Focusing on the impact of individual personalities, Kar...and Bren...introduce readers to Hong Kong's contribution to world cinema across the 20th century. In particular they explore the period from the beginning of cinema itself in the 1890s to roughly the 1970s, because' it's the source of what is produced in Hong Kong today. Their work is less a formal history than ... Read morea view and review of the Hong Kong story, told through the pioneers, film workers, studio tycoons, Cantonese opera superstar, and others who shaped it.
Reference and Research Book News
...a readable and informative collaboration that explores Eastern and Western influences on Hong Kong cinema and Hong Kong's interaction with its markets in China and Southeast Asia....Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals.
CHOICE
Law Kar and Frank Bren's Hong Kong Cinema: A Cross-Cultural View is a detailed historical overview of cinema in Hong Kong. Placing Hong Kong cinema in the larger Chinese and regional context, this book moves from the earliest appearances of cinema in China to the 1970s, or the period in which contemporary Hong Kong cinema was in gestation. The lists of archives and libraries consulted and newspapers scoured, along with the appendices of detail and fact attest to the authors' commitment to primary research. At the same time, the engaging narrative that they produce demonstrates their genuine enthusiasm for a cinema they clearly love very deeply. For scholars of Hong Kong cinema, this will be a most useful mine of information....this engagingly written and meticulously produced work does not deserve to be overlooked, and I am sure that those who turn to it will find it very rewarding.
China Quarterly
A highly readable account, Hong Kong Cinema is as enjoyable for the non-specialized general reader as it is for those in the film industry looking to flesh out their knowledge of the Hong Kong film industry.
The Bookwatch
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