The Historical Development of Hong Kong Films

The development of Hong Kong film history should begin with the introduction of films into Hong Kong.

1895 1895 On February 28th, 1995, the Frenchman Louis Lumiere released the world's earliest films, such as The Gate of Lumiere Factory, The Train Arrived at the Station and The Watered Gardener.

This day is recognized as "the beginning of the film era" by the film industry all over the world.

1896 At the beginning of this year, Louis Lumiere's assistant came to Hong Kong to show these films, which was how the films were introduced to Hong Kong.

Since he left, Hong Kong films have been inactive until 1898.

At that time, Thomas Edison Company of the United States sent film photographers to Hong Kong to shoot several documentaries: Street View of Hong Kong, Government House of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Pier, Hong Kong Commercial Group, and Trick Artillery Corps.

Although these films with news records are not produced by Hong Kong film companies, they are all shot in Hong Kong, and their contents are all about Hong Kong scenery, so they can be called "Hong Kong films".

From 1896 to 1903, some short documentaries were shown in Hong Kong, with more than ten episodes each time.

It was not until 1903 that the whole feature film was released in Hong Kong.

The report said: "Now, opposite the central market, that is, in front of Tongji Museum, it is allowed to show the' full play book' (that is, the whole movie) for fifteen nights.

"This film is a business card of French director Shazka, the suffering of Christ.

During the period of 1907, many cinemas in Hong Kong opened, and the number of public screenings was more than before, so it was regarded as the first peak of Hong Kong's film industry.

Stealing Roast Duck was completed on 1909, which is a silent comedy shot by Shanghai Asia Film Company in Hong Kong.

Liang Shaopo, the director of the film, is also the protagonist of the film. The story tells that a thief (played by Liang Shaopo) tried to steal roast duck, but was caught by the police.

The plot is simple, but there are many humorous actions.

It is worth noting that "Stealing Roast Duck" was filmed in Hong Kong, but it was not the work of a Hong Kong film company.

Blaskey, the producer of this film, later ended his film career in Shanghai. When he returned to the United States and passed through Hong Kong, he co-produced the first feature film "Zhuangzi's Wife Trial" made in Hong Kong with Li Minwei, which gave birth to the film industry in Hong Kong, and Li Minwei was even known as the "father of Hong Kong films".

The appearance of this film symbolizes the end of the enlightenment period of Hong Kong film history and the official beginning of the budding period.

According to China Film History, the first Hong Kong-made feature film The Trial of Zhuangzi's Wife was produced in 19 13, with Li Minwei as the director, Luo Yongxiang as the photographer and Li Minwei and Yan Shanshan as the main actors.

This film has set many Hong Kong film records:

(1) This is the first feature film produced in Hong Kong;

(2) The first Hong Kong film released in a foreign country;

(3) The first Hong Kong film with female film actors;

(4) It was also the first Hong Kong film to adopt trick photography.

Li Minwei and his Haishan and Beihai brothers founded Minxin Manufacturing Film Co., Ltd. on 1923, which is the first Hong Kong film production company wholly invested by Hong Kong people.

They are not for fame and fortune, but to promote the film industry in Hongkong and even China.

The establishment of Minxin has greatly promoted the film industry in Hong Kong. On 1923, Hong Kong's first news documentary "China Athletes Going to the Sixth Far East Games" was produced. On 1924, Hong Kong's first actor training college, Minxin Actor Training College, was established in Guangzhou to explore people with performance potential.

In addition, Minxin also produced the first feature film "Rouge Kou" produced in Hong Kong.

1924 and 1925, the precious news documentary The First National Congress of China * * *, Marshal Sun's Review of the Army Police Club Exercise and Chairman Sun's Military Parade were also produced by Minxin.

In fact, from 1924 to 1925, Hong Kong's film industry has gradually grown. However, due to the background of Li Minwei League, the British Hong Kong * * * banned Minxin from setting up a film studio in Hong Kong, and the film development in Hong Kong was forced to stop.

1925 On May 30th, the Japanese imperialist aggressors slaughtered the people of China unreasonably, and all parts of China * * * * showed * * *.

In June of the same year, the mainland craze spread to Hong Kong.

