Films of Fury Seminar – Globalizing Hong Kong Cinema in the 1950s and 60s

Films of Fury Seminar -- Globalizing Hong Kong Cinema in the 1950s and 60s

David Desser - Professor of Cinema Studies, Comparative Literature, and EALC Research Professor

Friday, April 11, 2008 - 3:00pm to 4:30pm
Room 203, Henry R. Luce Hall See map
34 Hillhouse Avenue
New Haven, CT 6511

By the 1970s, Hong Kong had become a truly global force in international cinema, not only solidifying a trans-Asian audience appeal, but breaking into the coveted Euro-American film market. By the 1990s, Hong Kong was recognized as one of the world’s premier film-producing sites. But there is a history to the efforts of Hong Kong to achieve international appeal and global prominence. This talk will outline the various strategies employed by the two major Mandarin-language film studios, MP&GI (Cathay) and Shaw Bros, to break out of the local and diasporic film circuits, culminating in the triumph of martial arts movies in the mid-1960s–that would lead to the eventual global breakthrough in the 1970s.

Tags: 
Region: 
China, Japan, Korea, Transregional, Taiwan, Hong Kong