Lau Ching-wan is easily one of Hong Kong’s finest dramatic actors, winning four best actor trophies at the Hong Kong Film Awards over the past 20 years.

Several of Lau’s mid-1990s roles strongly hinted at the greatness to come. Below, we revisit some of his best performances from this period after he first hit the big time with Derek Yee Tung-sing’s C’est La Vie, Mon Cheri in 1993.

Loving You (1995)

This action romance was a turning point for director Johnnie To Kei-fung, marking a move from commercial fare to what would become his crime works of the late 1990s. Although Loving You still plays to the crowd, To allows some of his offbeat ideas to surface.

In the first of numerous leading roles for To, Lau’s performance in this film also foreshadows the stage presence, idiosyncrasies and superior technique that would turn him into one of Hong Kong’s top actors in the years that followed.

He plays Lau Chun-hoi, a grumpy police inspector known for being mean to friend and foe alike. The first half of the film plays out like a procedural, with Chun-hoi getting drunk after a botched surveillance job and having sex with a prostitute.