Spanning an eighty year history, the Hong Kong film
industry gained international attention in the early 1980s, simultaneous
to negotiations over the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration. Not
coincidental to film output, the relative uncertainty of 1997 compounded
an already accelerated rate of accumulation. From the gangster films and
martial arts costumers, to the lightweight comedies and meditative
dramas, the subtexts illustrate both variations on the means of early
capitalist accumulation and a fear of losing ground gained during Hong
Kong's three decade drive into late capitalism. Along with its new
status, Hong Kong has become the 'Hollywood of the East,' home to a film
industry first in the world in per capita production, second only to the
U.S. in film export, and third in the world in the number of films
produced per year.
The Hong Kong movie industry reflects the crisis of
Hong Kong itself-- on the one hand, the 'on the fly' nuts and bolts
approach indicates an early capital stage, 'reproduced' by the
territory's vast pirating operations of tapes, records, videos and
films; on the other, the emphasis on film as commodity epitomizes late
capital and its cultural logic. Similarly, the movie worlds themselves
mirror early and late capitalist cultural conditions as they assimilate
and narratively maneuver between both worlds. They place viewers in
'ideologically-produced frames of meaning' which makes representations
'not only feasible but natural.' The oft-noted penchant that both the
Hong Kong movie business and Hong Kong movie fans have for escapism may,
in some measure, affirm Horkheimer's and Adorno's depiction of the
culture industry as amusement, diversion, and distraction. But the Hong
Kong perspective is as a 'city on fire,' representing not only the
illumination of images on a screen but burning with anxiety and
confusion, and best imagined as icon Chow Yun-Fat burning a counterfeit
hundred dollar bill in A Better Tomorrow.
