Things go terribly awry after a jewellery store heist in this visceral and gritty film that is a serious contender for the zeitgeist-iest HK crime-actioner of the ‘80s, made with the kind of masculine gusto that seems rare today.
Review #2,911
Dir. Johnny Mak
1984 | Hong Kong | Action, Crime, Thriller | 100min | 1.85:1 | Cantonese
M18 (passed clean) for sexual scenes and nudity
Cast: David Lam Wai, Wong Kin, Kong Lung, Chan Ging, Shum Wai
Plot: A group of desperate Chinese criminals hope to make a quick, effortless score in Hong Kong. Things go afoul, and the gang must hide out until the heat dies down, besmirched with the blood of an undercover cop.
Awards: Won 2 Golden Horses – Best Director & Best Film Editing; Nom. for 4 Golden Horses – Best Feature Film, Best Original Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Sound Recording
Distributor: Media Asia
Accessibility Index
Subject Matter: Moderate – Police vs. Criminals; Heist; Brotherhood & Sacrifice
Narrative Style: Straightforward
Pace: Normal
Audience Type: Slightly Mainstream
Viewed: Golden Village Suntec (as part of the Hong Kong Film Gala Presentation)
Spoilers: No
What a stunning film this is—apart from John Woo’s iconic A Better Tomorrow (1986), this could be a serious contender for the zeitgeist-iest Hong Kong crime-actioner of the 1980s, now seemingly a mystical era that fortunately with films like these, we can still revisit a time and place that has long vanished, like the actual Kowloon Walled City (demolished in 1994) that the superlative climatic shootout was shot in.
With the economic necessity of lower budgets and tight schedules, Long Arm of the Law shows us that when a director, albeit a rather insane one, is utterly obsessed with getting what he wants from a finite amount of resources, the likelihood of a brilliant work emerging is strong.
Johnny Mak, who won the Golden Horse for Best Director for Long Arm of the Law, hardly directed films, and despite being known more for writing and producing, his ‘legend’ is connected almost entirely with this one.
“We are born from the same roots, and we all need to live.”
Putting his actors in harm’s way, such as unleashing fierce canines in a chase, or the notorious scene of lighting a car on fire with someone tied up inside (and without the said actor’s knowledge), is abhorrently unethical, yet it produced some of the most visceral, discomforting scenes I’ve ever seen in a mainstream movie.
Made with the kind of masculine gusto that seems rare today, the film is gritty, direct and brutal in its depiction of carnage and collateral damage; it is also very entertaining and the lead characters, however bad they are, have human qualities of collective strength and individual hope.
A group of former Chinese Red Guards attempt to cross the Hong Kong border to rob a jewellery store, but when asked by a local triad boss to kill someone, things go terribly awry, culminating in that breathtaking Walled City set-piece.
If you enjoy movies that throw caution to the wind, Long Arm of the Law, accompanied by pulsating synths, will surely whet your appetite.
Grade: A
Trailer:
Music:
Eternality Tan 
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