During the great event in Hong Kong, shops closed every day, business withered, and all entertainment activities, including film screening, stopped.

This phenomenon led to the death of the budding Hong Kong film industry.

The following year, 65438+ 10 * * ended, but Hong Kong's film industry still failed to recover, because powerful filmmakers went to Guangzhou or Shanghai to develop.

During this period, although some film companies recruited actors, they all existed in name only. Until the end of 1929, no Hong Kong film has been produced.

At the beginning of 1930, people founded the Hong Kong Film Company and produced the pioneering work "Zuo Ci Plays Cao". Subsequently, film production companies were established in Hong Kong, and the Hong Kong film industry was improved and revived.

From 65438 to 0930, with the establishment of Hong Kong Film Company by Li Beihai (Li Minwei Brothers), the Hong Kong film industry began to recover.

However, it was1October 25th and 1930 that really made the Hong Kong film industry stand firm. It was the "Lianhua Film Company" formed by the merger of Shanghai Minxin in Li Minwei and several other film companies.

Lianhua has brought great influence to the Hong Kong film industry, and it was one of the largest film factories in China before the war.

In order to cultivate talents, Lianhua opened an actor training center in April, 193 1. The courses taught are scriptwriting, directing, acting, photography and so on. It can be called an ordinary film school.

It has trained a number of outstanding Cantonese film directors, such as Li Tie and Dai Huang, and made great contributions to Hong Kong films.

Lianhua Hong Kong Branch has been making silent films. Although there was a sound film at that time, the founder didn't dare to take risks.

So, the first Cantonese film with sound was directed by Tang of Shanghai Haitian Film Studio, that is.

After the advent of sound films, Hong Kong film companies made sound films one after another.

1934, Lianhua Hong Kong Branch was dissolved, and Li Beihai founded the first sound film studio in Hong Kong-Zhonghua, and directed a local sound film Conscience (1933) and the first sound film Marriage Room for Fools (1934).

Entering 1935, Hong Kong films officially entered the era of sound.

Since 1935, the output of Cantonese films in Hong Kong has been increasing every year, from 32 films in 1935 to 85 films in 1937, more than doubling.

Influenced by the anti-Japanese craze, Hong Kong has made many patriotic films, including the Lifeline produced by Daguan Film Company.

From 65438 to 0936, social education films became the mainstream of Hong Kong films.

In addition to social education films, patriotic films also increased their output that year.

Of course, in the history of Hong Kong movies, feature films have never been ignored.

One of the representative works of 1936 is "Children's Debt" written and directed by Nanhai Shisanlang.

1937 to 1938. Due to the July 7th Incident, the anti-Japanese atmosphere in Hong Kong was high, and filmmakers began to shoot anti-Japanese patriotic films. In a short time, patriotic movies became the mainstream. Of the 85 feature films produced by 1937, 25 are patriotic films.

In the autumn of 1939, affected by wars in European countries, the output of Hong Kong films in 1940 dropped to less than 90.

1941February Japan invaded Hong Kong, causing the Hong Kong film industry to fall into a trough.

Daguan Film Factory and other film facilities were bombed, and a large number of Hong Kong film copies and negatives were also burned or lost, so that nearly 600 films produced before 1945 have only 1% left.

By the beginning of 1946, Hong Kong's film industry was completely stagnant. During this period, only one anti-British feature film and several documentaries made by Japanese film companies were released.

In the early postwar period, the number of film studios was less than that before the war, and Greater China was one of them, because there were Shanghai stars such as Li Lihua and Zhou Xuan, as well as famous directors such as Zhu Shilin and Wu Zuguang.

From 1946 to 1949, 34 Mandarin films and 8 Cantonese films were produced in Greater China. Unfortunately, by 1949, the output was getting less and less, and it was forced to close down.

In a word, the Japanese invasion has caused serious damage to the film industry in Hong Kong.

After four years of production suspension, the Hong Kong film was released on 1946, which was the first Hong Kong-made film after the war.

By the end of 1940, many leftists in Shanghai film industry had settled in Hong Kong in order to escape the political pressure of * * * or the influence of inflation in Chinese mainland.

As a result, the Chinese film industry in Hong Kong became more and more prosperous and reached its peak in the early 1970s.

