[Reading Response: Leung P.-K.]

In Urban Cinema and the Cultural identity of Hong Kong written by Leung, he pointed out the urbanization of Hong Kong cinema from the 1950s to the 1990s, as well as the how the movies produced at different periods relates to the everchanging social environment and links to the special cultural identity of Hong Kong movies. I would like to discuss further using a typical Hong Kong movie released in the 1970s. The Private Eyes, a movie by the Hui Brothers, is a commercial comedy that posts sarcasm to the corrupting social environment of Hong Kong in the 1970s. The plot surrounds the investigation of a private detective, revealing the authentic struggles and darkness of different social hierarchies of Hong Kong in the 1970s, including robberies, gangsters, secret affairs of the upper social class as well as the overexploitation and despair of the working class. 

In the movie, there is an extensive usage of black humor, giving sharp contrast to the joys and tears from different social class, in which the population with higher authority and power have the absolute say towards the lower social class. One of the major messages behind the movie is the importance of having aspiration and upward social mobility- citizens from lower social class can climb to higher social class to enjoy more rights and entertainments. Followed by another major issue in the society, that is, under the rapid pace of commercialization and Western culture emergence, can traditional Chinese industries survive and not be marginalized? Interestingly, there is also an ingenious use of the city’s background to show the quirky and immature fusion of Chinese and western cultures in the 1970s. For instance the Chinese districts with westernized decorations, overhead bridges, traffic junctions etc, which represents the struggle and dilemma of Hong Kong to find it’s culture identity and role under the strong influence of Western cultures.

Zhu Runze Leon (UID: 3036075130)

1 thought on “[Reading Response: Leung P.-K.]

  1. Yin Chun Gilbert says:

    Carefully-summarized content of the reading material in the first half of your writing. I appreciate how you used an actual film to elaborate the everchanging social climate of Hong Kong. However, the coherence in the second half of your writing is relatively weak – how does films relate to the survival of some of the Chinese traditional industries? How does the highlight of the idea of different social classes in the film you mentioned relates to the discussion on cultural identity?

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