The Shadow's Edge — Jackie Chan Is Back and Hong Kong Cinema Feels Like Itself Again

The Shadow’s Edge with Jackie Chan, Tony Leung Ka-fai and Zhang Zifeng

Spoiler Alert — the following contains spoilers for The Shadow's Edge.

I've written before about how I watch Hong Kong movies to keep my Cantonese alive. It's one of the more unconventional language maintenance strategies out there, but it works for me.

Then something funny happened on my recent business trip to Germany.

In Munich, I met a new colleague who is also Chinese. We got talking and discovered we both speak Cantonese. He's a bit younger than me and left Hong Kong even younger. We immediately bonded over how genuinely difficult it is to maintain the dialect — especially given how much colloquialism is embedded in the way Hong Kongers actually speak. The slang, the tone, the specific cultural references. It's not just vocabulary. It's a whole way of talking.

I told him I keep it up by watching movies. He does the same.

Then I Watched a Jackie Chan Movie on the Flight Home

It's been a while since I've watched a new Hong Kong movie that I actually liked. I've rewatched some old favourites, but recent ones haven't grabbed me. I remember starting a few and not finishing them.

Then on the flight back from Munich to Toronto, I scrolled through the in-flight entertainment and came across The Shadow's Edge. Starring Jackie Chan and Tony Leung Ka-fai — nickname Big Tony, to distinguish him from Tony Leung Chiu-wai who is Small Tony 😂. I like both actors, so I gave it a shot.

I'm glad I did.

Why The Shadow's Edge Works

The Shadow's Edge is one of the best Hong Kong — or Chinese — movies I've seen in years. I honestly can't say with complete certainty whether it's a Hong Kong production or a mainland China one. The story is set in Macau and most of the dialogue is in Mandarin (that was the only dialect choice on airplane), with Cantonese and English woven throughout. But what matters is that it brought back the feeling of what made Hong Kong action cinema great in its prime. Three things specifically:

Great action — and not just fighting. The first chase sequence of the film doesn't even feature Jackie Chan, and it's already one of the smartest action set pieces I've seen recently. The thieves change costumes and alter their appearance while moving at full speed — it's unexpected, clever and genuinely exciting. That kind of creativity in an action sequence is what separated the best Hong Kong films from everything else.

A sense of heroic on both sides. Jackie Chan's backstory gives his character a clear moral foundation. But what I found really interesting is that Tony Leung Ka-fai's character — on the thieves' side — also carries that same heroic quality. The film doesn't make it simple. Both sides have depth and conviction, which makes the whole thing more compelling.

The stars are actually stars. Jackie Chan and Tony Leung Ka-fai are Hong Kong cinema mainstays and it shows in every scene they're in. I didn't know Zhang Zifeng before watching this — apparently she's a major star in mainland China — but she absolutely held her own as the female lead. When the cast is this good, you feel it.

The one downside for my purposes — the film is mostly in Mandarin rather than Cantonese, so it wasn't quite the language practice session I was hoping for. But honestly, no complaints about the movie itself.

Final Thought

A few things stuck with me after finishing it.

First — it's genuinely great to see Jackie Chan still in starring roles at this stage of his career. He's an internationally recognized legend and films like The Shadow's Edge have the kind of cross-border appeal that works across Asia and beyond.

Second — this film reminded me of New Police Story from 2004, which was itself a reboot of the original Police Story series. That comparison is high praise from me. New Police Story never got the sequel or franchise treatment it deserved. The Shadow's Edge ended with an obvious setup for continuation — I really hope they follow through and build this into a proper series the way the original Police Story did.

And third — I still need to find a new Hong Kong movie that's primarily in Cantonese to properly keep up my language skills. If anyone has recommendations, drop them in the comments. Genuinely asking 🙏