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(Photo by Rim/courtesy Everett Collection)

Chow Yun-fat Movies Ranked

We’re ranking the films of Chow Yun-Fat! Let’s start with his Certified Fresh films, including Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and John Woo’s The Killer. Those are followed up with more Fresh Hong Kong action epics like Hard-Boiled, City on Fire, and Full Contact. Yun-fat broke into Hollywood shortly afterwards with late-’90s crime films like The Replacement Killers and The Corruptor, the unfortunate Dragonball: Evolution, and culminating in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End. Alex Vo

#1

The Killer (1989)
Tomatometer icon 95%

#1
Adjusted Score: 98498%
Critics Consensus: The Killer is another hard-boiled action flick from John Woo featuring eye-popping balletic violence and philosophical underpinnings.
Synopsis: Mob assassin Jeffrey (Chow Yun-Fat) is no ordinary hired gun; the best in his business, he views his chosen profession... [More]
Directed By: John Woo

#2
Adjusted Score: 104869%
Critics Consensus: The movie that catapulted Ang Lee into the ranks of upper echelon Hollywood filmmakers, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon features a deft mix of amazing martial arts battles, beautiful scenery, and tasteful drama.
Synopsis: In 19th century Qing Dynasty China, a warrior (Chow Yun-Fat) gives his sword, Green Destiny, to his lover (Michelle Yeoh)... [More]
Directed By: Ang Lee

#3

Hard-Boiled (1992)
Tomatometer icon 92%

#3
Adjusted Score: 98047%
Critics Consensus: Boasting impactful action as well as surprising emotional resonance, Hard Boiled is a powerful thriller that hits hard in more ways than one.
Synopsis: A cop who loses his partner in a shoot-out with gun smugglers goes on a mission to catch them. In... [More]
Directed By: John Woo

#4

City on Fire (1987)
Tomatometer icon 85%

#4
Adjusted Score: 85363%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: An undercover cop (Chow Yun-Fat) infiltrates a gang of jewel thieves, but things go terribly wrong during a heist.... [More]
Directed By: Ringo Lam

#5

Full Contact (1992)
Tomatometer icon 89%

#5
Adjusted Score: 79498%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Jeff (Chow Yun-Fat), who works as a nightclub bouncer in Bangkok, saves his friend Sam (Wong Chow-Sang) from a beating... [More]
Directed By: Ringo Lam

#6

Office (2015)
Tomatometer icon 88%

#6
Adjusted Score: 88683%
Critics Consensus: With few narrative missteps, Office delivers a soft critique of capitalism elegantly wrapped in a one-of-a-kind, three-dimensional musical.
Synopsis: Following the Lehman Brothers collapse, Miss Chang prepares to list her billion-dollar company on the stock exchange. Before the shares... [More]
Directed By: Johnnie To

#7

Let the Bullets Fly (2010)
Tomatometer icon 75%

#7
Adjusted Score: 75447%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: A hoodlum (Chow Yun-Fat) feels threatened by his town's new governor (Wen Jiang), who is really a bandit in disguise.... [More]
Directed By: Wen Jiang

#8
Adjusted Score: 69729%
Critics Consensus: Melodrama, swordplay, and CG armies -- fans of martial arts epic will get what they bargain for, though the baroque art direction can be both mesmerizing and exhaustively excessive.
Synopsis: In 928 A.D. a power struggle emerges in the palace of China's emperor (Chow Yun-Fat). A cruel man, he is... [More]
Directed By: Yimou Zhang

#9

Once a Thief (1991)
Tomatometer icon 60%

#9
Adjusted Score: 29986%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Three art thieves (Chow Yun-Fat, Leslie Cheung, Cherie Chung) try to re-steal a painting after their crime boss double-crosses them.... [More]
Directed By: John Woo

#10

Anna and the King (1999)
Tomatometer icon 52%

#10
Adjusted Score: 56716%
Critics Consensus: Beautiful cinematography can't prevent Anna and the King from being boring and overly lengthy.
Synopsis: Anna (Jodie Foster) has been employed to educate the king's (Chow Yun-Fat) 58 children. She knows very little of King... [More]
Directed By: Andy Tennant

#11

The Corruptor (1999)
Tomatometer icon 48%

#11
Adjusted Score: 49743%
Critics Consensus: This uninspiring cop thriller doesn't measure up to Chow Yun-Fat's Hong Kong work.
Synopsis: Martial arts expert Detective Nick Chen (Chow Yun-Fat) teams up with his colleague Danny Wallace (Mark Wahlberg) to keep several... [More]
Directed By: James Foley

#12

Confucius (2010)
Tomatometer icon 45%

#12
Adjusted Score: 22389%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: The life story of the Chinese philosopher.... [More]
Directed By: Mei Hu

#13
Adjusted Score: 52165%
Critics Consensus: POTC: AWE provides the thrilling action scenes, but mixes in too many characters with too many incomprehensible plot threads.
Synopsis: Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) and Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley) join forces with Capt. Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) to free Jack Sparrow... [More]
Directed By: Gore Verbinski

#14
#14
Adjusted Score: 38661%
Critics Consensus: Chow Yun-fat makes his dubious English-language debut in The Replacement Killers, a stylish but muddled knockoff of the Hong Kong shoot-em-ups that earned the star his international renown.
Synopsis: Hired assassin John Lee (Chow Yun-Fat) is asked by Chinatown crime boss Terence Wei (Kenneth Tsang) to murder the young... [More]
Directed By: Antoine Fuqua

#15
#15
Adjusted Score: 32459%
Critics Consensus: This beautifully photographed but dramatically flat war drama recounts an important chapter in history with little cinematic freshness.
Synopsis: In 1930s China, British journalist George Hogg (Jonathan Rhys Meyers), an American nurse named Lee (Radha Mitchell) and a Chinese... [More]
Directed By: Roger Spottiswoode

#16

Bulletproof Monk (2003)
Tomatometer icon 23%

#16
Adjusted Score: 27165%
Critics Consensus: Venerable action star Chow Yun-Fat is the only saving grace in this silly action flick that more often than not resembles a commercial in style.
Synopsis: For 60 years, a mysterious monk with no name (Chow Yun-Fat) has zigzagged the globe to protect an ancient scroll... [More]
Directed By: Paul Hunter

#17
#17
Adjusted Score: 5136%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Ken's daughter and his protege Vincent are getting married, and the enormous wedding is being held at a resort in... [More]

#18
#18
Adjusted Score: 15832%
Critics Consensus: Executed with little panache or invention, Dragonball Evolution lacks the magic that made the books upon which it was based a cult sensation.
Synopsis: On his 18th birthday, Goku (Justin Chatwin) receives a mystical Dragonball as a gift from his grandfather. There are only... [More]
Directed By: James Wong

#19

Shanghai (2010)
Tomatometer icon 4%

#19
Adjusted Score: 4040%
Critics Consensus: Shanghai is crippled by a weak story and fatally undermined by clunky direction, making for a period political drama that lacks all of its key components.
Synopsis: In the months before the attack on Pearl Harbor, an American intelligence official investigates a friend's death in 1941 China.... [More]
Directed By: Mikael Håfström