Hong Kong Cinema Since 1997: The Post-Nostalgic Imagination

259 Pages·2009·1.636 MB·English

by  Vivian P. Y. Lee (auth.)

Hong Kong Cinema Since 1997
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Hong Kong Cinema
Since 1997
The Post-Nostalgic Imagination
Vivian P. Y. Lee
©VivianP.Y.Lee2009
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2009 978-0-230-22143-7
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In memory of my brother, James Lee
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Contents
Introduction 1
Part I TimeandMemory
1 Post-nostalgia:IntheMoodforLoveand2046 21
2 CinematicRemembrances:OrdinaryHeroesandLittle
Cheung 43
3 Allegory,Kinship,andRedemption:FuBoandIsabella 66
Part II Schizophrenia,Amnesia,andCinephilia
4 LostintheCosmopolitanCrimeZone:JohnnieTo’sUrban
Legends 87
5 TheKungFuHerointheDigitalAge:StephenChow’s
‘Glocal’Strategies 117
6 KarmicRedemption:MemoryandSchizophreniainHong
KongActionFilms 138
Part III InandOut
7 MigrantsinaStrangeCity:(Dis-)LocatingtheChina
Imaginary 163
8 OutsidetheNation:ThePan-AsianTrajectoryofApplause
Pictures 184
TheHongKongMultiplex:AnUnfoldingNarrative 211
Notes 218
HongKongCinemaSince1997:Glossary 236
Bibliography 242
Index 250
vii
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Introduction
ThisbookisacriticalstudyofthedevelopmentsofHongKongcinema
afterthetransferofsovereigntyfromBritaintothePeople’sRepublicof
Chinain1997.Neitheranempiricalsurveynorhistoricalaccountofthe
filmindustry,itattendstowhatIcallthepost-nostalgicimaginationin
Hong Kong cinema in the first decade of Chinese rule. Aesthetically,
the post-nostalgic has nuanced connections with a long tradition of
filmmaking that has developed from creative synergies of both local
and foreign sources. Historically, one and a half century of colonial
rule and its postcolonial aftermath has also shaded the local cinema
with a tinge of ‘homesickness’, from nostalgia for a lost (Chinese)
homelandinearlyyearstoafin-de-sièclemelancholyattheendofcolo-
nial rule, and ambivalence towards the prospects of the de-colonized
present. The ‘Chineseness’ of this local cinema, however debatable, is
still felt in the resilience of the realist tradition: refined and updated
by the Hong Kong New Wave cinema and subsequent arthouse films,
elementsoftheChinese realistcinema stillfindvariedemploymentin
the mainstream cinema, with an overall thrust to reflect and occasion-
ally critique social conditions albeit in lighter-hearted and throwaway
entertainment packages. (The grassroots consciousness of Cantonese
comediesandmelodramas,andthenationalallegoryinTsuiHark’snew
martial arts films are good examples in this category.) It is important
therefore to point out early in this study that the post-nostalgic imag-
ination explored in the following chapters is as new as it is not, in
the sense that newness always has a genealogy and is always informed
by it. Yet it is new because it gives expression to changing categories
of value and frames of reference at a time of paradigm shifts, regis-
tered in the change in political sovereignty, realignments of power in
the global economy, and multiple financial and biological epidemics
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