Hong Kong films revived rapidly after World War II, and gradually flourished after 1949.

It makes sense. After 1949, a large number of filmmakers from Chinese mainland went south for political and economic reasons, and set up film factories in Hong Kong to make films in cooperation with local filmmakers, making Hong Kong the only and largest film center in South China.

In addition, the film power of Singapore and Malaysia moved to Hong Kong in the mid-1950s, and Hong Kong was originally impacted by the film culture of the United States, Japan and Europe, which made Hong Kong films mature.

The 1950s and 1960s saw the take-off of China and Guangdong films, especially from the late 40s to the mid-1960s.

Cantonese movies in this golden age have the following main trends:

Cantonese movies

1: Cantonese opera movies

It is estimated that in 1950s, there were 200 Cantonese opera films published every year, and almost one out of every three Cantonese opera films was a Cantonese opera film, which reached its peak in 1958. Cantonese opera accounted for half of the 160 films of that year.

Stage-style Cantonese opera films are basically not expensive to produce, and the film skills are not particularly elegant, because most of them perform with the young and old on the Cantonese opera stage, singing only the main plot, and the rest are not strict.

Therefore, most of these operas are ridiculed as "five-day freshness" and "seven-day freshness".

Of course, there are also many immortal classics that have been elaborately produced and are still talked about by people, such as The Flower of the King (1959), The Story of the Purple Hairpin (1959) and Li Houzhu (1968).

Actors in opera films also have many familiar names, including: Ren Jianhui, Bai Xuexian, Sun Ma Shizeng, Xue Juexian and Lin Jiasheng.

As for Cantonese opera opera film, why was it so popular in the 1950s? This is because Cantonese opera flourished after the war, and going to the theater in the shed became a consumption enjoyment of the upper class.

As for ordinary people who only listen to radio dramas or Cantonese operas, in view of this, film companies make a large number of classic Cantonese operas into movies, so that opera fans can enjoy traditional Cantonese operas at low prices.

2. Literary films

Most of the literary films in this period were set in the Republic of China or contemporary times, emphasizing the drama structure, or adapted from Chinese and foreign literature and popular novels, or copied the story mode of Hollywood popular dramas.

Speaking of this kind of literary film about family ethics and love between men and women, we have to mention the leader of Guangdong film company-United Film Co., Ltd. (Zhonglian).

Founded in 1952, * * has produced 44 films and many classic Cantonese films, such as Li Tie's "Spring Dawn in a Dangerous Building" (1953), "Forever" (1955) and "Chu Yuan's Poor People's Heritage" (1.

The 2 1 elite of Zhonglian, seeing that the film and television industry is full of unhealthy trends, founded Zhonglian on the premise of serious shooting attitude and healthy film belief to fight against kitsch hype and inferior seven-day fresh goods.

These film elites include directors Li Tie and Ng Wui and thirteen famous actors: Wu Chufan, Zhang Ai, Zhang Huoyou, Bai Yan, Man-lei Wong and Zi Luo Lian.

In view of various problems in Hong Kong society, Zhonglian films often criticize the hypocrisy and ugliness of high-class tycoons, which has a strong educational significance and greatly improves the aesthetic level of China films.

Probably because it is too attached to the traditional moral mission, Zhonglian is gradually out of touch with the times.

To 1967, it closed with the decline of Cantonese films, but its influence on Hong Kong films can not be ignored.

3. Costume martial arts films

In the 1950s, most of the costume martial arts films were based on the stories of chivalrous ghosts that were familiar to ordinary people, but the martial arts scenes were not realistic. In the later period (early 1960s), more and more attention was paid to the design of action scenes, and a large number of special effects (such as monsters, weird costumes and model stunts) were added. Cao Dahua and Yu Suqiu performed many such martial arts films, such as the Tathagata Palm Series.

4. Happy farce

Most of these films are directed by humorous comedians, and the scenes are nothing more than stories such as "the big village goes out of the city" and "the toad wants to eat swan meat", such as the "two silly series" starring Sun Ma Shizeng and Deng Jichen.

Although the above-mentioned types of Cantonese films are slightly rough in film aesthetics, they are more than enough to bring viewers * * *, so it is no wonder that the output of Cantonese films during this period is considerable, making Cantonese opera films reach their peak.

