Context

• what is the handover?

  When power over hong kong was handed over from Britian to China in 1997, lasting 50 years (until 2047).
• one country two states
• HONG KONG IN THE 60s

  Economic growth prospered to a level where it became one of the 'four Asian tigers'

  As a result, living standards drastically improved and job opportunities increased.

  Political turbulence: causing a series of riots.

  1967 - pro-communists rallied against Britain's colonial rule.
• From 1990 to 2004 Wong Kar-Wai channelled a personal and aesthetically idiosyncratic vision of the Hong Kong from his childhood in the 1960s.
• Theorist stated 'the history of hong kong is marked by a conspicuous lack of resistance against colonialism.'
• Hong Kong became decolonized in 1997 because the territory came to a 'natural end.'
• What did the Hong Kong decolonization lead to among the people?

  Apprehension and lack of joy, due to the 'lack of a fixed identity for the population, which has characterized the region since the mid nineteenth century.'
• Fallen Angels epitomized HK identity crisis via its characters.
• Cinematographer?


  Christopher Doyle
• Producer?


  Lau
• Editor?


  William Chang
• Genres?


  Neo-noir

  Romance

  Crime - comedy - drama
• In 1848, China gave Hong Kong to the British for 99 years, creating this dislocated status and lack of identity for Hong Kong reflected in the protagonists.
• What developed in cinema from 1960 - 2000?

  The rise of auteur directors

  New waves

  Political films

  Post modernism

  Cult films
• What's post-modernism?



  A post WW2 period where there was a loss of faith in modernity, this manifested in an emphasis on playfulness, playing with genre and the above representing a collapse of confidence in reality