Saturday, April 9, 2011

(H) Hong Kong Cinema

I don't remember how I got into Hong Kong Cinema, I think it was an old co-worker named Chris. I used to watch them some, but he really opened my eyes up to the genre. I watched a lot of Hong Kong Cinema, but Chrs got me into Hong Kong Action Cinema. The obvious difference is the latter falls under the genre of Action & Adventure. Where as the prior encompasses all, but in my case it was the Dramas I watched.
Hong Kong action cinema is the principal source of the Hong Kong film industry's global fame. It combines elements from the action film, as codified by Hollywood, with Chinese storytelling and aesthetic traditions, to create a culturally distinctive form that nevertheless has a wide transcultural appeal. In recent years, the flow has reversed somewhat, with American and European action films being heavily influenced by Hong Kong genre conventions.
My favorite HKAC actors include: Jacie Chan, Jet Li, Chow Yun-Fat, Anthony Wong Chau San, Michelle Yeoh, Gong Li, Ziyi Zhang, Bruce Lee and Takeshi Kaneshero.
Many of te above actors are also in a lot of the Drama's as well. These are some very busy actors/actresses. Many of them also are in Hollywood films these days, but they started out in Hong Kong.
HKAC Movies I recommend:
Hardboiled 1 & 2
Supercop 1 & 2
Drunken Master 2 (The Chinese language version not the re-release dubbed in English)
Enter the Dragon

HK Wire Fu:
It is a combination of two terms: "wire work" and "kung fu".
House of Flying Daggers
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Fist of Legend
Hero

HKC (Dramas):
All About Ah-Long
The Wooden Man's Bride
Raise the Red Lantern
Shanghai Triad

Category III HKC:
"No persons younger than 18 years of age are permitted to rent, purchase, or watch this film in a movie theatre." These movies are violent & extremely graphic.
Ebola Syndrome
The Untold Story
Taxi Hunter

And yes, they are all subtitled. Of course you can find some dubbed versions, but why would you want to.

1 comment:

Wall-to-wall books said...

Yay! I love unofficial cheer leaders!
Thanks for stopping by!
TTYL