Hong Kong’s 5 best Lunar New Year films: from Jackie Chan and Chow Yun-fat in My Lucky Stars to Fat Choi Spirit starring Andy Lau

Jan 30 , 2022

From left, Maggie Cheung, Andy Lau and Lydia Shum – stars of some of Hong Kong’s most iconic Lunar New Year films. Photos: Instagram (@hongkong8090s, @asfilmsgoby, @hkfilmsss)

Local legends Lydia Sum Tin-ha, Louis Koo, Sammo Hung and Raymond Wong have all starred in holiday films stressing feel-good themes of luck, love and money

Clifton Ko helmed favourites It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad World and All’s Well, Ends Well – starring Leslie Cheung, Stephen Chow and Maggie Cheung – which other director scored twice?

For years, Hongkongers were the world’s biggest movie fans. According to film historian David Bordwell, in 1959, when Hong Kong was home to around three million people, the average cinema attendance per capita was twenty-two visits per year – by far the highest in the world and about twice that of the US. At its peak, in 1967, cinema attendance was even higher – an astonishing twenty-seven visits per capita. Given that many Hongkongers worked six-day weeks back then, this love for film is all the more impressive.

Among the biggest movies every year were the ones that screened during Lunar New Year. This holiday period would bring to the cinema even those who didn’t usually care for films, as whole families shared a night out. Adjusted for inflation, four of the top five most popular Hong Kong movies released between 1980 and 2017 came out around the festivities in January or February.

Although stars like Stephen Chow, Jackie Chan and Chow Yun-fat would still star in blockbuster comedies or action movies during Lunar New Year, Hong Kong filmmakers created a very specific type of “Chinese New Year film” that was incredibly popular too.

While the local films released around Lunar New Year often followed certain conventions, the “rules” of this genre were never set in stone. Some of these movies were about love and money, some not so much. Many would end with the cast delivering the traditional Cantonese Lunar New Year greeting of kung hei fat choi, but not all. At a minimum, though, all typical Lunar New Year films had an auspicious saying as their title.

With the Year of the Tiger upon us, here are five of the most iconic Lunar New Year films.

1. My Lucky Stars (福星高照, 1985)

Starring Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao at the height of their local popularity, it’s no surprise that My Lucky Stars was a huge hit that spawned several sequels. Although Chan and Biao had relatively minor roles, the film is still more action-oriented than most Lunar New Year films, with the plot having Chan as a police officer trying to hunt down a notorious criminal in Japan. There’s plenty of humour too, to go along with the big fight scenes that bookend the movie.

2. It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad World (富貴逼人, 1987)

Bill Tung and Lydia Sum (first and second from right) play the heads of a materialistic Hong Kong family in the Lunar New Year comedy It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad World (1987). Photo: D & B Films

A more typical Lunar New Year film, It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad World focuses on the crazy things people do when they suddenly come into a lot of money and whether wealth is ultimately a blessing or a curse. Lydia Sum Tin-ha and Bill Tung are the mother and father of the financially precarious Pui family, who strike it rich in the lottery one day. Reflecting Hong Kong’s mindset in the decade before the handover – something amplified in the sequels when the Puis emigrate to Vancouver – the film resonated with local audiences and outperformed Hollywood classics released that same year like Platoon and RoboCop.

Hong Kong’s 5 best Lunar New Year films: from Jackie Chan and Chow Yun-fat in My Lucky Stars to Fat Choi Spirit starring Andy Lau

1. My Lucky Stars (福星高照, 1985)

2. It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad World (富貴逼人, 1987)

3. The Eighth Happiness (八星報喜, 1988)