Hong Kong Cinema
1. Dream, Journey, Identity
Characters in movies depict the emotions, themes and project the main storyline in movies. Often Hong Kong movies are embodied to comprise of action, with story lines that revolve around fighting. However, this analysis finds that these movies had deeper emotional connections as the director brings their main characters to maturation and growth. This paper shall discuss the themes of fantasy, love, and journey in three Hong Kong movies by following the development of the movie along with that of the main characters. The focus for this analysis is on the movies “Kung Fu Hustle” (Dir. Stephen Chow 2004), “Chungking Express” (Dir. Wong Kar Wai, 1994), and “Comrades, Almost a Lover Story” (Dir. Peter Chan, 1997). This analysis finds that, like western movies, Hong Kong movies’ have characters that have big dreams, which over the passage of time, they try to create new identities of their persona and their relationships.
Analysis of the film “Kung Fu Hustle” directed by Stephen Crow
Beginning this analysis is the 2004 movie “Kung Fu Hustle” directed by Stephen Crow. From the title of the movie, the viewer expects to a high packed, fast-paced action film revolving around Kung Fu martial arts genre, which typically celebrates the aristocratic warriors of Hong Kong. However, the converse is true as the main character, Chiu Chi Ling, the main hero of the movie changes from a humble tailor to the proletarian hero of his street. Kung Fu Hustle is more than the telling of a story of the slum, Pig Sty Alley, but it evolves around the stories of individuals and their relationships in this alley. It is evident that the movie’s main character would not have flourished from his humble position as a tailor, was it not for the conflicting relationships in the alley. The main relationship accredited for the maturation of this character is the strained relationship between the dwellers of Pig Sty Alley, and the neighborhood gang, the Axe Gang, who in their top hats and shiny suits ruled the casino capitalist of Shanghai.
This analysis identifies that there is great attempt by the director Stephen Crow to create a film that departs from the traditional Hong Kong action. This is because, the film makes use of language and scenes that transcend from typical Hong Kong shooting of films. For example, Stephen Crow makes the main character Chiu Chi Ling use a language that makes him seem to mature through the film. The Language portrays him as a stereotypical queen, who turns into the proletarian hero, who puts a spirited fight against the gang. The director attempts to add imagery from the contemporary society and makes Chiu Chi Ling into a character that departs from the traditional norm of heterosexuality, to adopt a good spirit of the comedy.
The Film’s script is written to depict the themes of fantasies and populist dreams of the character and the residents of the alley make Kung Fu Hustle a populist dream comedy (Yau and Kim 34). This analysis also finds that the director makes use of the concepts of light, shade, and dark background to show the theme of fantasy. In some moments, the director has the cameras take shots from different angles, like the scene where Chiu Chi Ling is a master of Kung Fu is taken from a low angle like the camera was placed on the ground. When shooting scenes of the alley the director of the movie takes shots from street level to show the low social class of the slum as compared to the high class of the Capitalism Casino. The last important element of the movie is that is represents the transnational dimensions of cinema. This analysis finds that the director uses jokes based on a unique style of humor referred to as “Moi Lei Tau,” also known as nonsense dialogue. This language characterizes the movie for Stephen Crow uses it throughout the movie. Words used like the use of toilet paper, invention of rat-powered sex machine, and setting his crotch on fire, are a feature of the verbal play between Hon Kong slang and Cantonese dialect. Stephen Crow makes the main character to use this language as an attempt at creating verbal insouciance as the main characteristics of the stars persona.
Analysis of the film “Chungking Express” Directed by Wong Kar Wai
Apart from dreams and fantasy, Hong Kong movies also have elements of love, desire, and passion as seen in the 1994 film “Chungking Express” Directed by Wong Kar Wai. This movie is selected to identify this genre of Hong Kong movies since it has vivid representations of repressed and hidden desire and submerged passions traditional of Hong Kong movies and the society. This is more evident in the character Aniki Jin Cheng-Wu, who is an undercover policeman involved with Lin Ching-hsia the drug dealer. Aniki Jin Cheng-Wu spends most of his time in the convenience store in an attempt to get a date from ex-girlfriends and unknown female acquaintances. The second character depicting this theme is Faye Wong a spirited fast-food waitress obsessed with Tong Leung Chiu-Wai, another policeman. The waitress is flatterer as she gets around in a playful manner seeking his attention by meddling and rearranging his set up at home.
This film is selected since the director purposely makes it into a light, contemporary film where the characters go through the same problem of love, desire, and emotions. Interestingly, the film is also made as a two part story, one during the day the other at night, very similar but different in many ways, probably in an attempt to create a new genre in Hong Kong film. The film has a contemporary style for the director does not make the plot to have a straight flow, but rather it is full of twists and turns probably in an attempt to show the twists of desire and love. This analysis also finds that the director adds energy and style not typical to Hong Kong cinema by having the camera held in a restless, shifting, and moving motion. In addition, the sequences to actions have unusual shots, as the director adds stop-motion jumps to each shot. To show the themes of love, passion, and desire the director adds visual images, which are expressed in bouts of confusion, since the film demands the audience to watch more than twice. The result is that the audience is given a feel of the ties that bind humans. This theme is also shown by the deep, rich colors, and the use of repetitive musical sequences, slow motion, to show the passage of time and the yearning for love, passion, and desire.
