How Andy Lau played Hong Kong's most corrupt cop in The Godfather-like crime epic Lee Rock
Lau, who cut his teeth at Hong Kong broadcasting company RTHK, made his name with two documentary-style social realist dramas: 1988's Gangs and 1990's Queen of Temple Street – still one of the city's finest films.
But his follow-up, the two-part Lee Rock, was something entirely different: a four-hour-long
Godfather -like crime epic divided into two films.
Halfway through shooting, Lau and producers
Wong Jing and Jimmy Heung Wah-sing decided that rather than cut the story down to two hours – which was still 30 minutes longer than the 90 minutes mandated by cinema owners at the time – they would release two films weeks apart.
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Both Lee Rock: The $500,000,000 Detective and Lee Rock 2: Father and Son were big hits, taking a combined HK$53 million.
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