Made In Hong Kong

This tragic coming-of-age story follows three disillusioned local youths struggling to navigate Hong Kong public housing projects and late adolescence amid violent crime, gang pressure, and broken homes. Shot on a very low budget, the film marked the beginning of Chan's career as an independent film director.

The trajectory of Hong Kong films had been drastically affected long before the city’s official sovereignty transfer from the British to the Chinese in 1997. The change in course has become more visible in recent years as China has aggressively developed its national film industry and assumed the role of powerhouse in East Asia’s cinematic landscape. The author introduces the “Cinema of Transitions” to study the New Hong Kong Cinema and on- and off-screen life against this background. Using examples from the 1980s to the present, this book offers a fresh perspective on how Hong Kong-related Chinese-language films, filmmakers, audiences, and the workings of film business in East Asia have become major platforms on which “transitions” are negotiated.

Thanks to the successes of directors and actors like John Woo, Jackie Chan, and Chow Yun-Fat, the cinema of Hong Kong is wildly popular worldwide, and there is much more to this diverse film culture than most Western audiences realize. Beyond martial arts and comedy, Hong Kong films are a celebration of the grand diversity and pageantry of moviemaking—covering action, comedy, horror, eroticism, mythology, historical drama, modern romances, and experimental films. Information on 1,100 films produced in British Hong Kong from 1977 to 1997 is included here.

Extensively revised and expanded, The New Essential Guide to Hong Kong Movies includes over 670 film reviews, a poster gallery, and a look at the key studios that made Hong Kong cinema so amazing, along with insights into the Hong Kong movie industry written by global superstar Jackie Chan and Hong Kong film stars Cynthia Rothrock, and Vincent Lyn. Rick Baker and Ken Miller have curated a huge selection of reviews of kung fu and swordplay films, gangster flicks, crime dramas, action, horror, fantasy, erotic, and assorted Category III films, sharing their love for these distinctive, kinetic, and sometimes utterly bizarre Hong Kong genre productions with an infectious enthusiasm.

Despite the industry being shutdown by two world wars, having its martial arts films dismissively labeled as 'chopsocky,' and operating on shoestring budgets, the films of Hong Kong have been praised and imitated all over the world. From its beginning in 1909 with the silent short Stealing the Roast Duck to the martial arts classic Enter the Dragon (1973) to Peter Chan's Perhaps Love (2005), a reinvention of Chinese musicals via Hollywood, the vast cinema of Hong Kong has continually reinvented itself. Stars such as Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, and Jet Li have become household names, and actors like Andy Lau, Maggie Cheung, Stephen Chiau, Michelle Yeoh, and Chow Yun-fat continue to gain fame throughout the world. And the impact of directors like Ang Lee, Tsui Hark, Wong Kar-wai, and John Woo can be seen nearly everywhere in Hollywood. The Historical Dictionary of Hong Kong Cinema provides essential facts and descriptive evaluation concerning Hong Kong filmmaking and its filmmaking community. This is accomplished through the use of a chronology, a list of acronyms and abbreviations, an introductory essay, illustrations of individuals and film stills, a bibliography, and hundreds of cross-referenced dictionary entries on directors, producers, writers, actors, films, film companies, genres, and terminology. Having perused this, readers will not only know considerably more about a rather amazing place, they will have an almost palpable feeling for how it works.

Written by three academic specialists on Hong Kong cultural identity, social history, and mass media, this book explores Hong Kong's cultural relation to the Chinese nation and state in the recent past, present, and future.

This book focuses on the transformation from colonial to global – the formation, mechanism, events, works and people related to urban architecture. The book reveals hardships the city encountered in the 1950s and the glamour enjoyed in the 1980s. It depicts the public and private developments, and especially the public housing which has sheltered millions of residents. The author identifies the architects practising in the formative years and the representatives of a rising generation after the 1980s. Suffering from land shortage and a dense environment, the urban development of Hong Kong has in the past 70 years met the changing demands of fluctuating economic activities and a rising population. Architecture on the island has been shaped by social demands, the economy and technology. The buildings have been forged by the government, clients, planners, architects, many contractors and end-users. The built environment nurtures our life and is visual evidence of the way the city has developed. Hong Kong is a key to East Asia in the Pacific Era. The book is a must-read for a thorough understanding the contemporary history and architecture of this oriental pearl. Endorsement: “Hong Kong sets an extreme example of hyper-density living. MTR’s Kowloon Station project offered my firm the unique opportunity to contribute to a new type of fully integrated three dimensional transport mega-structure, conceived as a well-connected place for people to live, work and play. Through Charlie Xue’s book, one can see how a compact city works and high density integrated development indicates a sustainable path for modern city making.” Sir Terry Farrell, CBE, Principal, Farrells "Well researched and refreshingly well structured, Charlie Xue's latest book comprehensively shows how Hong Kong's post-war urban architecture both tracks and symbolizes the former British colony's rise to success - a must read for architecture and culture buffs alike." Peter G. Rowe, Raymond Garbe Professor of Architecture and Urban Design, Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor. “An essential addition to the growing literature on Chinese architecture, the title of the book belies the full scope of Xue’s extensive history. Covering Hong Kong’s postwar transition from defeated colony to Pacific Age power house, Xue expertly traces the evolution of the city’s ambitious and innovative programs of integrated high density urban design and infrastructure, as well as changing architectural fashions. In a time when many Western governments have all but abandoned public housing programs, Xue’s book is a timely reminder of what can be achieved.” Professor Chris Abel, author of Architecture and Identity, Architecture, technology and process and The Extended Self.“/p>