Analysis of the film “Comrades, Almost a Lover Story” (Dir. Peter Chan, 1997)
A third influential Hong Kong film that transcends beyond the traditional martial arts action movies of the region is Comrades, Almost a Lover Story” (Dir. Peter Chan, 1997). The main theme in this movie is the realization of cultural identities and the use of strong cultural dialects. This film is selected since it is an interesting tale of two Chinese immigrants from the mainland, and their struggle to make a life in Hong Kong, then New York. This film is vital for this analysis for it represents an era in Hong Kong Films, when movies represented the transnational imaginary. The movie depicts the breed of Hong Kong cosmopolitan life, with that of New York. This film creates an appeal to the audience with the use of a rich musical soundtrack that depicts the trans-cultural appeal of the mainland, Hong Kong, and New York. The director does not make use of the traditional cross-cultural practices between the three locations of power relations, politics, and economics, which often cause conflicts between the three locations. Instead, Wong Kar Wai makes use of a rich aesthetic evocations in the movie to show the trans-cultural relationship between the locations. Moreover, to show this aesthetic value the director makes use of dreamlike sounds and images to give the film sensuality. The film shifts the audience focus from politics to aesthetics to show how different cultures trespass, coexist, and coalesce happily together. This film is important for this analysis since the director makes use of music and aesthetic images to show the Chinese Diaspora, the shifting identities, historical elements, and identity of the locations.
2. Films
The film “Infernal Affairs (Dir. Andrew Lau and Alan Mak, 2002)” is a good film to watch because the movie represents complex identities and is in constant conflicts. This is because the director creates characters with complex identities that call the viewer to pay close attention when watching the movie. The movie revolves around the police in Hong Kong, who try to shut down a local triad managed by Hon Sam. To carry out their mission, the police place an undercover police, Chan Wing Yan, into the criminal world. The film shows how Chan Wing Yan is able to acquire criminal attitudes and the way of life quickly and efficiently, such that he infiltrates the triad. This movie is interesting to watch since it also entails the complex relationship between Chan and his police assistant Lau Kin Ming, who is also undercover to assist him in the operation. The manner in which the director makes the characters fit into their disguises, such that it makes it difficult for a viewer to comprehend the real character of the undercover policemen. Their ability to adopt their disguises is successful as it drives them up the ranks of the triad as Sam promotes Chan to become the principal member, and as Ming becomes an inspector. A signature scene of the movie is in the constant arrests the two undercover police men undergo as part of their act as criminals. It is interesting when either Chan Wing Yan or Lau King Ming is arrested by the other for being a criminal, and taken through processing, including the famous mug-shots. It is an irony that Chan Wing Yan is credited as an important catch for Lau King Ming as he makes part of his successful police promotions and operations. It is more interesting to learn that the two undercover police were in cadet school together. However, the director is able to have a high degree of immersion of the two characters roles, as moles, that gives the movie an interesting perspective.
Films I do not Like
“Rouge” by (Dir. Stanley Kwan, 1986), is about a blue angel in a flower house, in Hong Kong’s, bordellos and nightclub location in the 1930s. The main character is beautiful and detached performer trying to bring life to the movie, who falls in love with Master Chan, owner of a chain of pharmacies. However, the movie turns out to be dull for it follows the old rhetoric of a night lady falling in love with a rich man. The director of the film does not add any tragedy or twist to the story, which unfortunately, makes the whole film dull to follow. Despite the fact that the director used the ghost of Fleur to look for Chan, it is not a horror nor a thriller that motivates and excites the viewer. Moreover, the site of the ghost is not horrifying, but a poorly filmed, and edited scene. The second movie is the 1990 “Her Fatal Ways” directed by Alfred Cheung. The film is a comedy film on crime, taking place in mainland china and Hong Kong. Despite that the director shows the cultural differences between the two locations and people the film is not interesting. This is because it does not have any suspense or dramatic effect especially to the scenes between the police and the drug dealers to captivate the attention of the viewer. The movie has a good storyline, but lacks the aggressiveness of the feuds often depicted on the streets of Hong Kong and China between the police and criminals. In the end, this review finds it is easy for a viewer to lose concentration when watching the film.
Works Cited
Infernal Affairs. Dir. Andrew Lau and Alan Mak. Perf. Andy Lau, Tony Leung, Eric Tsang, Anthony Wong. 2002. DVD. Media Asia Entertainment, 2002.
Yau, Esther C.M., and Kim, Kyung Hyun. eds. , AriafPacific Cinema, Duke University Press, Durham, NC, 2002
