The cinema of hong kong examines one of the most popular and dynamic cinema traditions in the history of film. Interestingly, in hong kong during the 1980s similar factors of urban life can also be connected with the rise of the gangster film, as the citys crowded neighbourhoods and neonlit streets became a criminal underworld for triad gang stories. Learn everything there is to know about cinema while gazing through books, magazines and much more. Hong kong action cinema with budgets that are lunch money by hollywood standards, a handful of hong kong filmmakers are producing some of the most exciting and innovative eyeball kick movies around. The shaw brothers and diasporic cinema hong kong action cinema bey logan the hong kong filmography, 19771997. Hong kong action cinema an introduction by david eber the action films of the hong kong cinema, now finally breaking ever so slightly into the mainstream, have had a cult following in the u. Life after the handover if you look at the films of hong kong before and after 1997, there is a striking difference. As a former british colony, hong kong had a greater degree of political and economic freedom than mainland china and taiwan, and developed into a filmmaking hub for the chinesespeaking world including its. Crouching tiger, hidden dragon as a model of late transnational production. Finally, this book also contains historical and geographical. Ten years after the handover introduction1 ten years have passed since the establishment of the hong kong special administrative region, or the hksar, on july 1, 1997. In his childhood, he played in 23 films in cantonese language from 1940 to 1959. Hong kong police beat crouching protesters in subway train.
The hong kong studios absorbed the immigrating film talent, among them many filmmakers, studio executives and actors, which would strengthen their power as one of the major powers in the asian film market. Now reading the history of hong kong action cinema pt. This first part of the series is going to focus on a wide span of time where a lot was going on in hong kongs growing movie business, and the region. Hong kong action cinema is the principal source of the hong kong film industrys global fame. After spending a few years in london, she returned to hong kong at the age of 18. A greedy film producer assembles a team of moviemakers and sets out for the infamous skull island, where they find more than just cannibalistic natives.
Maggie cheung biography facts, childhood, family life. Hong kong cinema was born long before the stardom of bruce lee and jackie chan, or the arthouse films of wong karwai and ann hui. The new genre was kicked off by a series of films based on the adventures of the reallife cantonese martial arts hero wong feihung huang. But although local filmmakers now create less and less of those. With naomi watts, jack black, adrien brody, thomas kretschmann. In japanese and hong kong film history alike, action has always been considered one of the most important film genres. The hong kong government deports 10 members of leftwing mandarin. The following is a list of the highestgrossing films in hong kong. Granted that at the time jarvie wrote the passage, hong kong cinema was just on the threshold of discovery, and, in this respect, jarvie exhibits common traits with most of us who approach a cinema cold, so to speak, particularly the early part of a national cinemas history the prediscovery history of which i speak of.
As a former british colony, hong kong had a greater degree of political and economic freedom than mainland china and taiwan, and developed into a filmmaking hub for the chinesespeaking. Whether youre planning travel to hong kong, reminiscing about a great trip, or just browsing, this chan. The hong kong film archive building is a worldclass facility. It only accounts for the films theatrical boxoffice earning and not their ancillary revenues i. History of the motion picture transition to the 21st century. Besides screening more than a dozen films, the course involves reading and discussing books on hong kong cinema, the economic history of the three chinas and the social history of hong kong. In this first installment, the rise and fall of the first studios in the city and early wuxia film. A concise history of hong kong hong kong university press. Years of distributing films to the large chinese diaspora across southeast asia, europe, and the americas once put its business just behind india and the us. However, the history of the more than 1,100 square kilometres that hong kong now occupies predates the events of the qing dynasty by more than a thousand years. Your source for credible news and authoritative insights from hong kong, china and the world. Chapter 3 provides a condensed history of hong kong filmmaking up to 1997.
It combines elements from the action film, as codified by hollywood, with chinese storytelling, aesthetic traditions and filmmaking techniques, to create a culturally distinctive form that nevertheless has a wide transcultural appeal. List of highestgrossing films in hong kong wikipedia. The balletic, often violent, frequently absurd but always imaginative and entertaining cinematic output of that tiny island is leaping and chop. Mediascape ucla school of theater, film and television. In theaters may 11, 2017 entered into the 2017 osaka asian film festival. Hong kong cinema of the 1970s is the seventh volume in the oral history series, following an emerging modernity.
Providing an overview of major directors, genres and stars, from its origins to the present, this volume examines hong kong cinema in transnational, historical, and artistic contexts. Films from hong kong consist of many different genres however they are best known for their martial arts action films. The area of tsim sha tsui is home to many of hong kongs best museums, including the museum of art, the space museum, the science museum and the museum of history, the latter managing to squeeze some 400 million years worth of history into a 7,000 square meter space. Hong kong tycoon li kashing went on to become hong kong s most important chinese real estate developer. This is the most colorful and entertaining history of hong kong action cinema available. Later that year the edison company also came to shoot film in both hong kong and shanghai, and it edited the footage to form two films, shanghai police and hong kong street scenes. The gangster as hero in hong kong cinema offscreen. Hong kongs martial arts madness in legend, history, and, oh yeah, the movies martial arts. Read on to follow the developments of the first era of hong kong cinema up until the 1970s. A complete reference to 1,100 films john charles lists.