5. Mandarin movies

In fact, from 1967 to 1969, the output of Cantonese films was still higher than that of Mandarin films, and it was only from 1969 to 1970 that the situation began to reverse.

The turning point of Mandarin films from low to high was the reorganization of the international distribution company and Shaw's father and son in the mid-1950s, which became the film company and Shaw's (brother) company respectively.

Bernard Shaw and Dianmao are rich in capital and ambitious. After reorganization, they are determined to make great achievements in the Hong Kong film industry.

They not only fully promote Mandarin films, but also establish a perfect distribution network to open up overseas markets.

During the period of 1957, Run Run Shaw took the helm of Shaw and made a lot of high-quality films. The first successful works were "Jiangshan Beauty" and "Love Without Love" directed by Li Hanxiang, which achieved unprecedented box office results of100000 yuan.

Shaw's film production is luxurious and gorgeous, and the rags in Cantonese films are dwarfed. In addition, quality is more important than weight in production, and there are few films that are fresh for seven days.

The upsurge of Mandarin movies not only brought Huangmei-tune movies, which originated in China, to Hong Kong and became popular for a while, but also created new martial arts movies, including The Legend of the Condor Heroes, an adaptation of Jin Yong and Liang Yusheng directed by Hu Peng (1959).

Only in 1963, the output of martial arts films has reached 6 1, and the masterpieces of martial arts films are Longmen Inn in Hu Jinquan (1966) and one-armed knife in Zhang Che (1967).

The appearance of martial arts stars Tommy Tam, John Chiang and Wang Yu can also be regarded as a prelude to the rise of Bruce Lee in the 1970s.

In fact, since the 1950s, Chinese movies and Cantonese movies have indeed coexisted. Although there is competition between them, they are compatible in essence.

However, with the rapid development of Mandarin films from 1970, Cantonese films are scarce. During the period of 197 1, the output of Mandarin films was as high as 1 16, while Cantonese films were only 22. During the period of July1-72, the number of Mandarin films is still increasing, but there is only one Cantonese film left, Miss Fan starring Teresa Teng.

In the following years, Mandarin films have been leading the Hong Kong film market.

Finally, it is worth mentioning that although Cantonese faced the threat of unilaterally dominating the film market in China in the late 1960s, it still made efforts to make a breakthrough in genre. Youth musical films came into being, and two young idols, Xiao Fangfang and Chen Baozhu, were born at that time, which can be said to be the reason for idolatry in the film industry.

the seventies

The 1970s was an important turning point in the popularization of Hong Kong culture. With the popularization of television, the development of social economy and even the change of Hong Kong people's mentality, Hong Kong films in the 1970s tend to be diversified and realistic.

Following the fierce momentum in the mid-1960s, Shaw still occupied a leading position in the Hong Kong film industry in the early 1970s, enjoying the reputation of the film kingdom in Southeast Asia, and produced a large number of martial arts films in Mandarin, with great directors including Chu Yuan, Zhang Che and Liu Jialiang.

They all rely on the familiar swords and swords kung fu films, and the film world is full of strong masculinity. Among them, Zhang Che's films created idol martial arts stars, such as Wang Yu and Alexander Fu.

Heroes Don't Cry (1979) is one of Shaw's best-selling kung fu films.

Stepping into 197 1, the sharpness of this ancient costume sword is actually worse than that in the 1960s, probably because of the appearance of a generation of martial arts star Bruce Lee.

Bruce Lee cooperated with the rise of Zou Wenhuai Jiahe Film Company and was all-powerful in the early 1970s.

From the first work "Tangshan Mobile" (197 1) to the films "Jingwumen" and "The Raptors Crossing the River" two years later, Bruce Lee entered the international film industry and created the myth of Hong Kong film industry.

1973, Bruce Lee suddenly collapsed, making it impossible to continue the craze for kung fu movies.

With the popularization of local culture, Hong Kong audiences gradually lost interest in kung fu movies that were far away from reality, and turned to movies that reflected the social situation at that time and satirized reality, which also explained why Chu Yuan's Seventy-two Dungeons became the most popular movie of 1973.

