In Shanghai Blues, a 1984 screwball comedy by Hong Kong legend Tsui Hark, we don’t ever see Hong Kong, but we know that it is the destination of our two lovers departing postwar Shanghai in 1947. In a fantastic train-ride finale, Shu Shu and Tung run towards each other across crowded carriages to embark on a new life together.
Hong Kong promises boundless beginnings. Its cinema is characterised by these departures and entries, by ephemerality and a melting-pot city defined by contradictions. Hawker stalls linger under skyscrapers; policemen and gangsters belong to one family; comedy and tragedy always sit side by side.
From the late 1970s to the end of the 1990s, Hong Kong had one of the biggest film industries in the world, dominating the box office across east Asia
From the late 1970s to the end of the 1990s, Hong Kong had one of the biggest film industries in the world, dominating the box office across east Asia and surpassing almost all western countries in the number of films produced. The age is marked by multiple genres — the action films of John Woo, the stylised romanticism of Wong Kar-wai, Ann Hui’s humanist dramas and Stanley Kwan’s excavations of film history. This month, Ho Tzu Nyen’s futuristic animation “Night Charades” takes over the facade of the city’s M+ museum, with a tribute to such classic Hong Kong films. The artist re-enacts familiar scenes, and then eerily estranges them through his slick AI imagery.