Stokes, lisa odham, jean lukitsh, michael hoover, and tyler stokes. Urban cinema and the cultural identity of hong kong 227 leung pingkwan 11. The difficulty of writing about hong kong film history is that so few remnants of it exist. Starting in the 1980s, the hong kong cinema helped to reestablish many genres, such as gangster films, crime dramas, and kung fu comedies, which would have an impact worldwide. Sep 01, 2019 hong kong is having flashbacks to the bad old days of police corruption and mafia ties. Starting with modelling and beauty pageants, she eventually started acting in films. The next chapter, once upon a time in the west, traces how. Come drink with me, which featured a female warrior. Production asia 0 globalization 0 hero 0 hollywood 0 hong kong cinema. Bruce lee was first a child actor before becoming an international acclaimed kung fu fighter and superstar.
Sinema aksi hong kong adalah sumber utama dari ketenaran global industri film hong kong. Sinema tersebut mengkombinasikan unsurunsur dari film aksi, seperti yang ditampilkan oleh hollywood, dengan penceritaan, tradisi aestetik dan teknik pembuatan film tionghoa, untuk membuat bentuk budaya khas yang menampilkan lintas budaya. Hong kong new wave cinema pak tong cheuk hong kong cinema. His most famous child movies are the kid, infancy and the orphan. By the 1960s, hong kong society had become a hybrid of. The transfer of sovereignty over hong kong, commonly known as the handover of hong kong or simply the handover, also the return in mainland china and hong kong, occurred at midnight at the start of 1 july 1997, when the united kingdom ended administration for the colony of hong kong and returned control of the territory to china. As a former british colony, hong kong had a greater degree of political and economic freedom than mainland china and taiwan, and developed into a filmmaking hub. One side of the building is dedicated to storage, which has independent air conditioning system with dehumidification and acidic gaseous removal functions. The action films leading up the nineties were fastpaced, tough, gritty with an edgy quality that paralleled hollywoods assembly line modeled studio era. A brief historical tour of the hong kong martial arts film.
Pdf taking action cinema as an example, this paper outlines a historical approach to the transnational study of globally popular cultural forms. Through interviews with film veterans, this volume strives to bear witness to industry development in. Hong kong nostalgia cinema and its social practice 252 natalia chan sui hung 12. The 15 best hong kong action movies taste of cinema. Most parts of this the history of hong kong action cinema series will be broken into decades. Chinese philosopher and educator chien mu, founder of the new asia college now part of the chinese university of hong kong, left for taiwan. And, as you explore the citys colourful heritage, youll discover stories of powerful clans, marauding pirates and european traders. Traces the history of hong kong cinema in its social and historical context and discusses the plots, characters, and production techniques of a wide range of films the history of king richard the third followed by continuation of the historie of richard iii from grafton s chronicle. A little background the use of chinese martial arts for military strategy and as a subject for scholarship dates back at least as far as the zhuzi baijia the various schools of thought from preqin to early han dynasty, and is recorded in military. For that reason, many filmmakers have been overlooked in most discussions of hong kong cinema. The history of this genre is rocky with much confrontation growing into what is now so wildly accepted that hollywood has grown a large appetite for kung fu action films.
Paul fonoroff, well known hong kong film critic and historian, wrote, a brief history of hong kong cinema. Last but not least, mclarens book is an exemplary example of a new wave of truly interdisciplinary studies of china. She has never really worked in what many regard as the typical hong kong genres of action films or thrillers. The cinema of hong kong is one of the three major threads in the history of chinese language cinema, alongside the cinema of china, and the cinema of taiwan. The copy of the article i link below comes from the cuhk library.
Hong kong has a long history of prolific filmmaking, and has flourished during a decade full of challenges, and out of proportion to the size of the city and the industry. Marginal culture, and hong kong cinema 19371941 199 poshek fu 10. Hong kong film is now recognized for its directors personal style and action aesthetic. Hong kong cinema is one of the success stories of film history. The emergence of hong kong cinema was an event, a convergence of social, economic and most importantly, political pressures that along with the creative talents of. Although the shaw era is long gone, no other movie making establishment has ever been able to make its mark the way the shaw brothers has and for as long. One of the rare gweilos involved in a great many recent hong kong productions fearless, mummy 3, blood the last vampire, true legend, leeder has appeared in front of the camera and also worked behind it. One of the leading directors in the genre was king hu hu jinquan, who became renowned for films such as da zui xia 1966. He was appointed to the council for chinese cultural renaissance by president chiang kaishek. Planet hong kong by david bordwell 299page pdf, 11. If you are looking for a social critique with postmodernistic and marxist fervor on mainly the more wellknown 1990s hong kong films then this is your book.
