"High brow" is generally not what you'll get in Hong Kong cinema. The director Wong Kar Wai comes to mind, but I'm not sure if any of his movies are set in the

"High brow" is generally not what you'll get in Hong Kong cinema. The director Wong Kar Wai comes to mind, but I'm not sure if any of his movies are set in the Opium War or hand-off eras. For those eras, Once Upon a Time in China is pretty iconic to me.