Hong Kong Spy Game is a Hong Kong–Japan co-production — one of only a handful of such cross-border film titles indexed here.
Synopsis
“It's not how you play the game. It's how the game plays you.”
On the day of his retirement, a veteran CIA agent learns that his former protégé has been arrested in China, is sentenced to die the next morning in Beijing, and that the CIA is considering letting that happen to avoid an international scandal.
Audience Engagement
1,873 audience reviews — more than 98% of Hong Kong films in our index.
Popularity sits at the 92th percentile among Hong Kong films.
Hong Kong × Japan Co-Production
Other Hong Kong×Japan titles
Titles With Overlapping Themes
Films and series that share thematic tags with Spy Game. Number on each card indicates how many keywords overlap.
Other Titles From Universal Pictures
Action + Crime in Hong Kong
119 Hong Kong titles in our catalog blend the Action and Crime genres. Below: the top-rated of them (excluding Spy Game itself).
The 2000–2002 Hong Kong Window
Among 41 Hong Kong films we catalog from this window, Spy Game places #5 — near the top of its class.
The 2000s Hong Kong Landscape
Catalog density by release year across the 2000s in Hong Kong, 146 titles in total. Highlighted year (yellow) is when Spy Game premiered alongside 12 others.
Budget & Box Office Efficiency
At a 2h 6m runtime, production spent $913K per minute on screen and earned $1.1M per minute back.
Position in Catalog
Released alongside 12 other Hong Kong films in 2001.
The 524th Hong Kong title from Hong Kong we index (earliest catalogued entry: 1955).
Our Hong Kong catalog contains 836 titles in total (828 films).
Thematic Fingerprint
Tags on Spy Game, grouped by how common each theme is across the full Asian catalog. Rare tags are more distinctive signals.
- palestinian-israeli conflict · 5
- cold war · 5
- flashback · 28
- cia · 12
- espionage · 12
- vietnam war · 11
- china · 127
- terrorism · 47
- spy · 46
Reception Benchmarks
Ranked #151 of 836 Hong Kong films indexed here (82nd percentile by TMDB audience score).
Rating is +0.6 points above the Hong Kong average of 6.3/10.
Among Hong Kong Action productions specifically: #86 of 516 (top 17%).
Production Details
| Primary Country | Hong Kong |
|---|---|
| All Production Countries | France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, United States of America |
| Original Language | En |
| Spoken Languages | Cantonese, English, German, Arabic, French |
| Production Companies | Universal Pictures, TOHO-TOWA, Beacon Communications, Kalima Productions, Red Wagon Productions |
| Runtime | 2h 6m |
| Release Date | November 18, 2001 |
| IMDb | tt0266987 |