Hong Kong

IN A MOOD FOR REFLECTION:
HONG KONG CINEMA AND GLOBALIZATION

The distinguished American filmmaker Martin Scorsese's latest film The Departed (2006) has been a financial as well as a critical success. It is his most popular film in terms of box-office returns, while it has been acclaimed critically; it has been nominated for numerous prestigious awards and won Oscars for Best Picture, Achievement in Directing, and Best Adapted Screenplay. What is interesting about this film is that it is a re-make of the Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs. Internal Affairs is a trilogy (2002-2003) co-directed by Andrew Lau and Alan Mak. It is a film that reinvigorated the Hong Kong film industry and inspired hope in the minds of many Hong Kong movie-goers about the future of the Hong Kong film industry. If, as some felt, the current predicament of the Hong Kong film industry issued from a collective cultural failure of nerve, this film could be regarded as one possible answer. Hence, in this essay we would like to make it the point of departure for our discussion of Hong Kong cinema and globalization...

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