How the epic Big Timer films dominated Hong Kong’s early 1990s box office

Crime may not pay, but it has historically dominated the Hong Kong box office. Local films exploring the treacherous underworld of triad gangs, criminals and police officers have captivated audiences since the 1970s, when foundational works such as Ng See-yuen’s Anti-Corruption (1975) and Leong Po-chih’s Jumping Ash (1976) ignited the genre. Many Hong Kong crime films have equivocated on moral issues, operating in a grey zone where police can be as bad as the criminals. That was never truer than...