Everybody knows Jackie Chan, most people at least know the name John Woo and are able to associate certain images with his name but very few people seem to know much about the Hong Kong film industry besides them and a few other stars and that's a shame really. To be totally honest I didn't know much about it either until two years ago when on a whim I decided to watch as many Jackie Chan movies as I could which led me down the rabbit hole of Hong Kong action movies and I'm glad that it did. If you were to ask me to list my favourite movies two years ago and now you'd get radically different lists.
Hong Kong action movies, especially those from the 80s, are easily some of the greatest action movies ever made. In terms of choreography and stunts they far outclass most other action movies. Whether it be sword fights, fist fights, gun fights it's all done incredibly well and fun to watch. They outshine their competition again and again and almost never let you down. They're inventive, they're brutal, they're fast paced, they're everything you want in an action movie.
So why aren't these movies more popular? There are actually a lot of reasons, one of the main reasons being availability. It's not exactly easy to find many of these movies, very few of them are still being sold or available for streaming. Another reason probably being that they have a different name in every country so even if they are sold you might not find them under the name they go by in your country. Even if they are available you might not enjoy watching them because of the often horrendous and sometimes silly English dubbing.
Nonetheless it is totally worth it to seek these movies out and I hope more people will rediscover Hong Kong action movies.
