Abstract
In the previous chapter we have examined the way in which the ‘new Hong Kong action film’ has transformed certain stylistic and thematic patterns to update and critically re-engage the local in contemporary cinematic parlance. This chapter continues this line of inquiry by extending it to a related sub-genre, the comic kung fu film. I will anchor my discussion on two recent works by Hong Kong’s number one comedic actor-director1 Stephen Chow, namely Shaolin Soccer/Shaolin zuqiu and Kung Fu Hustle/Kung fu. Chow is well known to the local audience for his consistently hyperbolic, farcical screen persona. To the extent that Chow’s career as a comedian has been built upon his travesty of social norms, especially those regarding graphic depictions of bodily excesses and the creative deployment of archaic Cantonese linguistic markers, puns, and in-jokes, the popular appeal of the king of comedy has been confined largely to Hong Kong and other Cantonese-speaking communities in the region. More recently, especially after Shaolin Soccer, Chow is better known to audiences in Mainland China. Chow’s recent breakthroughs on the international markets signal a conscious self-transformation of the actor-director, and hence the different strategy of embracing the local popular culture—his all-time favourite and inspiration—in order to go beyond the geographical and linguistic confines of the local itself.
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Notes
See, for example, Sheldon Xiaopeng Lu (1997), Transnational Chinese Cinemas: Identity, Nationhood, Gender, pp. 1–32.
Yomi Braester (2005), ‘Chinese Cinema in the Age of Advertisement: The Filmmaker as a Cultural Broker’, The China Quarterly 183, p. 550.
Siu Leung Li (2001), ‘Kung Fu: Negotiating Nationalism and Modernity’, Cultural Studies 15:3/4, p. 522.
Simon During, quoted in Meaghan Morris (2004), ‘Transnational Imagination in Action Cinema: Hong Kong and the Making of a Global Popular Culture’, Inter-Asia Cultural Studies 5:2, p. 184.
Christina Klein (2004), ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: A Diasporic Reading’, Cinema Journal 43:4, pp. 18–42.
Srinivas, S. V. (2005), ‘Kung Fu Hustle: A Note on the Local’, Inter-Asia Cultural Studies 6:2, p. 294.
For a discussion on Jackie Chan’s effort to break into the US market, see Steve Fore (2001), ‘Life Imitates Entertainment: Home and Dislocation in the Films of Jackie Chan’, Esther Yau, ed., At Full speed, pp. 115–141.
See also Leo Hunt’s essay on Jet Li (2003) in Kung Fu Cult Masters, pp. 140–156.
Gary Xu (2007), Sinascape: Contemporary Chinese Cinema, pp. 89–93.
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© 2009 Vivian P. Y. Lee
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Lee, V.P.Y. (2009). The Kung Fu Hero in the Digital Age: Stephen Chow’s ‘Glocal’ Strategies. In: Hong Kong Cinema Since 1997. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230245433_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230245433_6
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-30694-7
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