HK films look (to us) more over-the-top and comically so than run-of-the-mill Hollywood stuff, because cultural differences (from our viewpoints) are added to self-conscious parody (of Sergio Leone, Sam Peckinpah, Arthur Penn, Samuel Fuller, _Casablanca_, _Dirty Harry_ movies, more traditional Westerns, gangster films, film noir, etc.) at work in many of them. One typical strategy of a parodist is of course exaggeration (e.g. Major Kong straddling a nuclear bomb & plunging toward a Russian target in Kubrick's _Dr. Strangelove_). In some films parodies can be pointed and satirical; in others, parodies are usually affectionate (or self-indulgent) homage. In my view, most HK action films' politics are quite confused (though probably not more so than most good entertainment films') -- especially so in _Bullet in the Head_ as I wrote in an earlier post, which I'm going to recycle here:
***** I add that _Bullet in the Head_ is one of the most politically confused and confusing films ever made -- its texture shot with Woo's anticommunism (seen most explicitly in a portrayal of ruthless Vietnamese Communists, Woo quoting the infamous POW scenes from _Deer Hunter_); a bitter taste left by the projection of American power in the mouth of many a liberal intellectual in Asia (embodied by gunships that overpower Communists and kill indiscriminately); moral criticisms of betrayal (of friendship, of 'tradition,' etc.) inherent in dog-eat-dog competition; 'guilt' inspired by comparative success enjoyed by many HK professionals in contrast to the relatively poorer Asians (represented by Vietnamese civilians fleeing carnage); a nostalgic glance cast upon anti-capitalist HK student demonstrators near the beginning of the film; etc. *****
The continuum between homosocial desire and homoeroticism may be self-consciously (if mutedly) built in a film's texture, e.g. _Ben-Hur_ (1956), to whose script Gore Vidal contributed (uncredited); watch how Messala (Stephen Boyd) act toward Ben-Hur (Charleton Heston!). Mostly, it is not explicitly acknowledged with obviously sexual gestures or dialogues (or at least could not be in the past); that's where guns come in handy. Compare _Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid_ (1969) with _Thelma & Louise_ (1991); boys go down with their guns drawn, while girls go over the edge with one last kiss.
Take a look at a recent series of "Will Smith & a White Guy" films also: _Wild Wild West_ (1999), _Enemy of the State_ (1998), & _Men in Black_ (1997). The message is that with the proper knowledge of hardware and division of labor, (cool) black guys and white guys can get along (and nowadays guys are supposed to be so cool as to get away with a bit of cross-dressing & homoerotic jokes here and there and still come away looking straight). And then look at the _Alien_ series and _The Terminator_ & _The Terminator 2_, and you'll see that tough girls's toughness tend to be figured as originating from or resulting in motherhood, symbolic or literal.
Yoshie