworld all night.

Peking Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, was also used for scenes in which the gangsters are besieged by police－although many of these sequences were shot in a studio backlot.

One day, such locations could again be thronged with tourists eager to relive a fascinating crime story.