back to Hong Kong, the city was for decades the third largest motion picture industry in the world, after Bollywood and Hollywood. it developed into one of the three most important Chinese-speaking filmmaking centers of world (together with China and Taiwan), exporting movies and movie stars (Bruce Lee, Jacky Chan and Chow Yun Fat) worldwide. actually it would be better to define it as a Cantonese-speaking filmmaking center, which is quite different from the official language spoken in China - Mandarin. luckily, most of the Chinese diaspora, including the big Chinese communities in America, are decedents of Cantonese immigrants, which became a huge market for the Hong Kong cinema overseas.
Hong Kong movies are known primarily for its commercial action films, martial art fight scenes, motorcycle chases and sexy Asian women. The golden era of the industry was between the mid 80's (what else!) and the beginning of the 90's. In 1993, Hong Kong made a record 200 films.
my first experiences with the Hong Kong movies were somewhere in the late 70's (i was very young then, yes). one movie that i remember was a bizarre combination between King Kong and Tarzan - The Mighty Peking Man (1977) with a very 'convincing' Hong Kong downtown model as a set...
and of course there were the unforgettable Bruce Lee movies...
one recent movie is In The mood For Love (2000) that was nominated for the Palme d'Or in Cannes.
...and just to finish with the title theme...
No comments:
Post a Comment