Hong Kong Action Films’ Aesthetics of Violence

Its Social Environment and Decline in the 21st Century

DOI

10.2991/assehr.k.220110.023How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Hong Kong action films; aesthetics of violence; Cantonese films; Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA)

Abstract

Hong Kong films with Cantonese as the main language have long been a significant part of Hong Kong’s popular culture. The main themes of action movies with Kung fu films, gangster gunfights, and police-and-bandit films have become a major representative. As an important embodiment of violent aesthetics, a literary form in the history of films, shooting, fighting, chasing, and other scenes that can be seen in most actions films bring a multi-sensory feast to the audience. As time passed, this artistically presenting cruel and bloody scenes has changed in Hong Kong action films. Taking police and bandit films as an example, compared with the last century, the presentation of violent aesthetics in them seems to be gradually weakened. The reasons accounting for this phenomenon are complex and diverse. Political, economical and value factors have played an important role. For example, the signing of the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement in 2003 has brought closer ties between mainland China and Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR). With the mainland market’s increasing importance, filmmakers in this special administrative region have been facing a new market environment and censorship, and they have to adjust their products to meet a larger market needs. In addition, Hong Kong society’s pursuit of the rule of law and harmonious and stable values also played an influential role in declining the direct representation of violence in films. The new action film racing fire, released in China on July 30, 2021, seems to bring some different voices.

Copyright

© 2022 The Authors. Published by Atlantis Press SARL.

Open Access

This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC license.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Antong Chen
PY  - 2022
DA  - 2022/01/28
TI  - Hong Kong Action Films’ Aesthetics of Violence
BT  - Proceedings of the 2021 International Conference on Public Art and Human Development ( ICPAHD 2021)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 118
EP  - 122
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.220110.023
DO  - 10.2991/assehr.k.220110.023
ID  - Chen2022
ER  -