Hong Kong

About Hong Kong

Hong Kong is a 1952 American adventure film directed by Lewis R. Foster, written by Winston Miller and starring Ronald Reagan, Rhonda Fleming, Nigel Bruce, Marvin Miller, Mary Somerville and Lowell Gilmore. The film was released in December 1951 by Paramount Pictures and was rereleased in 1961 under the title Bombs Over China.

Article

Contents

Plot

Jeff Williams is an American army veteran living in China who must flee the Red Army as the country falls to communism. Along the way, he encounters a Chinese orphan named Wei Lin who is carrying an ancient and valuable golden idol. Williams must outwit both the communists and Chinese gangsters while scheming to profit from the idol himself.

Cast

Ronald Reagan as Jeff Williams

Rhonda Fleming as Victoria Evans

Nigel Bruce as Mr. Lighton

Marvin Miller as Tao Liang

Lady May Lawford as Mrs. Lighton

Lowell Gilmore as Danton

Claud Allister as Hotel Manager

Danny Chang as Wei Lin

Reception

In a contemporary review for The New York Times, critic Howard Thompson wrote: "The miracle of 'Hong Kong' ... is that the picture manages to keep going at all. William Pine and William Thomas, those diehard promoters of Paramount's adventure quickies in Technicolor, have served up another corn meal special, with chop suey added, not to say Ronald Reagan and Rhonda Fleming, and in about that order."

Adaptations

Eastern Color Movie Love #13 (February 1952)

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Notable quotes

“In Hong Kong, "locust" is a derogatory term for immigrants and tourists from China... In turn, mainlanders view Hong Kongers as overly superior and patronising.”
— David Eimer, "Hong Kong rails against invasion of Chinese 'locusts'" (2 February 2012), The Telegraph
“The Stalinist and Maoist confession ritual has returned in a new setting. It no longer takes place in factories or stadiums. It unfolds on television screens, in online videos, and in competitions for schoolchildren. The machinery of remorse has adapted to a modern media economy, and Hong Kong has become one of its stages.”
— Gladys Kwok (pseudonym), "Communist Confession Rituals Return in Hong Kong", Bitter Winter (August 13, 2026)
“Are they not Chinese themselves? I heard that Hong Kong people were educated and civilized. It seems I was wrong.”
— Ma He, as quoted in "'Anti-Locust' Protests In Hong Kong Call For Restrictions On Chinese Mainland Tourists" (19 February 2014), by Michelle Florcruz, International Business Times
“We start from scratch, every generation. History does not bend inevitably toward justice, or freedom, or decency, or even stability. History doesn’t do that in Hong Kong, or in Moscow, or in Washington or New York City or Los Angeles. History goes where we push it. And if we don’t push, someone else will.”
— Kevin D. Williamson, "The End of (Whig) History" (1 July 2020), National Review
“[Students with learning disabilities] don't even know what a country is, let alone [talk] about national security. It's pretty fanciful and unrealistic.”
— Education blogger Yeung Wing Yu, as quoted about the Chinese Communist Party requiring students with learning disabilities to learn the Constitution, the Basic Law and national security education in "Hong Kong officials want louder singing of national anthem in schools", Radio Free Asia (June 27, 2024)

Quotes via Wikiquote (CC BY-SA), each with its original source.