Popular cinema and the art of entertainment, published by bordwell 2010, has become a classic study of hong kong cinema now, begins with the following paragraph. Stephen teos hong kong cinema which needs a new release and david bordwells second edition of planet hong kong are easily more complete reads on hong kong movies. In the next installment of the history of hong kong action cinema, well move on to the period between the 60s and 80s, focusing on. Fivestorey high, its net floor area of 7,200 square meters is structurally divided into two big partitions. The official youtube channel for discover hong kong. Hong kong film archive, soak in the magic of the glamorous cinema history and catch an old flick. Johnnie to remains the most exciting hong kong action director of the modern era. Yet the freedom which hong kong cinema experienced was constrained by the contours of. That era has been immortalized in hong kong cinema. Aug 08, 2002 interestingly, in hong kong during the 1980s similar factors of urban life can also be connected with the rise of the gangster film, as the citys crowded neighbourhoods and neonlit streets became a criminal underworld for triad gang stories.
Hong kong kung fu, action, and the other side of chinese. Martial arts and the globalization of us and asian film industries. Chinese takeover of hong kong in 1997 as the marker for the end of what has been hong kong cinemas moment in the spotlight. In recent years, the flow has reversed somewhat, with american and. Bey logan traces the genre from its genesis in the late 1940s until the 1990s, enhancing his story with biographies, select filmographies, and 10best lists. Instead, the story of hong kong s film industry begins back in the early 20th century.
Pdf since the 1960s, hong kong cinema has helped to shape one of the. A brief history of hong kong cinema to 1988 film studios. Motion pictures china hong kong, adventure films china hong kong history and criticism, handtohand fighting, oriental, in motion pictures publisher overlook press collection. Historical dictionaries of literature and the arts, no. Sep 11, 2019 a year after the release of his first bona fide hit, snake in the eagles shadow 1978, chan took the hong kong film world by storm with his first socalled kung fu comedy, the nowclassic. The hong kong film industry is no stranger to controversy a look at the history of the citys category iii films proves that. Beyond 1997 217 chronology of key events 239 bibliography and further reading.
It is also a comprehensive guide to the history of hong kong cinema, tracing the background to this exciting film genre from filmed chinese opera, through the work of the shaw brothers and lau kar leung, to the mixture of fantasy and fastmoving action that typifies the present day. Chrissie chau, joyce cheng, benjamin yeung, babyjohn choi. In the mid90s, the hong kong film industry ate itself alive. This spring cook is teaching the course, hong kong cinema, to 40 graduate and undergraduate students.
Maggie cheung is a hong kong actress and model, who worked primarily as one of the biggest female stars in hong kong film industry. Pdf king hus a touch of zen download ebook for free. During the 1960s hong kong filmmakers became famous throughout asia for martialarts action films. It does, however, have all the classic ingredients of a hong kong action flick. Around the 1930s, hong kong was going through a period of change during the devastating war years and japanese occupation. Hong kong boasts one of the largest and most influential film industries in the world, all the more remarkable given the regions small size. Sinema hong kong wikipedia bahasa indonesia, ensiklopedia bebas. The next chapter, once upon a time in the west, traces how hong kong film attracted fans and festival prestige.
Hong kong cinema of the 1970s description in the late 1960s and early 70s, cantonese films went into decline as theatregoers turned in droves to television, which was quickly becoming a household necessity. The event, commonly referred to as the handover, marked the end of 155 years of british colonial rule and chinas resumption of full sovereignty over hong kong. Followers of hong kong films know what action really is. The following interlude,two dragons, talks about bruce lee and jackie chan, the two most famous hong kong heroes. Just as the shenguai wuxia genre took root in hong kongs cantonese cinema after the war, it was rather quickly displaced by a local tradition of martial arts action which came to be called kung fu.
Here is a list with a few of the best samples of hong kong action. I believe it was published in 1988, in renditions, a literary magazine published by the research centre for translation rct at the chinese university of hong kong. Time and tide tsui hark, 2000 tsui hark returned to hong kong after a largely disappointing attempt in hollywood, where both of his films with jean claude van damme double team and knock off plummeted commercially and artistically. A third chineselanguage film culture emerged in hong kong. Hong kongs mandarindominated cinema had traditionally disdained the violence of the wu xia pian including the cantonese wong fei hong films and prided itself on the wen yi pian, or literary arts films, melodramas or adaptations of novels and plays. The book is a bit longinthetooth, originally published in 1995 at the height of hong kong cinema.
But hong kong film has also gone through many transformations, playing with a. It refers many times to movies that are long out of print, but in 2002 an essential guide to hong kong martial arts movies. In this installment of the history of hong kong action cinema series, we wont be digging into that many movies, but this time marks a serious change in the blossoming movie business in hong kong. On top of that, he has generously been sharing his passion for hong kong and asian movies with fans in. Run run shaw was already fifty years old when he establish his own studio in 1957 which would quickly become the more glamorous of all east asia and dominate hong kong kong cinema scene for nearly a quarter of a century. America in the world film market 19071934 pdf online.