The reading material shows that two particular film genres- the melodrama and the noir thriller set in working class and high-society Hong Kong- presents an assemblage of urban interior spaces inhabited by the female protagonist in the 1960s.
In Black Rose which describes about two high-society sisters steal from the rich and help the poor, they assist the poor to flight with the poverty and the unfair society. With the depiction of the scene that when they come back home after the stealing, they changes from their black vigilante attire into silk dressing gown and the moving of the mechanised door in the building , the readers can realise the two completely different life tone of the two sisters.
What is more, the elevator which the female protagonist work in the Elevator Girls plays a significant role in introducing to the audience the personalities and places of the film and it present the modernity of Hong Kong.
In conclusion, the women are the method that the film used to show the modernity and the history of the city and the women are also on behalf of Hong Kong to reflect the ambivalent spirit of resistance and acquiescence.
Lu Yibin 3035951973
I appreciate your clearly structured analysis of female figures shaped by Hong Kong films in the later half of the 20th century. There are several questions worth more reflection: 1) Why did women frequently appear in HK films as the protagonists since the 1960s? 2) Black Rose and Elevator Girl respectively shaped 2 sorts of women — upper class & working class. Why did Hong Kong’s noir pay much attention to these two social classes at the early age (especially in the mid-1950s & mid-1960s)? 3) How did women serve as a tool/ method/ medium to narrate the city? Why? 4) How did woman-themed films capture and shot women differently compared with the male-centered ones? Furthermore, the final argument that “women are on behalf of Hong Kong to reflect the ambivalent spirit of resistance and acquiescence” is very interesting, I would suggest you elaborate on it with more cases and discussion.