The actors in Seventy-two Changes, such as Adam Cheng and Shen Dianxia, were all TV artists at that time. Because TV had become an important media at that time, they were very attractive to the audience.

The success of this film not only created a new film genre in the future, but also revived Cantonese movies.

Since then, many movies have taken the authentic street style, and the actors' interpretation has also had the taste of laughing and cursing.

The Xu Shi brothers who jumped from TV to movies were the mainstay of Hong Kong movies in 1970s and 1980s.

Since the mid-1970s, people's dominant reading mode has been the TV mode, and many Cantonese films have been inspired by TV content, such as The True Story of Alfred (1974), Daxiang Village (1974) and The Marriage in distress situation (1975).

Two brothers, Xu Guanwen and Samuel Hui, also jumped out of the box of TV comedies and took to the big screen, shooting a series of very popular comedies with their unique joke formulas: Ghost Horse (1974), Two Horses Almost (1976) and Sales Contract (1978).

These films not only made comedies gain unprecedented attention in the history of Hong Kong movies, but also promoted the birth of Kung Fu comedies.

From 65438 to 0978, Yuan Heping directed Snake Skillful Hand and Drunk Boxing, which established the status of Kung Fu comedy and made it the most representative film type in the late 1970s.

Kung fu comedies leave TV sensibility and attract audiences with intensive kung fu design and humorous juggling style; It can be said that it combines the essence of traditional Kung Fu movies and Xu Shi Brothers comedies.

As for the actors, Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung and so on. He also got rid of the heroic mode of martial arts stars in the past and approached the audience with a rebellious and playful image.

In addition to the films mentioned above, when it comes to Hong Kong films in the 1970s, we can't help but mention that the great director Li Hanxiang returned to Hong Kong from Taiwan Province to make a comeback and made fantastic films and tricks.

It seems that his film "The Mystery of Deception" filmed in 197 1 not only opened a new page in his film career, but also symbolized the change of Hong Kong's film consciousness in the 1970s-the rise of money-oriented style, which lasted until the 1980s.

However, the emergence of the new wave of Hong Kong movies of 1979 has brought a vivid and short-lived variation to Hong Kong movies.

1979 is an important milestone of Hong Kong film and the beginning of a new wave of Hong Kong film.

A large number of TV behind-the-scenes workers have turned to the film circle, including Xu Anhua, Guoming Zhang, Tan Jiaming, Yim Ho, Tsui Hark and Dennis Yu. With their passion for movies and young people's unique creativity and social sense, they have made many films full of personal colors, which has turned a new page for Hong Kong films.

The first to set off a new wave is 1979' s three works: Crazy Robbery (directed by Xu Anhua), Butterfly Change (directed by Tsui Hark) and Pointing at Soldiers (directed by Guoming Zhang).

Later, this group of young directors who studied movies abroad or were born in TV station Shaolin Temple went on to shoot one stylized film after another, including Allen Fong's Love between Father and Son (198 1), A Ying (1982) and Tsui Hark's The First Danger (1).

Although these new directors are named as "new wave directors", in fact, each of their works is very individual and does not fall into the traditional mode of Hong Kong film genre.

Xu Anhua's works reveal profound humanity and high female sensitivity; Tsui Hark is nervous; Allen Fong's style is simple and realistic; Yim Ho lingers between violent youth and indifference; Tan Jiaming takes middle-class aesthetics; Guoming Zhang is good at making * * * movies and so on, all of which reflect the aesthetics of "Author Theory" of New Wave movies.

The "New Wave" marks the break between Hong Kong films and the previous generation of China Cantonese films.

Cantonese movies in the 1950s and 1960s were often burdened with heavy national burdens and failed to break through innovation. "New Wave" movies have strong urban color and strong local flavor; This has a lot to do with the director growing up in Hong Kong and receiving education in the West.

In addition, the films of this period used big stars with caution, and the production cost was also controlled, which was completely different from the operation mode in which Hong Kong films flaunted the role of an anime star and made millions at every turn.

The eighties

Hong Kong's film industry has always been dominated by business, and the new wave films are unpopular, so it is inevitable that they will be eliminated.

