Customer Reviews

City on Fire: Hong Kong Cinema

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Honestly, I didn't think it was quite as good as the industry reviews above made it out to be. However, it must be said that there simply aren't many significant works on this topic, and as far as I can tell, this is THE benchmark work on the subject. The research was thorough enough, covering all major genres of Hong Kong cinema, and not just the actioners which made their way Stateside. If you are a Hong Kong film fan looking for a resource to guide your next purchase or rental, this is worth the investment.One complaint though: the authors tie EVERYthing to the 1997 return of Hong Kong from Great Britain back to China; I realize that the impending handover contributed strongly to the atmosphere of HK filmmaking (the point of the title), but some of the connections they made seem to stretch credulity.

City on Fire: Hong Kong Cimema is an excellent reference for studying the political and social structures of recent Hong Kong films. The book provides many insightful thoughts linking together the encoaching fear of the 1997 handover and Hong Kong capitalism to the film industy's increasing energy. As an added benefit I learned much about Hong Kong culture and society. Highly Recommended!

I truly enjoyed reading this book. The authors are obviously very literate people. The book is written as an in-depth introduction to some very good HK films. Each film reviewed is broken down; its characters are studied, as is the overall theme of each film. I recommend this book over ones like Sex and Zen and a Bullet in the Head, because City on Fire treats the films with understanding and respect. HK films aren't all just kung-fu and category 3 (similar to NC-17 in the U.S.) There are some fine dramas and action films that need to be treated with respect, because some of the finest films ever made come from Hong Kong and this book gives those films the respect they deserve.

City on Fire is a shining star among Hong Kong cinema books. As John Lent writes in the foreword "The distinguishing marks of the Stokes and Hoover book are the socio-historical context in which the films are placed and the critical political economy approach of the analysis." The authors detail the history of HK cinema by using plot summaries, personal interviews, and a variety of theoretical points of view. Well-researched, enticing, and understandable.

A terrifically useful guide for the HK film fan, and the endnotes are a wealth of information for researchers and writers. It's a most affectionate account of the films of the 1980s and 1990s, and provides a quite Confucian reading of the cultural and political background against which the films were made. Gossipy too -- a bonus!

This book's chapter titles are the best thing about it and everything the rest of this pretentious "trying too hard to be seriously academic and completely missing the point" work is not: I.e., clever, cute and a(n apparent) homage to Hong Kong movies and those who make them). I sincerely doubt that "City on Fire" (the book; not the movie or the web site) will make new Hong Kong movie fans out of anyone, predict that genuine enthusiasts will be disappointed (if not appalled), and serious scholars will laugh at this bid for academic respectability by two community college professors. As for those individuals (e.g., Donnie Yen) who endorsed this absolutely horrendous work...Shame on them, be it for seeking free publicity or not really reading the book before doing so, or both.

On a more laudatory note: Those who would like to learn more about and be well guided through the world of Hong Kong movies would be well advised to check out, instead, Stefan Hammond and Mike Wilkins' ""Sex and Zen" & "A Bullet in the Head: The Essential Guide to Hong Kong's Mind-Bending Films".

This book coheres around the premise that Hong Kong's social conditions in the 1980s and 1990s affected Hong Kong films in a significant way. The authors offer a large-scale interpretation that conveys the historical, moral and psychological issues at stake and their analyses of individual movies are generally right on the mark. I came away seeing the films with fresh eyes and in new and richer ways.

This book over-analyzes every film made in Hong Kong between the years 1980 to 1997. According to the authors every film is an analogy for the handover of Hong Kong back to China. And granted plenty were(John Woo's films for example) but I hardly think that Jackie Chan's fall from the clock tower in PROJECT A was an analogy for the falling value of the HK dollar. I would only suggest this book for fans of the genre. And even fans will be disappointed.