Evolution of Hong Kong Action Movies

This website is created primarily for the Film Portfolio assignment of CN2205, Regional Features - Place, Location, Australia and Asia in Cinema module of James Cook University, Singapore. Hong Kong was selected as it is a place in Asia that has been a global city for many decades, congregating people of different races, religion, culture, skills and knowledge. The Hong Kong Cinema Industry is one of the world's most recognised cinema with the action genre the most famous, but not limiting to, of them all. International stars like Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Jet Li and Chow Yun Fat who made the transition to Hollywood has made their name in Hong Kong early in their career. The industry has seen a boom period during the 1970s and 1980s and has subsequently declined in the 1990s during the recession caused by the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis. 

 

Hong Kong Action Cinema has changed a lot since it's start. This website will pay tribute to 4 films that has been iconic to the industry and society, with some societal impacts spreading abroad,impacting the diasporic Chinese all over the world. Hong Kong Action Cinema is a very creative and innovative industry, many concepts and genres were re-created and re-invented in different ways to entertain audiences, with some of these re-creations and re-inventions becoming iconic and are etched into the memories of the general public. 

 

The essay will try to go through the changes in Hong Kong Action Cinema since 1950 and highlight iconic people and films along the way. However, it is impossible to cover in detail and pay tribute to 65 years of Action films in a single essay, therefore, author will pay homage to these films through music by playing the theme songs of famous Hong Kong Action Films that did not make it into the author's short list of iconic film.

 

The 4 films that the author selected as iconic Hong Kong Action films throughout the years are One-Armed Swordsman, Fist of Fury, Police Story and Ip Man. It saddens the author that some films are not in his own list of iconic films, therefore, their theme songs will be played around the website on loop. The background in the website contain images from films of influential action and actresses throughout the ages.