Member HyperDrive Posted June 9, 2009 Member Share Posted June 9, 2009 In the years leading up to the 1997 transition, some HK movies have scenes that tease the mainland. Gambling Ghost, with Sammo Hung, has several scenes making fun of mainland officials. For example, Sammo comes across a car-theft operation run by a PRC military unit. Then, Mang Hoi and him disguise themselves as communist officials and lead people to think they're the real thing by major public misconduct. There might be another scene where a PRC official slaps a woman's behind and the HK dude with says "That's illegal here", and the dude brags "It won't when the mainland takes over!" or something to that extent. Then, The Story of the Gun, with Gordon Liu, is another one. One of the head badguys is the daughter of a PRC official. Liu busts some people on a bus in Shenzhen only to be bummed when the police and them light cigarettes and taunt him. The mainland detective Liu works with asks him to look the other way while stealing money from a raid to support his family. Any others? I thought it be an interesting topic since a lot of HK stars are now sucking up to the mainland bigtime. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member AbeRudder Posted June 9, 2009 Member Share Posted June 9, 2009 Wasn't Nina Li beaten up in Tiger on the Beat because she won a hong kong beauty pageant despite being a mainlander? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member TibetanWhiteCrane Posted June 9, 2009 Member Share Posted June 9, 2009 Wasn't Nina Li beaten up in Tiger on the Beat because she won a hong kong beauty pageant despite being a mainlander? Yeah, she was not well liked in HK, and people liked seeing her get abused.... those darn hongkie's:D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member hkpyanfar Posted June 9, 2009 Member Share Posted June 9, 2009 Brother of Darkness, a low-brow Cat III film, rises above the muck with some pointed criticism of the PRC government. Not just a tittilating film, but not a great film either. Just better than the subject suggests. Another Meltdown (US title)/Black Sheep Affair (HK title) has a scene recreating (perhaps using some news footage on file?) the Tianamin Square Massacre, although it is not named as such in the film. This is another actioner that strays into forbidden territory. Numerous action films have criminals comming from the povery-stricken mainland to get cash in rich HK. (Police Story III, New Killers in Town, etc.) Tactical Unit:No Way Out features an illegal immigrant from the Mainland having a terrible life in HK, perhaps more a comment on HK than the Mainland. Treasure Hunt, with Chow Yun Fat has some criticism of the military, perhaps with corrupt generals. It's been a while since I've seen the film, so it might be a different movie. This was made after the transition, but Shu Qi was in a film set in the labor camps during the cultural revolution. Sorry, but I forgot the title. (I looked it up; it's called The Foliage) Then there is To Live, a drama set in turbulent communist years of the forming PRC. This though I think is a mainland film. Some films, like Eastern Condors and Bury Me High, are set in a communist country, not the mainland, but the portrayal of evil can be seen as applying to the mainland. I'm sure others can come up with more movies that have some aspect of criticism of the mainland. Anyway, I always enjoy seeing some political comment, even if it is just humor because it seems such a brave thing to do for so little pay off. This can be an interesting discussion. Hats off to courageous HK film makers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Markgway Posted June 9, 2009 Share Posted June 9, 2009 Lol... Hong Kong filmmakers now are stuck so far up the Mainland's ass it's not even funny. At least half of all HK productions made now are co-productions with China. Political commentary is all but dead in the PRC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member hkpyanfar Posted June 9, 2009 Member Share Posted June 9, 2009 You're right; attitude towards the mainland has changed since the handover. Pre-handover, characters would make fun of mainlanders who couldn't speak Cantonese or English. Post-handover, you can see characters chiding others to drop English and speak Chinese! However, The Foliage, the Shu Qi movie set in the re-education camps, was made in the mainland in 2003, so sometimes I am suprised by what filmmakers can do there. But you are right; current HK films usually have positive views of the mainland and avoid political topics. You need to look to past films for that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member dragonherb Posted June 9, 2009 Member Share Posted June 9, 2009 Some comedies poked fun about mainlanders, the "Her Fatal Ways" movies for example about a communist tomboy cop from China. Not sure if the movies in any way offended/offends mainlanders though, it's parody gone wild with stereothypical behaviour and cultural clashes. There's also a movie named Mainland Dundee XD Haven't seen that one though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member KyFi Posted June 9, 2009 Member Share Posted June 9, 2009 Lol... Hong Kong filmmakers now are stuck so far up the Mainland's ass it's not even funny. At least half of all HK productions made now are co-productions with China. Political commentary is all but dead in the PRC. And I suspect that one type of thing that will be absent from Mainland productions is overtly positive depictions of Buddhism, like we saw in 36th Chamber, and a ton of other classics. I haven't kept up too much on recent mainland movies, so I may be mistaken, but that's my suspicion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member HyperDrive Posted June 11, 2009 Author Member Share Posted June 11, 2009 Mainland Dundee? The name alone makes me want to see it. And I suspect that one type of thing that will be absent from Mainland productions is overtly positive depictions of Buddhism, like we saw in 36th Chamber, and a ton of other classics. I haven't kept up too much on recent mainland movies, so I may be mistaken, but that's my suspicion. Some 1980's mainland flicks go against the grain. Undaunted Wu Dang has some Taoist philosophy as it features the internal styles. In addition to being shot at the Yunkang grottoes, Raiders of Yunkang Caves also has the Shaolin Temple and fighting monks. It must depend on the mood of the censors that day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ekisha Posted June 11, 2009 Share Posted June 11, 2009 Mr. Smart Cheung Kwok Keung asks Kent Cheng : "Ever heard of Na po le on?".Then Cheng answers :Na's rare surname.Must be from the Mainland." Also there was a such dialog in Saint Of Gamblers. HK guys making fun of a mainland guy (Eric Kot), then he tells them :"After 1997 you will be mainlanders too" Actually i like these jokes a lot.I believe Wong Jing used more stuff like this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Joseph_Kuby Posted June 12, 2009 Member Share Posted June 12, 2009 Indeed he did. God of Gamblers Returns (the CYF sequel set in France) mocks Mainlanders. The film was an enormous hit in Hong Kong, making more money than Drunken Master 2 (as well as becoming {temporarily} the highest grossing locally produced film) when it was released in 1994. The main reason why is because Jing set out to make a film that comments on the kind of relations (good and bad) between various kinds of Chinese (Taiwanese, HKese and Mainlanders). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member sonnychibaidol Posted June 15, 2009 Member Share Posted June 15, 2009 Does anyone know of the film where Mao Zedong is made out to be a vampire/cavalier? I have always wanted to find that particular one since it is set in a temple that is dedicated to worshiping Mao Zedong but proves that they worship a devil. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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