Chinese cinema continues to go from strength to strength. After art-house hits like Chen Kaige's Yellow Earth (1984) and Wong Kar-wai's In the Mood for Love (2000), the Oscar-winning success of Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (2000) disproved the old myth that subtitled films could not succeed at the multiplex. Chinese Films in Focus II updates and expands the original Chinese Films in Focus: 25 New Takes with fourteen brand new essays, to offer thirty-four fresh and insightful readings of key individual films. The new edition addresses films from mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and other parts of the Chinese diaspora and the historical coverage ranges from the 1930s to the present.
The essays, by leading authorities on Chinese cinema as well as up-and-coming scholars, are concise, accessible, rich, and on the cutting edge of current research. Each contributor outlines existing writing and presents an original perspective on the film, making this volume a rich resource for classroom use, scholarly research and general reading for anyone wanting to understand more about the historical development and rich variety of Chinese cinema.
Contributors: Annette Aw, Chris Berry, Yomi Braester, Felicia Chan, Esther Cheung, Robert Chi, Rey Chow, Mary Farquhar, Carolyn FitzGerald, Ping Fu, Kristine Harris, Margaret Hillenbrand, Brian Hu, Tan See Kam, Haiyan Lee, Vivian Lee, Helen Hok-Sze Leung, David Leiwei Li, Song Hwee Lim, Kam Louie, Fran Martin, Jason McGrath, Corrado Neri, Jonathan Noble, Beremoce Reynaud, Cui Shuqin, Julian Stringer, Janice Tong, Yiman Wang, Faye Hui Xiao, Gang Gary Xu, Audrey Yue, Yingjin Zhang, John Zou
The Editor: Chris Berry is Professor of Film and Television at Goldsmiths, University of London.
Introduction: One Film at a Time; C. Berry
15: Deciphering the Local and 'Slanging Up' to the Global; S. Hwee Lim
Big Shot's Funeral: Performing a Postmodern Cinema of Attractions; Y. Zhang
Black Cannon Incident: Countering the Counterespionage Fantasy; J. McGrath
Blind Shaft: Underground as Trope; J. Noble
Boat People: Second Thoughts on Text and Context; J. Stringer
Centre Stage: A Shadow in Reverse; B. Reynaud
A Chinese Ghost Story: Ghostly Counsel and Innocent Man; J. Zou
Chungking Express: Time and its Displacements; J. Tong
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Cultural Migrancy and Translatability; F. Chan
Crows and Sparrows: Allegory on a Historical Threshold; Y. Wang
Durian, Durian: Defamiliarisation of the 'Real'; E. Cheung
Ermo: (Tele)Visualizing Urban/Rural Transformation; P. Fu
Farewell My Concubine: National Myth and City Memories; Y. Braester
Flowers of Shanghai: Visualizing Ellipses and (Colonial) Absence; G. Gary Xu
Formula 17: Mainstream in the Margins; B. Hu
The Goddess: Fallen Woman of Shanghai; K. Harris
Hero: The Return of a Traditional Masculine Ideal in China; K. Louie
In The Mood for Love: Intersections of Hong Kong Modernity; A. Yue
Kekexili: Mountain Patrol—Moral Dilemma and a Man with a Camera; S. Cui
Love Eterne: Almost a (Heterosexual) Love Story; T. See Kam and A. Aw
Not One Less: The Fable of a Migration; R. Chow
The Personals: Backward Glances, Knowing Looks, and the Voyeur Film; M. Hillenbrand
PTU: Re-mapping the Cosmopolitan Crime Zone; V. Lee
The Red Detachment of Women: Resenting, Regendering, Remembering; R. Chi
Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles: Redeeming the Father by Way of Japan; F. Hui Xiao
Spring in a Small Town: Gazing at Ruins; C. FitzGerald
Suzhou River: Visual Fetishism and the Defamiliarisation of Shanghai; A. C.Y. Huang
A Time to Live, A Time to Die: A Time to Grow; C. Neri
A Touch of Zen: Action in Martial Arts Movies; M. Farquhar
Vive L'Amour: Eloquent Emptiness; F. Martin
Wedding Banquet: A Family Affair; C. Berry
Woman, Demon, Human: The Spectral Journey Home; H. Lee
Xiao Wu: Watching Time Go By; C. Berry
Yellow Earth: Hesitant Apprenticeship and Bitter Agency; H. Hok-Sze Leung
Yi Yi: Reflections on Reflexive Modernity in Taiwan; D. Leiwei Li
CHRIS BERRY is Professor of Film and Television Studies, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK. He is the author and editor of many books, including Cinema and the National: China on Screen (co-authored with Mary Farquhar, Columbia University Press and Hong Kong University Press, 2006) and Postsocialist Cinema in Post-Mao China: The Cultural Revolution after the Cultural Revolution (Routledge, 2004).