In the early 1980s, the New Art City Film Company sprang up, attracting a large number of budding directors at that time: John Woo, Tsui Hark, Lin Lingdong, Gao Zhisen and so on. , and made a comedy-oriented commercial film.

What these films have in common is the collective creative mode of TV stations, which is full of dense jokes and actions, and everything is based on catering to the tastes of the audience. Representative works include Xu Shi Brothers Best Partner Series, Dragon and Tiger Storm, etc.

In the 80' s, apart from the New Art City, there was Debao Film Company.

Debao was founded in 1984. On the one hand, we shoot comedies (Ssangyong series, bustling palace), on the other hand, we also shoot action movies (royal sisters) or urban yuppie sketches (three-person world, single aristocrats) to meet the requirements of variety shows.

As for Jiahe Film Company, Jackie Chan continued to be the first film. He gradually became a real star in Plan A from the image of kung fu boy in Brother Out and Master Long, and was Jackie Chan's masterpiece in Never Give Up and Miracle.

Sammo Hung, a star of Debao who is also a martial artist, started the trend of fantasy films with Ghost (1980), and the series of Mr. Zombie also followed a similar style.

And his other series of films, Five Lucky Stars and Five Lucky Stars, have also achieved good box office results.

According to statistics, among the top ten Hong Kong films in the 1980s, New Art City accounted for 4 films and Golden Harvest for 5 films. Together with the prolific Debao (47 films were made in the five years from 1984 to 1989), the whole 1980s can be called a period when the three heroes acted independently.

Comparing with the new wave rising in the late 1970s, we will find that Hong Kong films in the 1980s paid too much attention to plot piling and star packaging, so the film genre was single, not to mention the author theory.

Some people think that the films of this period made stars, stifled the creation of directors and screenwriters, and made Hong Kong films come to a dead end. In addition, due to various factors such as 1989 economy and underdeveloped video market, the Hong Kong film market declined in the late 1980s.

Nevertheless, it is not an exaggeration to say that Hong Kong films in the 1980s are in a period of rapid development if we only look at box office results and investors' attitudes instead of measuring film quality or creativity.

From 65438 to 0990, Stephen Chow started his box office myth with The Gambler, and Stephen Chow has been dominating since 1990s.

Looking at Hong Kong movies in the 1990s, we can basically call them a hundred flowers blossom. We not only have a new generation of directors who made a smooth transition from the 1980s to the 1990s: Zhang Wanting (Fairy Tales in Autumn), Wong Kar-wai (Tears Running), Guan (Rouge Kou), Zhou Ji of Little People and so on. However, according to the tradition of Hong Kong movies, it is the box office.

This is the craze for martial arts action movies, and the craze for gambling movies and later series of young and dangerous people are no exception.

By the mid-1990s, the box office of Hong Kong-made films was declining, while western films were gradually rising.

Jurassic Park 1993 made a box office success of 60 million yuan for the first time, and Titanic of 1998 reached the top with 1. 1 billion yuan. This Hollywood A-class blockbuster, which lasted 195 days, also ranked first among the "top-grossing movies of this century 100", completely overwhelming the prestige in the 1980s.

Another reason for the decline of Hong Kong films in the 1990s was piracy.

The rise of the video market in the 1980s greatly reduced the film revenue. By the late 1990s, pirated VCD had dealt a heavy blow to the Hong Kong film market.

Many movies were pirated at midnight or after the premiere, and the customs and the police shirked their responsibilities. Later, Hong Kong began to face up to this problem, and the customs gradually stepped up its crackdown, which led to a slight convergence of pirated VCD activities.

The Hong Kong film industry has visited Beijing many times to discuss creative freedom and copyright issues with the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office and the Film Bureau, and also urged the central authorities to open the market.

After the reunification of 1997, the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Mr. * *, mentioned Hong Kong films for the first time in his policy address, and allocated 1 billion Hong Kong dollars to develop film technology, accepting applications for funding, which gave some comfort to Hong Kong filmmakers and made the 2000 Hong Kong Film Awards colorful.

Fortunately, Hong Kong filmmakers Yangwei International, Maggie Cheung, Xiao Fangfang and Wong Kar-wai have won awards in Berlin, Cannes and other international film festivals, and Hong Kong films have gradually attracted the attention of the international film industry.

