How does one begin to describe the cinema of Hong Kong? Refinement is not a term that comes to mind. The easiest parallel to the style is one of a comic-book aesthetic full of intense action, outrageous violence and silly special effects. Hong Kong films are geared towards mass-appeal entertainment, particularly the action and comedy genres. This would tend to give them a reputation for having a lack of intelligence, but this is not necessarily due to financial reasons. Natives of Hong Kong speak Cantonese, a lingo that is profanity-rich and demotic. The films made in mainland China, filmed in Mandarin, tend to be higher-brow and more geared towards artistic integrity.
Hong Kong films do not have the same set of standards as American films in terms of content. It is a three-tiered ratings system that reserves only the worst for Category III (equivalent to X or NC-17.) Hong Kong films can get away with much more in terms of shock-value than US films can. Children can get blown up, excessive violence(sometimes close-up) is prevalent and the films are not restricted to a body-count (sometimes 500+ people die)as US studios often impose on their own productions. One area that Hong Kong films DO refrain from touching is overt political content. It is usually considered to un-commercial of a topic and is usually "slipped in under radar" in subtle ways.
The Hong Kong art-film does exist, they just usually take a typical genre and turn it on it's head. Hong Kong films are made quickly and cheaply by US standards so that it's difficult for even box-office flops to lose much money. A high Hong Kong budget is around 5 million. Sometimes, start to finish, the studios can churn out a movie in seven or eight weeks. This is due to editing being done in camera and lack of original film scores and directors of photography. The vast majority of Hong Kong Films are shot without synchonized sound and the entire soundtrack is created afterwards in a recording studio. It's cheaper!
The movies low budgets help explain why so much emphasis is placed on stunt work. Hong Kong directors cannot afford to use technology such as blue screens and digital effects, they are forced to just do it for real. In Hollywood, if the scene calls for a man to jump off a cliff, they would simply use after-effects to put them in. In Hong Kong, they would really jump off the cliff.
When selling a movie to the theatre chains, the only thing that matters is the cast. The chains are so eager for new films that they will pre-buy a movie by simply knowing the cast. Sometimes this leads to films being shot without scripts. This allows anyone who can persuade a popular performer to appear in his/her movie can make a movie. This leads to many organized crime bureaus to be involved in the filmmaking process in Hong Kong.