As an important branch of Chinese cinema, the achievements of Hong Kong cinema are obvious to all. In special years, Hong Kong films have become a banner of Chinese films, especially in the field of commercial films, hong Kong films were once known as the "Hollywood of the East". As an early development of the Chinese film system, the core of the achievements of Hong Kong films comes from the efforts of all Chinese filmmakers. The early Hong Kong films were mainly due to the result of a group of mainland filmmakers who gathered in Hong Kong after the Liberation War. Of the four directors of Shaw Films, only Chu Yuan is basically a native of Hong Kong, and the rest of hu Jinquan, Li Hanxiang, Zhang Che and others do not even speak Cantonese.
The great director Wong Kar-wai we are familiar with, Jackie Chan, the representative figure of Hong Kong kung fu films, and jet Li, the kung fu emperor who later became famous in Hong Kong, all of them were transferred from the mainland to Hong Kong to develop their film careers. In a sense, Hong Kong cinema, in a time period, symbolizes a branch of Chinese civilization, wandering in this modern international city. Like the fate of Hong Kong's city, Hong Kong movies have also been outside the Chinese culture for a period of time. However, its spirit is retained within the Chinese culture.
Including Bruce Lee, who bravely broke into Hollywood, he also regarded himself as a Chinese, and the movie "Jingwumen" starring Bruce Lee later starred in Bruce Lee was also to some extent the inner portrayal of Bruce Lee's own life in the United States. In this film, Chen Zhen, the national hero played by Bruce Lee, flew on the screen and smashed the plaque of the foreigner, to a certain extent, it also symbolized that Chinese announced to the world in another way that our nation has stood up.
In Hong Kong movies, this spontaneous sense of national pride is partly due to the needs of the market, and this same pride also illustrates the spiritual appeal of Hong Kong people for a period of time. The inner subconscious in this mind, like the fate of Hong Kong cinema, drifts and ripples, but at the same time longs for a cultural destination. The rise of Hong Kong films in that year was entirely due to the motives of the external environment, and under the impetus of the market environment, Hong Kong films sprung up and became the most dynamic branch of Chinese films in that era.
From the Four Directors of Shaw, to Bruce Lee, to the bi-Weekly Cheng dynasty, Hong Kong films have dominated Chinese films for half a century with a variety of genre films such as martial arts, kung fu, nonsense comedy, gangster gunfights and so on. However, when the time came to the end of the last century, Hong Kong films began to decline due to the rise of mainland films, and in the late 1990s, Representatives of the Hong Kong film industry such as Li Hanxiang, Zhang Che and Stephen Chow began to try to create films in the mainland. It was also from this era that Hong Kong cinema began to fall apart. The core reason for this is also the deterioration of the external market environment.
Because of the huge size of the mainland film market and the increasingly open market, the small investment before Hong Kong films has begun to no longer meet the needs of the market, but is too large an investment, and the local market in Hong Kong is not enough to support the cost of film production. In addition, the technology of Hong Kong films is basically an imported product. Due to the lack of core competitive resources, Hong Kong films soon fell into an embarrassing situation. Under such circumstances, some of Hong Kong's top filmmakers have tried to turn to Hollywood, and the representatives of this include Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Chow Yun Fat and other superstars.
The reason why Hollywood absorbs these Chinese stars is that they are eager to develop the Chinese film market more effectively in this way. In addition to going to Hollywood to develop, that is, to go to the mainland, the most representative is Andy Lau, Leung Chao-wai, Stephen Chow and other people, these people represent the film memory of a generation, they went to the mainland film market to develop, with a feeling of their own, these selling points, so that Hong Kong films in a way to fragment, survive in other markets.
But this way can no longer ensure the original taste of Hong Kong films, take Stephen Chow, as a representative of nonsense comedy in the Hong Kong film system, after Chow Xingchi went to the mainland to develop, many of the actors he used began to be no longer local actors in Hong Kong, and many dialects of comedy are no longer applicable at this time. Such a creative environment has greatly reduced Zhou Xingchi's play. And there are some directors, they are purely behind the scenes, such as Lin Chaoxian, Xu Ke and others, many people after watching the film, even have no way to judge that the creator of the film is a Hong Kong filmmaker.
But a closer look at the style of the entire film reveals the hints of it. Hong Kong films, because the local market is relatively small, so they must complete acclaimed and well-sold film at the lowest possible cost. It is not possible to make money in the market environment, and movies, as works of art, have a certain artistic orientation. Under the influence of multiple factors, Hong Kong films have solved many problems between film cost and effect in an extremely ingenious way. However, from the overall point of view, we will inevitably find that Hong Kong movies are freehand enough, but at the same time, it also shows that Hong Kong movies are not atmospheric and calm in some locations.
Therefore, some Mainland films directed by Hong Kong directors have a distinctly exquisite feeling. Whether in the arrangement of the plot or the conception of the story, there is a pyrotechnic gas that comes with It in Hong Kong movies. This is different from many mainland filmmakers, when we watch Hong Kong movies, whether it is Wong Kar-wai's literary films or Bruce Lee's kung fu films, there are some food arrangements in them, which always pull the audience into real life at once.
Nowadays, there are fewer and fewer authentic Hong Kong films, and the shrinking local film market in Hong Kong also indicates the overall decline of Hong Kong films, under such circumstances, Hong Kong filmmakers, with the mission of Hong Kong films, with their personal professional demands, have integrated into other Chinese film systems. At this time, the return of Hong Kong cinema is like those filmmakers who wandered to Hong Kong decades ago, they use film to balance the helplessness of life, and they use movies to stick to their inner beliefs.
To a certain extent, the art of cinema is a collective dream in human life. Hong Kong filmmakers, with their feelings, on the screen, have created the collective dream of the Chinese, and also showed the misfortune and helplessness of their individual destiny. In the midst of wandering and wandering, Hong Kong films use a unique perspective to interpret the self-deprecation, humor and taste of life that are not easy to show in traditional Chinese culture. At the same time, in such a situation, Hong Kong movies still carry a unique wind bone, just like those martial arts movies and kung fu movies show, even in any situation, we still have our own persistence and pursuit. This is also the most core quality in traditional Chinese culture.
Now that Hong Kong cinema has completed its phased mission, the integration of Hong Kong cinema and mainland cinema at this moment is more like the cultural return of Hong Kong cinema after a hundred years of wandering.