This article introduced the melodrama and the noir thriller, which are the two film genres in the 1960s Hong Kong. These two film genres depict two distinct social classes in Hong Kong at the time, the working class and the bourgeoisie. Still, they are similar in that they both use women as the entry point, using the fusion of domestic space and public space of the heroine to show the dual identity of women as family people and social people in that era.
The author uses “Black Rose” as an example to illustrate the noir thriller of the time, in which two upper-class sisters steal from the rich to help the poor escape poverty and social injustice. A change of dress and scene accompanies the change of identity of the main characters in the film, and through these differences we can feel the distinction of social classes brought by modernization.
On the contrary, “Elevator Girl” depicts the story of what happens in the elevator, a new scene brought by modernity. Unlike the private space, the elevator’s characteristics make it a space where different social classes intermingle. And this also suggests the social situation of Hong Kong in the 1960s.
Name: Zhu Jiarui
UID: 3035638791
Carefully-crafted writing! Good summary of the reading with the two films elaborating the key idea of the role of woman in the modernization process of Hong Kong. To further improve, you may further compare how the differences in architectural spaces in the two films and how they support the narrative of the women from two social classes.