# Beast Cops (野兽刑警)
**Beast Cops** (野獸刑警) is a 1998 Hong Kong crime film co-directed by Gordon Chan (陳嘉上) and Dante Lam (林超賢), starring Anthony Wong Chau-sang (黃秋生) as a corrupt street cop whose loyalties between the police and the Triads collapse when his gangster friend is murdered.[1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0157366/) The film won five Hong Kong Film Awards in 1999, including Best Picture and Best Director, and is regarded as a late-1990s high point of the Hong Kong police genre.[2](https://www.kff.tw/en/film/content/4865)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Original title / year | 野獸刑警 (Yeshou Xingjing), Hong Kong, 1998[1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0157366/) |
| Directors | Gordon Chan and Dante Lam; writers Gordon Chan and Chan Hing-Ka[1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0157366/) |
| Principal cast | Anthony Wong (Tung), Michael Wong (Michael Cheung), Roy Cheung (Fai), Kathy Chow, Patrick Tam, Sam Lee, Stephanie Che[3](https://musica.cinemasie.com/en/fiche/oeuvre/beastcops/) |
| Release and runtime | Hong Kong release 1998; 110 minutes, Cantonese language[1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0157366/) |
| Box office | HK$8,317,750 in Hong Kong, ranking 32nd for the year[4](https://kungfutube.info/25213) |
| Major awards | 1999 Hong Kong Film Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Screenplay[2](https://www.kff.tw/en/film/content/4865) |
| Production companies | Media Asia Films, People's Production Limited[1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0157366/) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
Tung (Anthony Wong) is a veteran Hong Kong detective who grew up among Triads and moves between the police and the underworld as it suits him; he is especially close to the casino boss Fai (Roy Cheung), the local "Big Brother" who has an understanding with the police.[5](https://fareastfilms.com/review/beast-cops/) • [6](https://www.heroic-cinema.com/reviews/beast-cops-1998/) Tung's new commanding officer, Michael Cheung (Michael Wong), is a disciplined, by-the-book cop who takes charge of a corrupt district and clashes with Tung's way of policing.[7](https://www.miramax.com/movie/beast-cop-yeshou-xingjing/) • [6](https://www.heroic-cinema.com/reviews/beast-cops-1998/)
The balance breaks when Fai hires a hit man to murder a business rival; the hit goes wrong, Fai is implicated and flees Hong Kong, and the young gangster Thumbtack Wa (Patrick Tam) moves to take over his territory.[1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0157366/) • [2](https://www.kff.tw/en/film/content/4865) Fai returns and confronts Thumbtack Wa, who kills him with a machete while calling him "big brother"; Tung then turns into the "beast cop" of the title, taking revenge for his friend in a violent finale.[2](https://www.kff.tw/en/film/content/4865) • [8](https://app2.atmovies.com.tw/film/fUcmb4043976/) Meanwhile Michael Cheung falls in love with Yoyo (Kathy Chow), a woman previously connected to Fai.[7](https://www.miramax.com/movie/beast-cop-yeshou-xingjing/)
## Production and style
Gordon Chan made the film at a low point in his career. In a later interview he described his mood while shooting as "despair plus disappointment": in 1997 and 1998 video piracy was rampant in Hong Kong, investors' money was hard to recover, and he believed the film might be his last.[9](https://ent.sina.com.cn/m/c/2009-03-26/13422439881.shtml) The script he received was a comedy, which he did not want to make in that state of mind; after being struck by [Wong Kar-wai](https://www.edgepedia.org/wong-kar-wai)'s *Chungking Express*, he drew inspiration from it and reshaped the project into a police film, finishing it in a deliberately loose, improvised manner.[9](https://ent.sina.com.cn/m/c/2009-03-26/13422439881.shtml)
The film's look reflects that approach. Chan favored handheld cameras for a documentary feel, and the first half of the film is shot in that style, with characters speaking directly into the camera as if giving interviews; the second half turns abruptly into a bloody, stylized finale.[9](https://ent.sina.com.cn/m/c/2009-03-26/13422439881.shtml) • [5](https://fareastfilms.com/review/beast-cops/) Reviewers have attributed this two-part structure to the two directors, with Gordon Chan steering the opening relationship material and Dante Lam taking over for the violent underworld climax.[5](https://fareastfilms.com/review/beast-cops/) For Dante Lam, who had begun as Gordon Chan's assistant director in the late 1980s and whose solo debut *G4 Agent* had flopped, the film was a gamble; he counted the stylized final two-man fight, a treatment he used for the first time in cinema, among his personal touches.[10](https://m.jiemian.com/article/2303055.html) • [2](https://www.kff.tw/en/film/content/4865) Yuen Tak served as action director.[3](https://musica.cinemasie.com/en/fiche/oeuvre/beastcops/)
