City on Fire: Hong Kong Cinema
- Book Review,
by Lisa Odham Stokes, Michael Hoover
Amazon.com
The world first took notice of Hong Kong cinema in the 1970s, when Bruce Lee's Fists of Fury and Enter the Dragon brought a new level of psychological realism to the "chop socky" movies being made up until that point. But it wasn't until the 1980s that a new generation of directors and stars--a moviemaking system, in fact--reached its boiling point, and American audiences began to hear about John Woo's "heroic bloodshed" films and Jackie Chan's Chaplinesque martial arts action movies. City on Fire is the authoritative account of that system, and authors Stokes and Hoover--a pair of community college teachers from central Florida--have traced the industry back to the early decades of the century when Shanghai-financed films first gave way to local productions like Rouge, Li Minwei's story of courtesans. The remaining bulk of the book is given over to the go-go '80s when record attendance at local movie houses fueled the industry and gave large-as-life careers to the likes of Chow Yun-Fat, Jackie Chan, Michelle Yeoh, and Maggie Cheung, and to directors like Woo, Ann Hui, Stanley Tong, and (Quentin Tarantino's favorite) Kar-Wei Wong. As the authors tell it, it was in the '80s when Hong Kong moviemaking most resembled the early days of Hollywood, when money flowed and movies rolled out from sketchy scripts and a few rat-a-tat weeks in the editing room (complete with a "dark underbelly" of exploitation too). The final, encyclopedic chapters detail American productions like Rumble in the Bronx and Face/Off, and international successes like Peter Chan's Comrades: Almost a Love Story. But it's really the years from 1978 to 1995 that the authors are sweet on, and anyone interested in--or in love with--Hong Kong cinema will find themselves feeling the same way, paging through this fascinating title. --Lyall Bush
From Publishers Weekly
The Hong Kong film industry of the '80s and early '90s produced a treasure trove of films. It made matinee idols of (among others) Chow Yun-Fat, Jackie Chan and Maggie Cheung, reinvented genres with style and generally beat the Hollywood dream factory at its own game with an "anything goes" attitudeAdespite tiny budgets and brief production schedules. Hoover and Stokes rightly consider the anxiety produced by the ticking clock to the 1997 handover of Hong Kong to China as the key to this period of frenetic creativity. In the most serious study to date of Hong Kong cinema, the authors dutifully ground their account with social, political, economic and historical analysis. Sometimes they get a bit carried away, however: comparing a Harold Lloyd stunt to a Jackie Chan variant, the Lloyd version becomes emblematic of the ideal of upward mobility in the American 1920s, and Chan's tumble reflects how "Hong Kong's dollar fell during a run on the colony's currency in 1983." The abundance of quotes from Marx and Engels at times makes a cinema noted for its pure entertainment value sound dull and allegorical. Still, the book's extensive interviews with major HK playersAand detailed coverage of the comedies and romances that have enjoyed less international exposure than the now famous action films of Chan and John WooAare of outstanding interest. So tantalizing is the treatment of many of these obscure films that readers will scurry to the neighborhood video store in search of such charmingly translated titles as Tom, Dick, and Hairy and Shogun and Little Kitchen. Illustrations not seen by PW. (Sept.) Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
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.ANeal Baker, Earlham Coll., Richmond, IN Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Jason Sanders, Pacific Reader
City on Fire is a long-awaited, serious look at Hong Kong cinema of the 1980s and 1990s, one whose scope and breadth help illuminate genres and figures too often overlooked in contemporary film histories.
Terence
City on Fire, Lisa Stokes and Michael Hoover's well-researched and insightful book on Hong Kong cinema is a great read for any film buff. It brought back fond memories of an era when filmmaking was like good sex for everyone involved. Only it climaxed too soon.
Donnie Yen, actor/director of Ballistic Kiss and Shangai Affairs
As Hong Kong cinema has grown more popular worldwide, it's been the subject of various books. However, Lisa and Michael's is the first one to examine the phenomenon within a social and political context, and as such it's a very valuable and timely contribution to the subject.
John Woo, director of The Killers, Hard Boiled, A Better Tomorrow, Bullet in the Head and Face/Off
Lisa Stokes and Michael Hoover have written the best book on Hong Kong cinema. City On Fire: Hong Kong Cinema is intelligent, informative, resourceful, exciting and riveting. It makes us understand a cinema which has assimilated influences from Hollywood, Europe and Japan, and has come to its own with its unique style and energy. It has become an important part of cinema history.
Peter Chan, director of "Love Letters"
It's like walking down memory lane. It takes me back to the best years of the Hong Kong film industry.
Stanley Tong, Director and co-executive producer of "Martial Law"
A detailed depiction of Hong Kong cinema. You will never find another book that is so informative and fun.
Bey Logan, author of "Hong Kong Action Cinema"
Hong Kong cinema remains the most neglected field of study for film historians. This fine book takes one giant leap towards correcting that. Finally, the genre is treated with the respect it deserves, but authors who balance their enthusiasm with a commendably truthful detachment. A real achievement.
Andrew Ross, American Studies, NYU
A tour-de-force analysis of Hong Kong's film genres, which profiles a city with no time to recover from its own high-speed car chase through late capitalist development.
Betsy Sherman, film critic for the Boston Globe
Informative yet admirably unsnobbish, Hoover and Stokes never lose sight of the movies' rib-sticking goodness. City on Fire is the closest you can get to pre-hand-over Hong Kong without a passport and a time machine.
John A. Lent, Editor, Asian Cinema
Well-researched and documented, City on Fire does a fantastic job of mixing the historical, political, socio-economic factors of Hong Kong and its cinema with critical treatments of film texts and directorial motives and styles.
Book Description
Hong Kong's film industry gained global attention in the 1980s, at the time of negotiations over Great Britain's return of the colony to China. Uncertainty about the post-handover era accelerated Hong Kong's race for economic growth, and found expression in cinema's depictions of a 'city on fire.' In this accessible introduction to the extraordinary cinematic output of the colony, Michael Hoover and Lisa Stokes review the directors and films that have established Hong Kong cinema internationally: John Woo's martial arts flicks, Tsui Hark's wire-worked fantasies, Ann Hui's exile melodramas, Stanley Kwan's limpid romances, and Wong Kar-wai's stylish art films.
About the Author
Michael Hoover teaches Political Science and Lisa Stokes teaches Humanities at Seminole Community College in Central Florida.
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