The start of cinematic vision in China was a contribution of a lot of factors pre-existing in the Chinese community. Before jumping into the factual statistics particularly related to Hong-Kong filming aura it will be apt enough to have an ideological understanding of the stream of certain social integrations in China which indirectly or directly affect the filming industry’s trend shifts in its evolution. To the viewer, martial- arts or the genre ‘Action’ might just be a mere theme of just another film but if the industry is responsible for producing several movies with same theme, this denotes the presence of social interest. Since the rituals and culture are deeply interconnected, Martial arts do have an impact on the society of Hong Kong. This was something people demanded and was the basis of norms that the people of Hong-Kong developed through time. Action films were widely accepted till the late 80’s with most of the viewership satisfied with local productions.
The concepts of life beautifully intermingled with values, morality and culture producing what now we know as ‘classics’ or ‘Hong-Kong Second Wave’ (a term professional critics often use to describe directors’ cut/vision for the films produced in the late 1980’s to 1990 and these directors comprise of Hong-Kong’s Wong Kar Wai, Fruit Chan, Stanley Kwan, Clara Law, Peter Chan and Evans Chan). Pragmatically, from 1990, people started to evolve and got stung by globalization, changing their canvases entirely to whole new level of subjects and circle of interests, which shifted the conspicuous demand of folk ‘father-son’ inspiration mixed with Kung-fu into diversity of contemporary real life experiences such as young people falling in love and modernized crime stories leading viewers to next level of fascination. With the passage of the time directors also started to generate new ideas. Further will be an elaboration of some idealistic examples from the pinnacle of abrupt and subtle shift of typical idiosyncrasies of both regular and extraordinary thinkers of the time.
The beautiful direction of Clara Law, Farewell China (Hong-Kong 1990), is an immaculate example of the required analyses to understand the unique and vigilant eyes of several other directions in the very decade. The story grows around the aloof concept of immigration and harsh it brings with itself. The movie describes the discovering of love among a couple in rural vicinity of the city. The emotional state revolves the drama around the issue of an individual’s dream of migrating to America to start and taste new aspects and phases of life, experiencing a trauma of a family turned apart when the primary character moves to America leaving behind a word of promise for his kid and the loved one for they will unite once again. The embellishing idea of helplessness of the left one to find and miss the moments they had together is the very reason this movie leaves its mark on the viewer’s influence-able mind.
The idea of staging scenes dwelling upon unseen locations of New York deliberately strives to make its presence and enhance the spirit of the story in an apprehensive manner. The diversity in the selected genre makes this film a clear victim of a major segregation that separates the typical mundane routine movies from the movies with new contemporary vision. The regular critic, Roy Stafford, flawlessly describes the sense of belonging maintained throughout the movie as follows,
“The narrative offers a wealth of sociological detail about the different migrant groups. The ‘mainlanders’ occupy the lowest level of rented housing, whereas the Hong Kong and Taiwanese communities have been able to move out. I don’t want to spoil any narrative expectations, but there is an interesting use of an American-Chinese character. Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung are excellent and I don’t really understand why films like this don’t get picked up for UK distribution. It would be great to screen this next to Nick Broomfield’s Ghosts or Michael Winter bottom’s In This World – as well as Comrades, Almost a Love Story.” (Stafford)
The masterpiece earned Law a Special Jury Award at Torino Film Festival and was nominated for the Best Director Award. With Movies like Fruit Punch and Autumn Moon, Law was successfully able to tell her viewers that she was capable doing such remarkable directions like no one else could. She had description of a very simple essence of human nature in all her films. When in an interview she was asked about how she was able to understand such depth of love she very brilliantly described what love meant to her and how it was an integral part of her personality. Clara Law was able to maintain this new-born theme in Hong Kong series and is now considered as a renowned trend-setter.
The wide acceptance of the movie made other directors realize that this newness of the revived film industry should be maintained throughout the production calendar. The social issues were projected through films in this very era of revitalization but the folk stories were not forgotten. These stories were now given a new life as witnessed in movie, Rouge (1987). Stanley Kwan defines the Hong Kong Second Wave. The story was about soul mates and how the intensity of their allowed them to commit suicide together and calculative framing of their greed for eternity in afterlife. The search of a lost spirit after they commit suicide was something that landed very calmly in the viewer’s heart. Director took a daring step to think differently for his movie at that time but the daring step was fruitful since it was referred to majorly as ‘a Chinese ghost story’.
Fleur, the beauty this character straight forwardly injects into the scenes is informative and addictive in nature and the reason why this character was the most appreciated character of its time. The expressive and open-ended nature of characters earns the movie its equivocal charm and charisma. The coherence and the flow of these characters is perfect with its logical reasoning with the plot. The characters gradually become more intact and elaborated. The director himself appreciates the excellent working standard of the characters in following words:
Leslie Cheung was really perfect in Rouge. He was a very great artist. But he was also someone who attached a great importance to his image. He controlled himself a lot. He was very demanding on himself. He was perhaps too aware of his talent. If he had been able to "forget" himself a little, he would have had a less tragic fate. I think the disease he suffered at the end of his life was linked to this too great requirement towards himself; he probably set the bar too high. (Hkcinemagic.com)
The liberalistic nature of these characters was further defined when other directors took vital steps such as, Comrades, Almost a Love Story.
The modern family of Hong Kong industry is way more groomed and experienced than ever. A Simple Life, an outstanding film directed by Ann Hui is a piece of art in itself. The movie is an evidence of gradual and striving success of not only a bunch of characters but all of the industry has taken one step further towards excellence in movie making. The motivation for people to watch this movie is the fact that it is based upon a true story. Ann Hui has reminded the world of the forgotten love towards the one who truly deserves through her characters displaying their emotions in the utmost perfection.
Paper 2 - Reflection
There are certain elements that make a movie to reveal itself in the most suitable and clear manner. There is no objective criteria on which all the movies can tagged as good or bad. The general acceptance among the public makes a movie popular but on another level the same movie might fail to justify itself for the action or words it may have said. Most of the movie critics have a list on which they judge their targeted choice. The beauty of critic is one can fully express his or her opinion on every aspect he/ she prioritizes accordingly or thinks that should be given more importance over the other.
The artistic painting of scene through different and unique backgrounds in the movie, Farewell China, gives it a clear edge over the others when it is about displaying expression explicitly and giving out the message of immigration as a curse for some and a blessing for the rest. The movie, Her Fatal ways is not a charmer when compared to excellence of other movies of the same era such as Chucking Express or Rouge. The clarity of the message is also down marked hence attracting the audience at a lot more slower rate. A lot of other movies were found to be very powerful in message but poor in direction such as A Simple Love and the fact is also acknowledged by the director himself. The Coherence of the plot was fine but the approach towards the existing issue in nature was write difficult for the viewer to understand. This lack of connectivity between the movie and viewer lets the concept of movie down. Understanding that there are certain elements that given priority over the others because at the end of the day it’s about creativity and how much productive the fi has been over all. The idea of movies is cultivated through director’s cut/ vision.
References
Hkcinemagic.com,. 'Hong Kong Cinemagic - Interview With Stanley Kwan In Paris'. N.p., 2014. Web. 15 Dec. 2014.
Stafford, Roy. 'Farewell China (Hong Kong 1990)'. The Case for Global Film. N.p., 2008. Web. 15 Dec. 2014.