Unfortunately, this has also led to brain drain in the film industry. Famous directors such as John Woo, Tang Jili, Yuan Heping and Lin Lingdong have gone to Hollywood to develop, and superstar actors such as Chow Yun Fat, Jackie Chan and Yang Ziqiong have also been attracted by Hollywood.

In the 1990s, the guarantee of selling tickets was "every two weeks 10%" (Chow Yun Fat, Stephen Chow, Jackie Chan).

With the outflow and joining of foreign aid, Hong Kong filmmakers have found many new faces in Asia. The most outstanding achievement is that Shu Qi, who became famous in Taiwan Province Province, successfully transformed from a star to a character actor in Hongkong, and achieved remarkable results.

After the mid-1990s, there was a craze for Japanese dramas in Hong Kong, and even the film industry recruited more Japanese actors to take part in Hong Kong films, mainly actresses, including Moonlight Express, Tokyo Raiders and Ah Fu. Of course, there were also many Japanese beauties who made jokes in Jackie Chan's films.

Sci-fi stunts have also been incorporated into Hong Kong movies in line with the global trend. Dominate the World and The Man Known as the Hero are successful examples, while the action films gen-x cops, Purple Rain Storm and Blue Blood Man specially invited foreign stunt experts to design explosion scenes, which amazed the audience.

To sum up, although Hong Kong films in the 1990s are eclipsed by those in the 1980s, they seem to be worse in creative ideas and film production.

Some small-budget independent films, such as "Crossing the Sea Tunnel" and "Heaven and Earth", also have the opportunity to be shown. Coupled with the emergence of digital movies, script creation has also received due attention.

I believe that in the new era, Hong Kong films will pursue higher quality and lead Asian films to international films.

However, we have to admit that compared with the good days when film companies spent a lot of money and actors performed nine plays a day in the 1980s, Hong Kong films in the 2000s were indeed full of crisis and gloom.

There are also miracles in the 1990s and several internationally famous names, such as Stephen Chow, Chow Yun Fat, Jackie Chan and so on.

2003 was the darkest year for Hong Kong film industry.

In addition to the continued economic downturn, the outbreak of SARS virus left many cinemas empty and film production stopped for four months. Only 54 films were made that year.

The death of two famous Hong Kong singers and actors, Leslie Cheung (46) and Anita Mui (40), made the film industry worse.

Stephen Chow's unique "Wulitou" comedy won the hearts of the people. His works Truant, Wei Long, Tang Bohu Lighting Autumn Fragrance and Gourmet are all comedy classics in the 1990s.

Since king of comedy, all works directed by Stephen Chow have been the annual box office champions of Hong Kong films.

Stephen Chow drastically cut production, while recuperating, while taking the road behind the scenes.

Chow Yun Fat has made a series of hero films and action films, which are basically popular with the audience, although they occasionally fail at the box office.

After entering Hollywood, he tried to shoot Anna and the King, in addition to the usual action movies (such as Blood Is Still Cold).

When I go to the mainland to play a supporting role (such as letting bullets fly and causing havoc in heaven), I can only shoot old movies like "Great Shanghai". Unfortunately, it only earned HK$ 5 million at the Hong Kong box office.

As for Jackie Chan, he usually keeps a big production every year, and the box office is still good. However, compared with the achievements in the 1990s, the films starring Jackie Chan after 2000 are no longer big sellers.

Unfortunately, it is difficult to break through the film style.

"Zodiac" has grossed over HK$ 8 million in Hong Kong.

In terms of directing, Jing Wong and Wong Kar-wai, the "two kings", are a pair of interesting films. A movie with a strong commercial flavor was even ridiculed as a "shit fart" director; The merger of a big star with little output and strong artistic flavor is often favored by international film festivals, and their film styles are different, but in the 2 1 century, Hong Kong films played a decisive role.

In addition, Du Qifeng, one of the founders of the New Wave, has also attracted much attention. His works are widely praised and welcomed, and he is becoming more and more personal.

In addition, Chen Guo, who became famous with Made in Hong Kong, successfully transformed from an independent film director to one of the mainstream film directors in Hong Kong.