All 10 Best Andy Lau Movies Ranked (Best to Worst)

Andrew Lau and Alan Mak's taut neo-noir revitalized early-2000s Hong Kong cinema through sheer formal precision, weaponizing razor-sharp editing, moral ambiguity, and clean rooftop framing to build unbearable pressure. The narrative thrives on symmetry: an undercover cop buried inside the triads versus a mob mole ascending the police force. While Tony Leung's frayed undercover agent receives instant sympathy, Lau Kin-ming carries the far heavier burden of a compromised soul clawing toward redemption. Lau delivers a masterclass in interior dread, using subtle eye twitches and immaculate grooming to mask absolute moral rot. It remains the crowning achievement of his expansive screen career.

Wong Kar-wai's breakthrough 1960s chronicle drifts through humid rooms, ticking clocks, and broken hearts with lyrical abandon. Christopher Doyle's lush, green-tinted cinematography elevates unrequited affection into haunting visual poetry. Lau enters this melancholic universe as Tide, a nocturnal beat cop who encounters Maggie Cheung's wounded Su Li-zhen beneath rainy street lamps. While Leslie Cheung commands the film's central nihilism, Lau provides the essential emotional anchor. Stripped of pop-star vanity, his low-key, observant warmth embodies quiet yearning and chivalry, establishing an early template for his dramatic depth away from commercial genre cinema.

Ann Hui crafts an extraordinary ode to aging and domestic devotion with zero melodrama or manipulative tearjerking. Grounded in the mundane details of nursing home routines and street markets, the narrative observes the shifting power balance between a successful film producer and his family's lifelong housemaid. Playing opposite Deanie Ip, Lau strips away every ounce of star polish to deliver his most human, ego-free performance. His gentle, reactive demeanor radiates authentic gratitude and quiet grief. Lau famously financed the project when major studios balked, proving that his artistic intuition matches his legendary commercial clout.

Johnnie To crafts an exhilarating 72-hour duel of wits across the concrete canyons of Hong Kong, trading heavy gunfire for intellectual gamesmanship. Facing off against Sean Lau Ching-wan's seasoned hostage negotiator, the story subverts conventional crime tropes through witty misdirections, elegant staging, and sly disguise work. Lau anchors the high-stakes cat-and-mouse tension as a cancer-stricken criminal executing an intricate revenge scheme before his time expires. Cool, enigmatic, and surprisingly tender during key encounters on city buses, Lau's turn finally earned him his long-overdue first Hong Kong Film Award for Best Actor, cementing his dramatic authority.

Zhang Yimou's lavish wuxia spectacle explodes with sensory bravura, staging breathtaking ambushes in misty bamboo groves and golden autumn fields. Beneath the kinetic wirework and stunning choreography lies a vicious romantic triangle defined by hidden loyalties and lethal masquerades. Lau plays Captain Leo, a police officer whose initial stoicism gradually splinters into frantic obsession and bitter betrayal. Navigating violent shifts between dutiful lawman and desperate lover, Lau matches Takeshi Kaneshiro and Zhang Ziyi beat for beat. His climactic duel in the drifting snow represents one of the most physically and emotionally exhausting finales in modern martial arts cinema.

Feng Xiaogang turns a cross-country passenger train into a claustrophobic battlefield between rival syndicates of pickpockets and an innocent villager carrying his life savings. The script crackles with acerbic wit, swift sleight-of-hand sequences, and sharp philosophical commentary on greed in modern China. Lau stars alongside Rene Liu as a seasoned swindler whose opportunistic armor slowly cracks under his partner's desire for redemption. Sporty, slick, and sporting an intentionally absurd long-haired wig, Lau balances sharp physical comedy with poignant moral transformation, carrying the film's bittersweet climax with heartbreaking resolve.

Wong Jing's seminal caper is an eccentric pillar of golden-age Hong Kong popcorn cinema, expertly balancing broad physical slapstick with bone-crunching triad shootouts and slick card-table theatrics. Chow Yun-fat's legendary amnesiac card sharp commands the top billing, but the film's kinetic momentum belongs to Lau as Little Knife, the small-time hustler who inadvertently shelters him. Lau brings irresistible street-level vitality, working-class hustle, and superb comedic timing to the role. His loose-cannon energy serves as the perfect foil to Chow's chocolate-loving man-child, producing instant comedic chemistry that launched an entire subgenre of gambling blockbusters.

Frant Gwo's sprawling science-fiction prequel scales up catastrophic destruction across Earth's surface and space elevators, staging planetary survival on a grand, hyper-dense canvas. Amidst the swirling digital debris and thunderous geopolitical speeches, Lau anchors the film's most haunting, human thread as Tu Hengyu, a grieving scientist obsessed with uploading his deceased daughter's consciousness into an advanced AI core. Lau injects raw psychological anguish, stubborn grief, and manic desperation into an otherwise machinery-heavy blockbuster. His cerebral, morally gray arc provides the emotional spine of the epic, demonstrating his ability to humanize gargantuan CGI spectacles.

Frankie Chen's nostalgic teen comedy struck a massive cultural chord across Asia by romanticizing late-1990s high school awkwardness, cassette tapes, and idol fandom. The film centers on a clumsy teenager whose youth revolves around school crushes and an absolute, poster-plastering adoration of Andy Lau himself. Lau appears in an extended climactic cameo, playing himself as the adult protagonist's dream concert encounter. Beyond producing the film, his self-aware, warm-hearted screen presence gives the coming-of-age fantasy its cathartic payoff. It stands as an endearing cultural time capsule showcasing Lau's enduring stature as the ultimate pan-Asian superstar.

Zhang Yimou's English-language fantasy adventure pits imperial defenders and Western mercenaries against relentless waves of reptilian monsters assaulting the Great Wall. While the project dazzles with vibrant color-coded armor and sweeping military formations, the script collapses under clunky dialogue and an awkward blend of conflicting tones. Lau is cast as Strategist Wang, tasked with providing grave technical exposition and deciphering alien monster biology. Ever the consummate professional, Lau brings poise and gravitas to an otherwise thankless, underwritten role, easily out-acting his international counterparts even while navigating the film's clumsy cross-cultural ambitions.