Abstract
Directed by Johnnie To in 2011, Life Without Principle addresses the problem of irregularities in contemporary Hong Kong’s financial sector, where the wicked prosper at the expense of the vulnerable. The global financial crisis in 2008 undermined the gradual recovery of Hong Kong from the aftermaths of the Asian financial storm in 1997. Many Hong Kong residents lost their savings following the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers. Even though local banks misled clients to purchase high-risk financial products, the Hong Kong government only required the banks to pay partial compensation to victims. The film critiqued the deregulation of the financial industry in post-1997 Hong Kong as being obsessed with profit at any cost.
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Cheung, SK. (2016). Life Without Principle: Financial Irregularities in Hong Kong. In: Lee, JH., Kolluri, S. (eds) Hong Kong and Bollywood. Global Cinema. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-94932-8_10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-94932-8_10
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