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James Marsh

Hollywood has a habit of remaking successful foreign movies – just look at what it did to Hong Kong hits Infernal Affairs (2002) and The Eye (also 2002), for example, which were both reworked as star-studded English-language films.
Rarely, however, does the phenomenon flow in the opposite direction.
But this is one of those weeks when it does, with the release of Herman Yau Lai-to’s hostage thriller Crisis Negotiators – a reimagining of the 1998 film The Negotiator, starring Samuel L. Jackson and Kevin Spacey.
In light of its arrival, here are five other Chinese-language films that began life in Hollywood.


1. Connected (2008)
Benny Chan Muk-sing’s Connected can be chalked up as that rare thing: a remake that genuinely improves upon the original.
The 2004 thriller Cellular is best remembered for featuring early performances from Chris Evans and Jason Statham, before they cemented their statuses as leading Hollywood action stars.

Chan’s 2008 remake adopts the same basic premise but tweaks a number of character details, while cranking up the film’s action quota, to deliver what proves to be a significantly more entertaining experience.
Barbie Hsu Hsi-yuan takes over from Kim Basinger as the film’s damsel in distress, who is kidnapped by a gang of corrupt Interpol agents but manages to contact a random stranger, Louis Koo Tin-lok’s single father, using a broken mobile phone.
Chan’s most notable change is introducing the potential for romance between the two protagonists.
Basinger was almost 30 years Evans’ senior in the original, so things remained decidedly platonic. In Connected, conversely, Koo and Hsu’s characters are much closer in age, while also free of any existing relationship entanglements that might keep them apart.
2. A Simple Noodle Story (2009)


Fresh from directing the eye-popping opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yimou unveiled one of the most curious, offbeat offerings of his career.
A remake of the Coen brothers’ 1984 debut, Blood Simple, whose stars included John Getz, Frances McDormand and Dan Hedaya, A Simple Noodle Story tells the story of a jealous restaurateur (Ni Dahong), who hires a corrupt police official (Sun Honglei) to kill his wife (Yan Ni) and her lover.
Zhang transplants the action of this sultry Texan neo-noir to the barren deserts of Gansu province, but otherwise remains faithful to the source material.
Most surprising is the film’s broadly humorous tone, which leans heavily into physical slapstick comedy and overblown caricature performances.
This marked a notable departure for the director, who solidified his reputation with a series of stoic period dramas and opulent martial arts epics.

What the film does retain, however, is Zhang’s dazzling visual sensibility, keenly realised through its breathtaking locations and lavish, brightly coloured costumes.
3. What Women Want (2011)
Andy Lau Tak-wah and Gong Li lend their irrepressible star power to Chen Daming’s remake of the 2000 fantasy romcom of the same name.
As in the original film, which starred Oscar winners Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt, Lau plays a chauvinistic advertising executive who meets his match in Gong’s feisty new addition to the firm.
The tables are turned when a freak accident enables Lau’s character to hear women’s innermost thoughts.


Initially this gives him the upper hand on the dating circuit, helping him seduce women with greater ease, but upon discovering how unpopular he is among his women colleagues, and even with his own daughter, he is ultimately forced to change his ways.
Chen’s film moves the action to Beijing, but otherwise keeps the narrative of Nancy Meyers’ box-office hit mostly intact.
The undeniable chemistry between Lau and Gong is a delight to watch, while the central theme of sexual politics in the workplace takes on extra heft when revisited today in a post-MeToo environment.
4. Bride Wars (2015)
Tony Chan Kwok-fai’s remake of the 2009 romantic comedy starring Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway is one of the very best examples of this format.


That’s not to say that either incarnation of Bride Wars is a cinematic masterpiece – this one certainly wasn’t – but it perfectly illustrates how a premise can be reworked for a local audience.
Chan’s film, which was produced by Hong Kong indie auteur Fruit Chan Gor, casts Angelababy and Ni Ni as childhood friends who have grown up dreaming of the perfect wedding.
When they both accidentally book the same venue on the same date, via the same coveted wedding planner, the former BFFs turn on one another, becoming mortal enemies in an escalating game of one-upmanship as the big day approaches.

Incorporating traditional Chinese wedding rituals in the mix, Chan’s film also satirises the escalating ostentatiousness of modern marriage ceremonies, even as it succumbs to many of those very same pressures.
5. Fireflies in the Sun (2021)
The feature directorial debut from former actor Dai Mo, Fireflies in the Sun is a remake of the 2002 drama John Q, which starred Denzel Washington.


