LICA351: Contemporary Hong Kong Cinema
Essay Questions
Essay due on or before 12.00pm, Monday 28 April 2025. All essays must be 2700-3300 words.
Please note the importance of presentation: grammar, spelling, legibility, the need for proper referencing and a bibliography. You will be penalised for carelessness or ineptitude on any of these fronts.
Answer one of the following questions:
1. What is the legacy of the Shaw Brothers wuxia tradition on contemporary Hong Kong cinema?
2. David Bordwell suggests that Hong Kong action films foreground “expressive amplification” and “gestural clarity.” At the level of visual style, how have Hong Kong filmmakers approached the challenge of creating vivid and kinetic scenes of spectacle? Consider in relation to two or three films.
3. What are the major stylistic methods favoured by Hong Kong directors in constructing scenes of physical action? Contrast any appropriate Hong Kong films except Police Story and A Better Tomorrow.
4. Examine how any two of the following features operate in two films screened on the module: i) sentimentality; ii) episodic plotting; iii) the ‘scavenger aesthetic’; iv) tonal ruptures; v) Cantopop scoring; vi) character change.
5. Mount a defence of either (i) a culturalist, or (ii) a poetics approach to Hong Kong cinema, exemplifying your argument through close reference to one or two films.
6. “Faced with the date of June 30 1997…what power could a Hong Konger desire more than to control time itself?” (Joelle Collier). Discuss the significance of this theme to one or two of the following films: i) Happy Together; ii) A Better Tomorrow; iii) Rouge; iv) All About Ah Long; v) Police Story; vi) Made in Hong Kong.
7. How has the aesthetic, ideological, and political nature of Hong Kong cinema been affected by any two of the following historical events: i) the 1984 Joint Declaration; ii) the 1997 handover; iii) the Tiananmen Square massacre?
8. Chris Berry suggests that Happy Together “may be homophobic” (p.194). What leads Berry to propose this, and what might be problematic about his argument? Is Happy Together a homophobic film?
9. The films of Fruit Chan are mostly considered “independent” films. Taking any two or three films by this director, discuss the degree to which the label “independent” can be applied to them.
10. How have Hong Kong’s phallocentric film genres negotiated the role of female characters? Examine through two or three films.
11. In what ways has Hong Kong cinema been affected by any two of the following: i) the SARS virus; ii) piracy; iii) the China co-production system; iv) competition from rival cinemas; v) the Asian financial crisis?
12. How have the institutions, economics, and aesthetics of Hong Kong cinema changed since the mid-1980s, and how have these changes affected the nature of the films that are made in Hong Kong?
13. Discuss the ways that any one of the following filmmakers has helped sustain and promote Hong Kong cinema within and beyond the region: i) Wong Kar-wai; ii) Johnnie To; iii) Jackie Chan; iv) John Woo; v) Fruit Chan; vi) Stephen Chow; vii) Ann Hui. In what ways does this filmmaker deepen and promote the “brand” of Hong Kong cinema?
14. Examine the extent to which EITHER Infernal Affairs OR Shaolin Soccer OR Wu Xia negotiates a balance between transnational innovation and local tradition.
15. A Simple Life has been construed as an instance of “authentic Hong Kong-flavoured cinema…in an era when Hong Kong-mainland joint production seems to have become increasingly prevalent” (Han Li). To what extent is Hong Kong “localism” evident in present-day Hong Kong cinema, and how far does A Simple Life embody Hong Kong’s local traditions?