Martin Scorsese’s favourite Hong Kong movies: “You can’t go near that”
Throughout his career as a film director, Martin Scorsese has not only shown his prowess as an artist but also as a keen purveyor of world cinema. The New York City-born filmmaker’s love for the works of Japan, Iran, and other global cinema traditions is well-known, and his admiration for the movies of Hong Kong is also common knowledge.
Back in 2006, Scorsese released his epic crime thriller The Departed, starring Jack Nicholson, Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Wahlberg, focuses on the Boston Winter Hill Gang and a number of its significant figures. However, the film was also a remake of Andrew Lau and Alan Mak’s 2002 Hong Kong action thriller Infernal Affairs.
Starring Andy Lau, Tony Leung and Anthony Wong, the film tells of an undercover Hong Kong Police Force detective who infiltrates a Triad in which another officer is serving as a spy. Scorsese was once asked how Lau’s vision of Hong Kong translated into The Departed, although he felt that it wasn’t really about the country itself.
“I didn’t think of it as Hong Kong,” Scorsese told Pop Entertainment. “Taking from the Hong Kong trilogy, Andrew Lau’s film, it’s the device, the concept of two informers. Whether I like it or not, I am drawn to stories that have to do with trust and betrayal.” Still, Scorsese pointed out, in the same interview, his favourite movies from Hong Kong.
He began with John Woo’s 1989 action film The Killer starring Chow Yun-fat and Danny Lee, which tells of a professional assassin who takes on one last hit after accidentally blinding a female singer during a job. “You can’t go near that,” he said of the film widely regarded as one of the greatest action movies ever made.
Elsewhere, King Hu’s 1971 wuxia film A Touch of Zen, based on ‘Xianu’, a classic Chinese story by Pu Songling, was also spoken of in the highest terms by Scorsese. He’d first seen the movie in the 1980s and saw how it explored a number of wide-ranging themes, including Zen Buddhism, feminism, conservativism and the supernatural. As is well known, Scorsese loves worldly culture, but it appears that few countries have inspired him as much as Hong Kong.
“It’s a whole other thing going on there,” Scorsese said of the Hong Kong cinema movement. “We do what we do, and if we influence their culture at all, it has come out through John Woo, Tsui Hark and Ringo Lam.” In addition, the director pointed out the brilliance of Wong Kar-wai, known for his stunning films Chungking Express, Fallen Angels and In the Mood for Love.
Stanley Kwan “is something you have to appreciate as a filmmaker because we see new ways of making narrative film,” Scorsese also said, referring to the director of Women, Rouge, Full Moon in New York, Center Stage, Everlasting Regret and Red Rose White Rose, a clear subject of Scorsese’s deep admiration.
Signing off, Scorsese noted his thoughts on the cinema of Hong Kong as a whole, as well as his love for East Asian cinema in general. “I admire and respect their work so much in Hong Kong,” he said. “All of Chinese cinema really; Beijing and Taiwan. I hope my next film is another remake of an Asian film. I’m only making Asian remakes anymore”.