Adding to the confusion, the film is also branded as a sequel to Sam Quah’s Sheep Without a Shepherd from 2019, but despite employing the same production team and star, Xiao Yang, the story itself is unconnected.
As in John Q, the drama centres on a desperate father (Xiao), who holds a hospital’s accident and emergency room at gunpoint until his young son is given a life-saving heart transplant.
The stand-off with the police outside, personified here by a bedraggled Simon Yam Tat-wah, devolves into a media circus, with bystanders and hostages alike falling in line to support the man and his cause.

In both films, the real enemy is a flawed medical system, whose inflated costs prove prohibitively expensive for everyday citizens.
To broach such issues for mainland Chinese audiences, however, Dai’s film relocates to an unspecified Southeast Asian country outside China’s jurisdiction.


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Lau Ching-wan in a still from Crisis Negotiators.

Andy Lau and Gong Li in a still from What Women Want. The reimagining of the 2000 American movie of the same name with Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt wasn’t the first Chinese-language remake of a Hollywood hit. 

Louis Koo in a still from Connected (2008). Photo: Emperor Motion Pictures

Yan Ni (centre) in a still from A Simple Noodle Story (2009).

Angelababy (left) and Ni Ni in a still from Bride Wars (2015).

Simon Yam in a still from Fireflies in the Sun (2021).

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Selena Gomez in a still from Emilia Pérez, one of the Post’s 10 best movies at Cannes 2024.

Margaret Qualley in a still from The Substance, one of Post critic James Mottram’s 10 best movies from the 2024 Cannes Film Festival.

Mikey Madison in a still from Anora.

Missagh Zareh (left) and Soheila Golestani in a still from The Seed of the Sacred Fig.

Ben Whishaw in a still from Limonov: The Ballad.

Ariella Mastroianni in a still from Gazer.

Nykiya Adams in a still from Bird.

Changing culture in Hong Kong around 1997 handover captured in Fruit Chan’s films The Longest Summer and Little Cheung

Mak Wai-fan (top) as Ah Fan and Yiu Yuet-ming as as Little Cheung in a still from Fruit Chan’s Little Cheung.

A still from Little Cheung. Fruit Chan Gor’s Made in Hong Kong, The Longest Summer and Little Cheung present a complete picture of Hong Kong working-class life at the time of the territory’s handover from British to Chinese rule in 1997.

Tony Ho (left) as Ga-yin and Sam Lee (right) as Ga-suen in a still from The Longest Summer.

Jo Kuk as Jane in a still from The Longest Summer.

Fruit Chan, director of The Longest Summer and Little Cheung, pictured in 1999. Photo: SCMP

Yiu Yuet-ming (left) as Little Cheung and Mak Wai-fan as Ah Fan in a still from Little Cheung.

Maggie Q, Andy Lau and Sammo Hung help bring alive 2 war epics Hong Kong directors filmed in China

Andy Lau in a still from Hong Kong-China co-production Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon. The 2008 war epic directed by Daniel Lee co-starred Maggie Q, with a cameo from Sammo Hung, and is a retelling of a story from the classic Chinese novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms.  

Sammo Hung (left) as Luo Ping-an and Andy Lau as General Zhao Zilong in a still from Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon.

Daniel Lee at an interview with the Post in 2009. Photo: May Tse

Maggie Q in a still from Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon.

Sammo Hung (front) as a failed general and Vincent Zhao as general Qi Jiguang in a still from God of War.

Gordon Chan, pictured in 2014. Photo: Edward Wong

Yasuaki Kurata as a Japanese samurai leading the pirates in God of War.

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A still from Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984).

A still from the Japanese animated film Akira (1988).

(From left) Octavia Spencer, Tilda Swinton, Ewen Bremner, Chris Evans, Luke Pasqualino, Ko Ah-sung and Song Kang-ho in a still from Snowpiercer (2013).

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Lau Ching-wan in a still from Warriors of Future.

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A still from Nakdong River (1952), one of the classic Korean films being shown at this year’s Udine Far East Film Festival as part of a programme to tell the Korean film industry’s “unexpected success story” during the tumultuous 1950s.

A still from South Korean film Piagol (1955).

A still from The Flower in Hell (1958).

A still from The Widow (1955).

A still from Madame Freedom (1956).

A still from The Wedding Day (1956).

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Crisis Negotiators, the new film by Herman Yau, isn’t the first Chinese-language remake of a Hollywood hit. Here are 5 others that stand out


With the release this month of Herman Yau’s Crisis Negotiators – which reimagines 1998 Hollywood movie The Negotiator – we consider 5 other Chinese-language remakes of films from the US.