## Reception and awards
The film swept the 18th Hong Kong Film Awards in 1999, winning Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor for Anthony Wong, Best Supporting Actor for Patrick Tam, and Best Screenplay; it had earlier taken Best Film and Best Actor at the Hong Kong Film Critics Society Awards.[2](https://www.kff.tw/en/film/content/4865) It was Dante Lam's first, and to date only, Hong Kong Film Award for Best Director.[10](https://m.jiemian.com/article/2303055.html) IMDb records 12 wins and 9 nominations overall, including Golden Bauhinia Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Supporting Actor, and a Golden Horse Award nomination for Anthony Wong as Best Leading Actor.[11](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0157366/awards/)
Critics singled out Anthony Wong's performance as the corrupt but sympathetic Tung; one review called it possibly one of his better performances, playing "a crooked cop with some modicum of heart," while noting that Michael Wong's straight-arrow cop was widely judged wooden by comparison.[12](https://letterboxd.com/prboyle/film/beast-cops/) • [13](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/beast_cops) Reviewers also noted the film's mixture of crime, comedy, and drama, its gritty portrait of ordinary Hong Kong street life rather than the glossy crime films of the 1980s, and a gruesome final showdown that lands as a shock after the jocular first half.[5](https://fareastfilms.com/review/beast-cops/) • [6](https://www.heroic-cinema.com/reviews/beast-cops-1998/) Despite its awards, the film earned only HK$8,317,750 at the Hong Kong box office, placing 32nd for the year.[4](https://kungfutube.info/25213)
## Place in Hong Kong cinema
*Beast Cops* appeared when the Hong Kong film industry was in commercial trouble after 1997, with filmmakers searching for new formulas.[9](https://ent.sina.com.cn/m/c/2009-03-26/13422439881.shtml) • [14](https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3233812/how-gen-x-cops-led-hong-kongs-new-style-90s-action-films-featured-young-actors-more-special-effects?pgtype=topic) Its treatment of the "grey zone" between cop and criminal, a subject earlier Hong Kong police films had rarely touched, is cited as a reason the film rose above the ordinary police-action level, and its portrait of a policeman's moral transformation has been discussed in academic writing on masculinity in Hong Kong cinema.[8](https://app2.atmovies.com.tw/film/fUcmb4043976/) • [15](https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/48537926.pdf) Later Chinese-language retrospectives treat it as a representative work of 1990s Hong Kong police films and a milestone in Dante Lam's move from genre craftsman to director of large-scale action pictures such as *Operation Mekong*.[10](https://m.jiemian.com/article/2303055.html)
## References
1. [Beast Cops (1998), IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0157366/)
2. [Beast Cops, Kaohsiung Film Festival, Filmmaker in Focus: Anthony Wong Chau-sang](https://www.kff.tw/en/film/content/4865)
3. [Beast Cops, Cinémasie](https://musica.cinemasie.com/en/fiche/oeuvre/beastcops/)
4. [ビースト・コップス 野獸刑警（1998）, Kungfu Tube](https://kungfutube.info/25213)
5. [Beast Cops (1998) Review, Far East Films](https://fareastfilms.com/review/beast-cops/)
6. [Review: Beast Cops (1998), Heroic Cinema](https://www.heroic-cinema.com/reviews/beast-cops-1998/)
7. [Beast Cop ("Yeshou Xingjing"), Miramax](https://www.miramax.com/movie/beast-cop-yeshou-xingjing/)
8. [野獸刑警 BEAST COP, 開眼電影網](https://app2.atmovies.com.tw/film/fUcmb4043976/)
9. [名导聚香江忆警匪片20年, Sina Entertainment](https://ent.sina.com.cn/m/c/2009-03-26/13422439881.shtml)
10. [林超贤：从《野兽刑警》到《红海行动》 我要呈现的就是"狠", Jiemian News](https://m.jiemian.com/article/2303055.html)
11. [Beast Cops (1998) - Awards, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0157366/awards/)
12. [Beast Cops review by Patrick Boyle, Letterboxd](https://letterboxd.com/prboyle/film/beast-cops/)
13. [Beast Cops, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/beast_cops)
14. [How Gen-X Cops led Hong Kong's new-style '90s action films, South China Morning Post](https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3233812/how-gen-x-cops-led-hong-kongs-new-style-90s-action-films-featured-young-actors-more-special-effects?pgtype=topic)
15. [Melodramatizing Hong Kong Cinema, CORE](https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/48537926.pdf)
---
*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Crime, thriller, and mystery films (individual works) › 1990s films › Crime dramas and gangster films*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license