Nascent Filmmakers in Hong Kong, 2000-2020

This book explores the commerce-art-politics nexus of Hong Kong cinema from 2000 to 2020, focusing on the emerging filmmakers who joined the industry during the dominance of Hong Kong/mainland co-productions. It investigates the artistic and ideological discrepancies between this generation and their predecessors and argues that post-2000 Hong Kong cinema has split into two: a transnational cinema represented by the established generation and a national cinema driven by the nascent generation.

Format: Hardback
Length: 216 pages
Publication date: 15 June 2023
Publisher: Lexington Books

This comprehensive book delves into the intricate interplay of commerce, art, and politics in Hong Kong cinema from 2000 to 2020, shedding light on the emerging generation of film workers who joined the industry during its transition into a period characterized by the prevalence of Hong Kong/mainland co-productions. In his exploration, Fangyu Chen delves into the filmmaking ideologies of these emerging filmmakers, both within and beyond their film texts, uncovering the artistic and ideological disparities between this generation and their predecessors, the established generation who played a significant role in the glory days of Hong Kong cinema during its economic boom. By tracing the studies of national cinema and transnational cinema, Chen challenges the notion of national/transnational antagonism in the case of post-2000 Hong Kong cinema and argues that it has evolved into two distinct entities: a transnational cinema represented by the established filmmakers and a national cinema driven by the nascent generation, who are ardently striving to preserve Hong Kong's local culture and their own cultural identities.

Employing a Hong Kong/mainland film dynamics perspective, this study fills a gap in the academic study of Hong Kong cinema, focusing on the material conditions and artistic visions of the craft labor within the industry. Scholars of communication, film studies, and labor economics will find this book particularly insightful and valuable.

Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781666911954