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Defining Cinematic
Moments
The Hong Kong Film Awards recently earmarked the Top Ten Most Popular
Chinese Films to celebrate cinema's centennial there. Kaige Chen's
Farewell My Concubine crowns the list, followed by Wong's Days
of Being Wild and Happy Together, Woo's Better Tomorrow,
Lau and Mak's Infernal Affairs, Stanley Kwan's Rouge, Peter
Chan's Comrades, Almost A Love Story, Chow's Shaolin Soccer,
Han Hsiang Li's The Love Eterne and Mabel Cheung's An Autumn's
Tale.
Here are MM's recommendations
for a crash course in Hong Kong cinema:
No “Rest
and Recreation” for interracial lovers
An American artist falls for a Wanchai prostitute with a heart of gold
(Nancy Kwan). However, Richard Quine's 1960 The World of Suzie Wong
is eclipsed by Henry King's Love is a Many-Splendored Thing, also
starring William Holden. This 1955 drama explores the doomed passion between
a U.S. war correspondent and a Eurasian doctor (Jennifer Jones).
Acting meets martial
arts
Bruce Lee died months before his biggest hit, 1973's Enter the Dragon.
Robert Clouse directed this big-budget James Bondian flick. Purists prefer
1972's Fist of Fury: Wei Lo's grittier film gave Lee more screen-time.
Set in 1930s Shanghai, this masterpiece criticized the Japanese occupation,
fanning Chinese nationalism.
The Drunken
Master tipples and topples an icon
Woo-ping Yeun directs Jackie Chan in a controversial portrayal of Chinese
hero Wong Fei Hung as a feckless youth, sent to study with a boozing beggar
named So (Siu Tien Yuen). The 1978 flick is often hailed as the best kung
fu comedy of all time, as well as Chan's best movie.
Boat People
creates waves
A Japanese photojournalist veers off a propaganda-tour of post-war Vietnam
and tries to help two young orphans, with tragic results. Ann Hui's 1982
drama – possibly an anti-communist allegory – was a reviewers'
darling.
A Better Tomorrow:
too tempting a view of the Triads?
This Asian smash-hit defined the “heroic bloodshed” genre. John
Woo's much-imitated film blasted Yun-Fat Chow to superstardom in 1986.
He plays a noble, crippled counterfeiter who avenges his gang's betrayal.
Hong Kong hipsters continue to copy Chow's look: black “duster”
trenchcoat, sunglasses and a matchstick in the mouth.
Chungking Express
impresses art-house crowds
The Madonna of Hong Kong, Faye Wong, stars in this 1994 love story alongside
Brigitte Lin and Tony Leung Chiu Wai. Hip young director Kar Wai Wong
shot on the fly with available light and found locations. Nonetheless,
this experimental film is a hit: fun, funny and utterly charming.
Fruit Chan stands
and delivers the Handover Trilogy
While other talent fled, this indie director chronicled the city's unease
in 1997. A crew of five shot Made in Hong Kong for US$80,000 on
expired film stock. Chan captured the plight of “trouble kids”
in the projects, caught between the Triads and crushing poverty.
Shaolin Soccer
scores with Hong Kong viewers
Director Stephen Chow plays a trash-collecting ex-monk who dreams of a
better world based on Shaolin kung fu. His “Mighty Iron Leg”
inspires Fung (Man Tat Ng), a washed-up professional athlete, to field
players against his nemesis's Evil Team. Critically acclaimed and commercially
successful, this 2001 comedy is Hong Kong's second largest grossing film.
Infernal Affairs
reinvigorates Hong Kong cinema's spirit
Two moles – one a gangster in the police force, the other a cop in
the Triads – play a deadly cat-and-mouse game. Wai Keung Lau and
Siu Fai Mak's 2002 noir thriller is often compared to Michael Mann's Heat.
Slick “chop-sockey”
comedy
In pre-Revolution China, the Axe Gang tampers with Pig Style Alley, unaware
that geriatric martial arts masters inhabit the slum. Stephen Chow directs,
writes and stars – as a loud-mouthed loser – in Hong Kong's
highest grossing film to date. Kung Fu Hustle (2004) parodies elements
from Looney Tunes to Bruce Lee. This exuberant silliness created a new
genre in Hong Kong, affectionately known as mo lei tau – “nonsense”.
– By Jacob Rosenblum
Know before you go
The Film Services Office coaches crews through the red tape and
provides an online production directory (40/F, Revenue Tower, 5 Gloucester
Road, Wanchai; 2594 5745; www.fso-tela.gov.hk).
Foreign filmmakers may not need visas for short shoots, otherwise budget
4-6 weeks for the process (2824 6111; www.immd.gov.hk).
The excellent FSO website contains more tips on customs, permits, average
wages and operating procedures.
The Hong Kong
International Film Festival celebrates its 30th anniversary from April
4-19, 2006 (21/F, Sunshine Plaza, 353 Lockhart Road, Wanchai; 2970 3300;
www.hkiff.org.hk). The 2005 International
Critics' Prize went to a Chinese film, Lu Yi Tong's Lost in Wu Song.
The glossy angular Hong Kong Film Archive houses some modest free
exhibits, alongside screening rooms, conservation laboratories, study
facilities and film vaults with 4,300 titles stretching from a 1898 Edison
travelogue on Hong Kong to Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
(2000). The organization also produces Hong Kong Filmography reference
books, monographs and a quarterly newsletter (50 Lei King Road, Sai Wan
Ho; a five-minute walk from the Exit A, Sai Wan Ho MTR Station; closed
Thurs; 2739 2139; www.filmarchive.gov.hk).