Description
Chinese cinema continues to go from strength to strength. After art-house hits like Chen Kaige's Yellow Earth (1984) and Wong Kar-wai's In the Mood for Love (2000), the Oscar-winning success of Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (2000) disproved the old myth that subtitled films could not succeed at the multiplex. Chinese Films in Focus II updates and expands the original Chinese Films in Focus: 25 New Takes with fourteen brand new essays, to offer thirty-four fresh and insightful readings of key individual films. The new edition addresses films from mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and other parts of the Chinese diaspora and the historical coverage ranges from the 1930s to the present.
The essays, by leading authorities on Chinese cinema as well as up-and-coming scholars, are concise, accessible, rich, and on the cutting edge of current research. Each contributor outlines existing writing and presents an original perspective on the film, making this volume a rich resource for classroom use, scholarly research and general reading for anyone wanting to understand more about the historical development and rich variety of Chinese cinema.
Contributors: Annette Aw, Chris Berry, Yomi Braester, Felicia Chan, Esther Cheung, Robert Chi, Rey Chow, Mary Farquhar, Carolyn FitzGerald, Ping Fu, Kristine Harris, Margaret Hillenbrand, Brian Hu, Tan See Kam, Haiyan Lee, Vivian Lee, Helen Hok-Sze Leung, David Leiwei Li, Song Hwee Lim, Kam Louie, Fran Martin, Jason McGrath, Corrado Neri, Jonathan Noble, Beremoce Reynaud, Cui Shuqin, Julian Stringer, Janice Tong, Yiman Wang, Faye Hui Xiao, Gang Gary Xu, Audrey Yue, Yingjin Zhang, John Zou
The Editor: Chris Berry is Professor of Film and Television at Goldsmiths, University of London.
Contents
Introduction: One Film at a Time; C. Berry
15: Deciphering the Local and 'Slanging Up' to the Global; S. Hwee Lim
Big Shot's Funeral: Performing a Postmodern Cinema of Attractions; Y. Zhang
Black Cannon Incident: Countering the Counterespionage Fantasy; J. McGrath
Blind Shaft: Underground as Trope; J. Noble
Boat People: Second Thoughts on Text and Context; J. Stringer
Centre Stage: A Shadow in Reverse; B. Reynaud
A Chinese Ghost Story: Ghostly Counsel and Innocent Man; J. Zou
Chungking Express: Time and its Displacements; J. Tong
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Cultural Migrancy and Translatability; F. Chan
Crows and Sparrows: Allegory on a Historical Threshold; Y. Wang
Durian, Durian: Defamiliarisation of the 'Real'; E. Cheung
Ermo: (Tele)Visualizing Urban/Rural Transformation; P. Fu
Farewell My Concubine: National Myth and City Memories; Y. Braester
Flowers of Shanghai: Visualizing Ellipses and (Colonial) Absence; G. Gary Xu
Formula 17: Mainstream in the Margins; B. Hu
The Goddess: Fallen Woman of Shanghai; K. Harris
Hero: The Return of a Traditional Masculine Ideal in China; K. Louie
In The Mood for Love: Intersections of Hong Kong Modernity; A. Yue
Kekexili: Mountain Patrol—Moral Dilemma and a Man with a Camera; S. Cui
Love Eterne: Almost a (Heterosexual) Love Story; T. See Kam and A. Aw
Not One Less: The Fable of a Migration; R. Chow
The Personals: Backward Glances, Knowing Looks, and the Voyeur Film; M. Hillenbrand
PTU: Re-mapping the Cosmopolitan Crime Zone; V. Lee
The Red Detachment of Women: Resenting, Regendering, Remembering; R. Chi
Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles: Redeeming the Father by Way of Japan; F. Hui Xiao
Spring in a Small Town: Gazing at Ruins; C. FitzGerald
Suzhou River: Visual Fetishism and the Defamiliarisation of Shanghai; A. C.Y. Huang
A Time to Live, A Time to Die: A Time to Grow; C. Neri
A Touch of Zen: Action in Martial Arts Movies; M. Farquhar
Vive L'Amour: Eloquent Emptiness; F. Martin
Wedding Banquet: A Family Affair; C. Berry
Woman, Demon, Human: The Spectral Journey Home; H. Lee
Xiao Wu: Watching Time Go By; C. Berry
Yellow Earth: Hesitant Apprenticeship and Bitter Agency; H. Hok-Sze Leung
Yi Yi: Reflections on Reflexive Modernity in Taiwan; D. Leiwei Li
Authors
CHRIS BERRY is Professor of Film and Television Studies, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK. He is the author and editor of many books, including Cinema and the National: China on Screen (co-authored with Mary Farquhar, Columbia University Press and Hong Kong University Press, 2006) and Postsocialist Cinema in Post-Mao China: The Cultural Revolution after the Cultural Revolution (Routledge, 2004).
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