Review for Digital Anthology - Hong Kong Cinema

<b> A must for the casual as well as the serious fan of Hong Kong Cinema. </b>

With the recent events concerning Hong Kong these past few months, I decided to parse my thoughts
on their once-great-and-dominant cinema and the steady decline ever since. The general consensus on
the matter is that Hong Kong films declined when they decided to cater to the massive mainland Chinese
audience. There’s the talk on how directors and producers sacrifice their own artistic vision in order to
cater to picky and prickly Chinese censors, who have their own draconian and peculiar rules (No
depiction of gambling! Japanese are monsters and must be exposed as the rapist-killers they are! Crime
does not pay and whoever benefits from it must die or be imprisoned!) There’s also the worldwide
discussion on how China controls the whole world film market, hence the constant pandering of soulless
blockbusters to the Chinese market. But still I have to know how it was before: did they have similar
problems, and what were the challenges that HK filmmakers then faced?

There are a lot of books discussing Hong Kong Films, from fun, informative, and relatively irreverent like
“Sex and Zen and A Bullet in the Head” by Stefan Hammond and Mike Wilkins to analysis-heavy (Hong
Kong Cinema: The Extra Dimensions) to just plain wrong and error-ridden (Tom Weisser’s Asian Cult
Cinema). I have read these three religiously and yet I still wanted more.

Enter Film Comment Magazine, a pretentious mag that I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemies. But then
they release this Hong Kong Special, containing all their HK-related articles since 1983. Covering topics
not discussed today (go to any Chinese entertainment website and all you’ll find is discussions of their
soap operas) featuring the greats including but not limited to Ann Hui, Tsui Hark, Ching Siu-tong, John
Woo, Wong kar-wai, etc. I could not resist and here it is.

These are the articles that I thought were extremely fascinating and informative:

1. <b> Boat People By Harlan Kennedy </b>

“I have been under a lot of attack in Hong Kong, as well as here (Cannes), for the movie and its politics.
I’ve been bandied about by one party and another as anti-Communist-which I firmly state that I am not”
– Ann Hui

This fascinating article discusses the controversy surrounding Ann Hui’s refugee movie “Boat People” on
the eve of its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. She stresses out that her film is being used by certain
political parties to further their own causes when the truth is that all her films contain different
messages, even ones that are contradictory to the one in “Boat People”. It’s interesting that she invokes
Michael Cimino’s “Deer Hunter” with regard to her experience since the accusations of imparting
political messages in his films would haunt Cimino again years after with the release of “Year of the
Dragon”, with one party claiming that he was a racist and the other claiming that he was pandering too
much to the Asian community.

The sudden explosion of anti-communist rhetoric you see today in Hong Kong? Hui discusses that the
same had always been present in the form of the “Society of Freedom”, an organization that requires
your allegiance to its anti-communist principles in exchange for the right to screen credits. Oh, and
that’s if you pay the 30-dollar fee per year.
 2. <b> A Zoo for Films by David Chute </b>

Ever wonder how western audiences first reacted to Hong Kong classics such as A Better Tomorrow
(1986) and Peking Opera Blues (1986)? David Chute reports on the critical reactions of the bedazzled
westerners, no doubt only having seen this crazy cinema for the first time in their miserable lives. Can
you they declared Hark’s film as being able to “make Joel and Ethan Coen shit their pants.”? Tsk, and the
unnecessary praise they heap on the Coens’ later films…

3. <b> Chan Can Do by Dave Kehr </b>

A discussion of the unique, gonzo, and interesting life of Jackie Chan, including his brutal childhood at
Peking Opera as well as his dangerous stunts.

Kehr is also right in this particular regard: “Chan’s next great challenge won’t be another spectacular
stunt, but a more insidious opponent: the inevitable, irreversible process of age.” Of course it’s true. Has
anyone liked a new movie of Jackie’s in a while? (I only liked The Foreigner (2017) and that wasn’t a HK
film)

4. <b> Chow Must Go On by Michael Singer </b>

Michael Singer recounts his visit to the set of Scared Stiff, starring then rising star Chow Yun-fat as a bad
guy / serial killer. The article captures a portion of the super hectic life of the film star who made eleven
(11) movies that year (!).

Singer asks Chow:

Is it because you have to make so many films? Or is the money so terrific that you can’t turn them
down?

Chow responds:

No, the money is not very good in Hong Kong movies. But there is much competition, and the public can
sometimes forget you very quickly. Big stars in Hong Kong only remain big stars for a few years.

Well, Mr. Chow. Nobody has forgotten you. Not today, not ever. Hard work does pay off.

5. <b> Action Painter: John Woo by Maitland McDonagh </b>

Maitland McDonagh should be familiar to you horror fans; he wrote the acclaimed book on Dario
Argento’s films titled Broken Mirrors/Broken Minds: The Dark Dreams of Dario Argento. Here, he tackles
another master, John Woo.

This part made me laugh but it’s true:

“… his macho men are happiest picking buckshot out of each other’s flesh and taking beatings for one
another.”

And there are more articles discussing Wong Kar-wai, Tsui Hark, mainland censorship of Johnnie To’s
Drug War (2013), as well as the new state of Hong Kong blockbuster movies under the Chinese market.