Hong Kong's Film
and Television Market (FILMART) is Asia's leading platform for the
film and entertainment industry, according to independent surveyor Citigate
DVL Smith in March 2005. (www.hkfilmart.com)
The powerhouse production
company remains Golden Harvest. Its 600+ titles include Wei Lo's
Fist of Fury and The Big Boss; Bruce Lee's Way of the Dragon,
Jackie Chan's Police Story and Rumble in the Bronx, and
Steve Barron's sweeping 1990 epic, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
(www.goldenharvest.com).
Golden Harvest also
controls the major overseas Chinese film market. As of spring 2005, it
owns 46 multiplexes in Southeast Asia with a total of 318 screens (2186
1313). For more offbeat viewing, try Broadway Cinematheque, which
also has a good poster shop adjacent (Prosperous Garden, 3 Public Square
Street, Yau Ma Tei, Kowloon; Exit C, Yau Ma Tei MTR; 2388 0002; www.cinema.com.hk).
Training programs
include the Hong Kong Film Academy (Room 906, Sunbeam Commercial
Building, 469-471 Nathan Rd, Yaumatei, Kowloon; 2786 9349;
http://filmacademy.com.hk/) and the Hong Kong Academy of Performing
Arts, School of Film and Television (1 Gloucester Road, Wanchai; 2584
8554; www.hkapa.edu).
Information
The superb bookstore Blackwells (48-51 Broad St; 01865.792.792; www.blackwell.co.uk)
sells travel guides, among them Oxford: Through the Looking Glass,
the only such volume written by University students (Wordworks 2001).
The extensive “Film, Media & Culture” section is worth browsing
too. Or go straight to the scholarly source: pop into Oxford University
Press Bookshop for possible bargains on titles like The Oxford History
of World Cinema and Oxford Guide to Film Studies (116 High St; 01865.242.913;
www.oup.co.uk).
The Oxford Information
Center is open Mon-Sat 9:30am-5pm; plus Sun 10am-3:30pm June-Sept (15-16
Broad St; 01865.726.871; www.visitoxford.org).
The weekly Oxford Times and daily Oxford Mail contain event
listings (www.thisisoxfordshire.co.uk).
Check out the local notices in Daily Information, the huge bright posters
plastered around town (also www.dailyinfo.co.uk).
Information
The Hong Kong Tourism Board offers junk rides, tai chi and Chinese
medicine classes, among the wealth of giddy event announcements and civic
boosterism (9th-11th floor, Citicorp Centre, 18 Whitfield Road, North
Point; plus offices at the Causeway Bay MTR station and at the Star Ferry
Terminal in Kowloon; www.discoverhongkong.com).
Its Odyssey Movie
Map captures cinematic highlights in the city (http://www.discoverhongkong.com/moviemap/).
Time Out Hong Kong by Lesley McCave remains the best guide, backed
by Jan Morris' epic travelogue Hong Kong: Epilogue to an Empire.
Get savvy about Asian cinema with Jeff Yang's superb Once Upon A Time
in China, Lisa Odham Stokes and Michael Hoover's City on Fire
and David Bordwell's Planet Hong Kong.
Where to stay
The exquisite Island Shangri-la showcases the world's largest indoor
mural: the silk-painting Great Motherland of China stretches 16
floors. Ignore the lower level mall and be dazzled by the bay views in
HK's tallest hotel – or the 769 crystal chandeliers, brightening
this haven for businesspeople, upscale tourists and “tai tais”
(ladies who lunch).
The lean tower slices
over Victoria Harbour, just beside IM Pei's legendary Bank of China tower
(featured on the $20HK bill, but nonetheless considered to have feng shui
so wicked that a leader reduced the nearby Government House to a society-party
shell). The bewildering international buffet at Café Too attracts
locals, as does the posher Petrus restaurant atop the glittering spire
(Pacific Place, Supreme Court Road, Central; 2877 3838;
www.shangri-la.com).
The Peninsula
Hong Kong once snapped up eight Rolls-Royces, the largest single order
ever. Ruined by a flood in 1995, all were swiftly replaced to maintain
this grande dame's hauteur. A helipad now backs the 14 luxury vehicles.
The 1928 hotel drips glamour from the Philippe Starck-designed bar and
restaurant to the secret dance club inside the zinc and aluminum spiral
“snail' staircase. Clark Gable introduced the screwdriver here while
filming Soldier of Fortune in 1953. Bartender Johnny Chung still
serves them as taught, along with his signature lychee martinis (Salisbury
Road, Kowloon; 2920 2888; http://hongkong.peninsula.com).
Transport
Kai Tak Airport provided the world's most thrilling approach until 1998.
Planes skimmed low over Hong Kong's harbor, skyscrapers and neon signs,
which were forbidden to flash, for fear of distracting pilots. The new
Chek Lak Kok feels safer, but far more pedestrian (www.hongkongairport.com).
However, the world's largest terminal is still famed for its Norman Foster
foyer, Rush Hour II scenes and the lavish lounges of Cathay
Pacific, 2005's Airline of the Year, according to a Skytrax survey
(1-800-233-2742 in the U.S. or 2747 1888 in Hong Kong; www.cathaypacific.com).
The Airport Express
train zips from the terminal to the city center in just 24 minutes. Hong
Kong's public transport is a breeze, integrating a subway, trams, the
Mass Transit Railway (MTR) and Star Ferries (2367 7065; www.starferry.com.hk).
The nine-minute, HK$2.20 trip between Kowloon and Central is essential
viewing. The city's most eclectic option is the mid-level escalators,
a 20-minute ride connecting Central Market with Conduit Road.
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