Hong Kong Crime Films : : Criminal Realism, Censorship and Society, 1947-1986 / / Kristof Van den Troost.

• VerfasserIn: Van den Troost, Kristof,
• Place / Publishing House: Edinburgh : : Edinburgh University Press, , [2023]; 2023
• Year of Publication: 2023
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (256 p.) :; 27 B/W illustrations 1 B/W tables 27 b&w images and 1 table

Examines the history of the Hong Kong crime film before 1986Departs from the predominant focus on action aesthetics in studies of Hong Kong cinema to focus on the early crime film's close links to local society and politicsDraws on years of research on censorship and the crime film in archives in Hong Kong and in the United KingdomProvides ample evidence of the often-overlooked role film censorship played in shaping Hong Kong genre cinemaConnects the appearance of the modern crime film in the late 1960s and 1970s to the growing consciousness of a distinctive Hong Kong identityHong Kong Crime Films is the first book detailing the post-war history of the genre before the release of John Woo's A Better Tomorrow (1986), the film that put Hong Kong action-crime on the global map. Focusing on what it calls the mode of 'criminal realism' in the crime film, the book shows how depictions of Hong Kong's social reality (including crime) were for decades anxiously policed by colonial censors, and how crime films tended (and still tend) to confound and transgress critical definitions of realism.Drawing on extensive archival research, Hong Kong Crime Films covers several neglected topics in the study of Hong Kong cinema, such as the evolving generic landscape of the crime film prior to the 1980s, the influence of colonial film censorship on the genre, and the prominence and contestation of realism" in the local history of the crime film."

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- List of Illustrations -- Acknowledgements -- Notes on Transliteration -- Introduction: Criminal Realism -- Part I: The Generic Landscape of the Post-War Hong Kong Crime Film, 1947-1969 -- 1. Gangsters and Unofficial Justice Fighters: Realist Lunlipian versus Action-Adventure Films -- 2. Detectives and Suspense Thrillers: Remaking Hitchcock in Hong Kong -- Intermezzo: Censorship of Cinematic Crime and Violence in Colonial Hong Kong -- Part II: The Modern Hong Kong Crime Film, Criminal Realism and Hong Kong Identity, 1969-1986 -- 3. A New Form of Criminal Realism -- 4. Crime Films and Hong Kong Identity -- 5. The New Wave, Critical Discourse and Deepening Localisation -- Afterword: The Uncertain Present and Future of Criminal Realism in Hong Kong -- Glossary -- Filmography -- Bibliography -- Index