Theme: Hong Kong Cinema

This refers to films made in Hong Kong. Hong Kong’s fame on the international stage came with a series of swordplay films and then the Martial Arts film of the 1960s and 70s, produced primarily by Shaw Brothers. These gained international superstardom for Bruce Lee who brought much world focus on the genre. There was infrequent genre material among these, some flying swordplay, occasional SF elements, while films of the later 1970s started to introduce a number of horror elements.

The key defining genre film was Tsui Hark’s Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain (1983), which popularised the Wu Xia film, blending martial arts with a madcap array of acrobatics and flying moves, elements of Buddhism, the supernatural and reincarnation. Other hits like Mr Vampire (1985) and A Chinese Ghost Story (1987) followed. There were a great many imitators of these.

Around the same time as these, Hong Kong produced its own unique hard-boiled gangster films, which made a cult figure out of John Woo, as well as a series of high-energy slapstick action films, which made a star out of Jackie Chan. Some of these balanced over into genre material.

The traditional Hong Kong film came to an end when Hong Kong was returned to China in 1997. Some talents moved to the West to work there, others stayed on and continued to work. Unless specified otherwise, films from Hong Kong since then are now listed as part of Chinese Cinema. Certainly under Chinese rule, genres like the Wu Xia that began in Hong Kong were reinvented and gained lush new life during the 2000s.

Noted genre directors to emerge from Hong Kong include Ching Siu-Tung, Stephen Chow, Ringo Lam, Andrew Lau, Jeffrey Lau, Ngai Kai Lam, Tsui Hark, Johnny To, Wai Ka Fai, John Woo and Corey Yuen.