Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Cinema
Once known as the 'Hollywood of the Far East', Hong Kong was for decades
the third-largest motion-picture industry in the world (after Mumbai and Holly-
wood) and the second-largest exporter. Now it produces a few dozen films
each year, down from well over 200 in the early 1990s. Yet Hong Kong film con-
tinues to play an important role on the world cinema stage as it searches for a
new identity in the Greater China market.
Martial Arts
Hong Kong cinema became known to the West when a former child actor appeared as a
sinewy hero in a kung fu film. But before Bruce Lee unleashed his high-pitched war cry in
The Big Boss
(1971), the kung fu genre was alive and kicking. The
Wong Fei-hung
series,
featuring the adventures of a folk hero, has been named by the
Guinness Book of Records
as
the longest-running cinema serial dedicated to one man, with roughly a hundred episodes
made from 1949 to 1970 alone. The works of the signature directors of the period - Chang
Cheh, whose macho aesthetics seduced Quentin Tarantino, and King Hu, who favoured a
more refined style of combat - continue to influence films today.
The One-Armed Swordsman(1967), directed by Chang Cheh, was one of the first of a new
style of martial-arts films featuring male heroes and serious bloodletting.
Jackie Chan & Jet Li
The decade after Lee's death saw the leap to stardom of two martial artists: Jackie Chan and
Jet Li. Chan's blend of slapstick and action, as seen in
Snake in the Eagle's Shadow
(1978), a
collaboration with action choreographer Yuen Wo-ping (who choreographed the action on
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
and
The Matrix
), became an instant hit. He later added
stunts to the formula, resulting in the hits
Police Story
and the
Rush Hour
series. Li garnered
international acclaim when he teamed up with director Tsui Hark in
Once Upon a Time in
China
(1991). Despite his reputation for tampering with a print just hours before its premiere,
Tsui introduced sophisticated visuals and rhythmic editing into the martial-arts genre, most
notably in Hong Kong's first special-effects extravaganza,
Zu: Warriors from the Magic
Mountain
(1983). As a producer, he helped to create John Woo's gangster classic
A Better
Tomorrow
(1986).
