I've been watching a few Hong Kong action films lately, like the The Killer and City on Fire, and came to the realisation that car chases are pretty much standard fare for them.

Would anybody know, then, when car chases began to regularly appear in Hong Kong action films? It seems to me there was a turning point in the 1980s with the appearance of directors like John Woo and Ringo Lam who traded in martial arts in favour of more gunplay and automotive action, but I am not really certain about things beyond that. And although it's been ages since I've seen a Bruce Lee film, I don't seem to recall any car chases in his films.

Any Hong Kong film aficionados out there who could help clear things up for me?

There's a movie known as The Man From Hong Kong (1975). Apparently, it's a Hong Kong/Australian movie. As to the summary of the movie on the imdb, there appears to be a car chase as the reviewer said. This movie could have been a start for car chases in the late 70s and early 80s. That's about all I know for now.

Thanks for that Prowler. Sounds like a good film to watch since it has a Valiant Charger in it and since the reviewer says that the chase has to be seen to be believed.

1975 could be the initial turning point since Cleopatra Jones and the Casino of Gold, another co-production, this time HK/US, was released that year and has a car chase and much motorcycle stuntwork. Wonder if these titles were mainly for overseas consumption though.

Hey CarcrashKing , interesting question that one..I remember the Mad Mission Movies from the early 80's as the first japanese films with carstunts in them but since the 70's were pretty much the heydays of carchase-flicks there is surely some stuff out there..maybe some time in the near future we get a japanese enthousiast onto this site who could give us more info?
And then there is still this obscure 'Stuntwars' movie which i believe could be a japanese movie filmed in the States but I'm far from sure...
Anyway, they had great beefy Datsuns and Toyotas in the 60's and 70's
Sayonara

Here is a list of car chase films produced or co-produced in Hong Kong that I have found in the database, including a few titles which I have uploaded recently:

Who Am I? (1998)
Rumble in the Bronx (1996)
Thunderbolt (1995)
Twin Dragons (1992)
Once a Thief (1991)
Operation Condor (1990)
Killer, The (1989)
City on Fire (1987)
Operation Condor 2: The Armour of Gods (1986)
Police Story (1985)
Winners and Sinners (1983)
Cleopatra Jones and the Casino of Gold (1975)

My guess is that there are a lot more Hong Kong action films with car chases in them and that this list only scratches the surface. Most of these titles are Jackie Chan star vehicles as well, so what’s in the database might only highlight those films best known in the U.S. and the U.K. However limited, it seems to bear out the hunch that Hong Kong car chases were more a 1980s and 90s phenomenon.

CARLO, weren’t the Mad Mission films Hong Kong as opposed to Japanese productions? Although I haven’t seen them, the word is they have outrageous automotive stunts.

It would be good to have more information on Japanese car chase films, though, since there are only a couple entries in the database. I recently uploaded The Triple Cross (1992) which has an extended and destructive car chase in it. Certainly there are more, but probably they were not pumped out as consistently as Hong Kong action films.

Hi Carchaseking you're probably right with the Mad Mission movies I think they were produced in HongKong.I can't remember exactly if there were 4 or 5 films made for that series, I have only two chasesequences from pt2 and pt4 and they are worth watching but a bit cheesy or comical at the same time as these movies were a sort of persiflage to the James Bond movies at that time.But thanx for the list I will check out a few of those.