City on Fire Hong Kong Cinema

by Hoover, Michael; Stokes, Lisa Odham

• ISBN13: 9781859842034
• ISBN10: 1859842038
• Edition: Illus.
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-09-17
• Publisher: Verso

Summary

Hong Kong’s film industry gained global attention in the 1980s, at the time of negotiations over Great Britain’s return of the colony to China. Uncertainty about the post-handover era accelerated Hong Kong’s race for economic growth, and found expression in cinema’s depictions of a ‘city on fire.’ In this accessible introduction to the extraordinary cinematic output of the colony, Michael Hoover and Lisa Stokes review the directors and films that have established Hong Kong cinema internationally: John Woo’s martial arts flicks, Tsui Hark’s wire-worked fantasies, Ann Hui’s exile melodramas, Stanley Kwan’s limpid romances, and Wong Kar-wai’s stylish art films.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	v
Foreword by John A. Lent	ix
Mapping the Territory	1	(16)
Reeling in the Years	17	(21)
Whose Better Tomorrow?	38	(26)
So Many Ways to Be Cops and Rascals	64	(25)
Last Hero(es) in Hong Kong	89	(26)
New Dragons Forever	115	(26)
To Live, Love, and Die in the Time of Twilight	141	(28)
Once Upon a Time in Hong Kong	169	(32)
He Ain't Heavy, He's My Father, Brother, Sister Mother	201	(27)
Whose Chinese Feast?	228	(26)
All's Well Ends Well, Happy Together?	254	(26)
Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss	280	(28)
Hong Kong Calling	308	(10)
Notes	318	(46)
Index	364