Hong Kong movie

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Hong Kong movie
香港 電影
Shaw Tseung Kwan O Film Studios 200606.jpg
Film studios of Shaw Movie City - 邵氏影城 , Sai Kung 2006
Chinese name
Long characters 香港 電影
Abbreviation 香港 电影
Pinyin Xiānggǎng Diànyǐng
Jyutping Hoeng 1 gong 2 Din 6 jing 2
Alternative name
Long characters 港 產 片
Abbreviation 港 产 片
Pinyin Gǎngchǎnpiàn
Jyutping Gong 2 caan 2 pin 3 * 2
Shaw Tseung Kwan O Film Studios.jpg
Shaw Movie City Main Building - Wan Po Road, Sai Kung 2006

The Hong Kong film ( Chinese  香港 電影  /  香港 电影 , also 港 產 片  /  港 产 片 ) forms one of the three pillars of Chinese film alongside the films produced in mainland China and Taiwan . Hong Kong films have often played a pioneering role in the development of Chinese films. Among the Chinese-language films from China , Taiwan and Singapore , the Hong Kong film enjoys a good reputation with both domestic and international audiences, particularly because of its quality.

development

The first film in the Hong Kong film industry (( 電影 業  /  香港 电影 业 , Xiānggǎng Diànyǐngyè , Jyutping Hoeng 1 gong 2 Din 6 jing 2 jip 6 ) is considered to be “ Chuang Tzu Tests His Wife ” ( 莊子 試 妻  /  庄子 试 妻  - “Zhuangzi tests his wife ”) by and with Lai Man-wai from 1913. In the turmoil of the Chinese civil war , many directors , especially left-wing or socially committed, fled from the Kuomintang under Chiang Kai-shek to the British crown colony of Hong Kong , which is essential Hong Kong's later importance as an Asian film capital. Until the end of the Second World War, however, film production in Hong Kong was clearly overshadowed by Shanghai .

In view of the aggressive policies of the People's Republic of China and anti-communist measures by the government of the crown colony, the exiled left-wing filmmakers initially lost importance from 1949 onwards. Instead, a commercial cinema established itself that was less interested in social avant-garde than in entertainment and returns . In the 1950s, the Shaw Brothers , Cathay Studio ( 國泰 電影 公司  /  国泰 电影 公司 ), Cathay Film Productions ( 國泰 電影 製片 公司  /  国泰 电影 制片 公司 ) and Golden Harvest, the companies that made Hong Kong cinema up dominated in the late nineties or the turn of the millennium and whose names are still known today.

Hong Kong cinema gained worldwide influence in the 1970s when martial arts films found audiences in Europe and America. Reviled by movie buffs for simple plot structures, they offered their fans a demonstration of body control that was previously unknown in the West. The most important actor in this first wave of Kung Fu films was Bruce Lee , who quickly became a world star. His legacy was taken on by Jackie Chan , one of the most prolific kungfu performers to this day. One of the most influential directors and producers is Tsui Hark , who, together with Ching Siu-Tung, is responsible for classics of the wuxia genre such as the Swordsman trilogy.

During the 1990s, the Asian crisis also caused the Hong Kong film industry to decline. In addition, on July 1, 1997, the People's Republic of China took over Hong Kong as a special administrative region from the British. During this time, many people involved increasingly began to make films in Hollywood , such as Jackie Chan , John Woo and Chow Yun-Fat . When two of the biggest movie stars died in 2003 - Leslie Cheung on April 1st, due to suicide and Anita Mui on December 30th, due to cancer - some pessimists were already talking about the downfall of the film metropolis Hong Kong. To counter the crisis in the film industry, the Hong Kong government launched the Film Guarantee Fund in April 2003. On the waterfront in Tsim Sha Tsui , the Avenue of Stars features the names of popular movie stars. With the trilogy " Infernal Affairs " (2002, 2003, 2003) Andrew Lau and Alan Mak proved that groundbreaking action films can still be made in Hong Kong. In 2006, Martin Scorsese shot a remake called The Departed , which won several " Oscars ".

The action film genre received strong impulses from Hong Kong in the 1990s. This is what directors like Johnnie To or John Woo , who was called to Hollywood to revive the genre there, stand for. The influence of Hong Kong cinema on Hollywood is evident not least in films such as Matrix , which are based on the acrobatics of Hong Kong cinema, or in filmmakers like Quentin Tarantino , who openly profess their preference for Hong Kong films.

Despite a relative dominance of pure entertainment cinema, a few Hong Kong filmmakers emerged with sophisticated content in the 1990s. In addition to Wong Kar-wai , these were above all Ann Hui and Fruit Chan or Stanley Kwan .

Important directors (selection)

Hong Kong's motion picture production
year number
1975 109
1985 105
1995 154
2005 55
Source : World Film Production Report

Well-known actors (selection)

literature

See also

Web links

Commons : Hong Kong Film  - Collection of Pictures

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Staff Reporters: Hong Kong government plans film guarantee fund. In: www.screendaily.com. October 23, 2002, accessed October 4, 2018 .
  2. ^ Hong Kong Government - Film Guarantee Fund extended for two years. In: www.info.gov.hk. December 14, 2004, accessed October 4, 2018 .
  3. ↑ Hong Kong Film Development Council - Film Guarantee Fund approves new loan guarantee. In: www.fdc.gov.hk. June 6, 2007, accessed October 4, 2018 (Chinese, English).
  4. ↑ Weltfilmproduktionsbericht (English) ( memento of August 8, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), ( PDF extract 276kB), Screen Digest, June 2006, pp. 205–207, accessed on October 3, 2015 - online