city on fire
review
Library Journal
NEAL BAKER, Earlham Coll., Richmond, IN
September 1, 1999
CITY ON FIRE: Hong Kong Cinema
By Lisa Odham Stokes
and Michael Hoover
Verso, 372 pages
This excellent introduction to the "Hollywood of the East"
outguns rivals like Frederic Dannen's Hong Kong Babylon (LJ 11/1/97) and
Stephen Teo's Hong Kong Cinema: The Extra Dimensions (British Film
Inst., 1998). Stokes and Hoover (humanities and political science,
respectively, at Seminole Community Coll.) employ a political economy
approach in offering context for a film industry that ranks first in the
world in per capita production and second in film export. They
subsequently review the high-octane product of action directors like
John Woo and Tsui Hark, not losing sight of Ann Hui's meditations on
exile or international stars such as Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan. In
examining this "crisis cinema," the authors refer to both
poststructuralist theory and fanzines like Asian Trash Cinema. The
enticing result is a volatile mix that resembles its subject.
Recommended for both academic and large public libraries.
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