The complexity of the cultural identity of Hong Kong is an inevitable topic in local artistic works – whether this capitalist colonial city is separate or one part of the socialist Chinese culture. By comparing movies in different phases, Leung Ping-Kwan then discussed the formation of Hong Kong urban culture and the re-definition of cultural identity expressed in films following that. I am amazed by the idea that cinema not only expresses the views of the city but also plays an essential role in its formation. Instead of passively recording the changes in the city, cinema suggests new angles and

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I would like to share something about women’s social status. One of the points mentioned in this article is that “ Hong Kong is the predominance of the female protagonist in the Cantonese- language noir thrillers”. In my point of view, this s a positive reflection of the change of women’s social stats at that age. Starting from 1960s, various movies started to set female roles as the main characters of the movies, like the “Black Rose” and the “Elevator Girl”. It could be seen that females’ situations were changed like the quality of the  workplaces and jobs are enhancing,

Continue readingReading response: Seng, E

I found the vigilante genre of film familiar to me, as it can relate to many other superhero movies nowadays, particularly, the Batman. They share the same social background which highlighted the intensified inequality and social injustice caused by the rapid development and modernization, as well as the social status and roles of the protagonists, while this vigilantism was created to comfort the residents immersed in the riptide. Despite many components are similar, there’s one non-ignorable element, that is the environment, the city where the story took place, is presented differently. The limitation due to city’s ongoing construction and the

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By looking through the lenses of urban cinema, Leung P.-K. portrays the break between socialist China and the capitalist city; and captures the social unrest and the changing complexities of Hong Kong’s cultural identity. The films highlighted by Leung show a clear distinction between the dichotomy of China and Hong Kong. Often contrasted is a representation of Hong Kong’s poor lifestyle with China’s rich culture to scrutinise immigrants and impose a strong sense of patriotism for those returning to mainland China. Thus the film inevitably questions Hong Kong’s changing identity and culture. Take the film Kaleidoscope produced by the South China Film

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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

Continue readingReading response: Seng, E.