Collection on Screen:
Planet Hong Kong
Cinema in Motion
February 27 to April 23, 2025
"Hong Kong cinema is one of the success stories of film history." With this sentence American film historian David Bordwell, who passed away in 2024, begins the first chapter of his groundbreaking book Planet Hong Kong: Popular Cinema and the Art of Entertainment. When Bordwell's book was published in 2000, Hong Kong cinema's major boom period was already on the decline, but its worldwide visibility had reached its zenith. Becoming a prize-winning star artist among Hong Kong directors with films like Chungking Express (1994) and Happy Together (1997), Wong Kar-wai produced an instant classic with his elegant love story In the Mood for Love (2000). With his own production company, Milky Way, sovereign stylist Johnnie To celebrated his international breakthrough thanks to imaginative thrillers like Running Out of Time (1999) and The Mission (1999). Action master John Woo, who delivered a definitive and defining work of the Hong Kong boom with The Killer (1989), managed in the following decade to establish himself in Hollywood, where he was even able to direct a blockbuster like Face/Off (1997) full of mind-boggling Hong Kong elements.
The seeds of the "New Wave" had born fruit: After major studios like Shaw Bros. ruled Mandarin-dominated production until the late 1960s, martial arts cinema brought about a radical change of direction as super star Bruce Lee spearheaded worldwide success with films like Fist of Fury (1972). Meanwhile, the transition to the Cantonese language boosted the industry's self-confidence. As part of a major shift late in the decade and with names like Ann Hui – to whom we devoted a retrospective in 2023 – and Tsui Hark, the Hong Kong New Wave brought artistic ambition and diversity into the metropolis's purely commercial cinema. Tsui, especially, succeeded not only as a director, but also as a producer: Peking Opera Blues (1986) and A Chinese Ghost Story (1987) count among films which internationally created an exciting and, in every respect, boundary-pushing cinema outside Western norms. A second wave was already rolling in, represented by queer pioneer Stanley Kwan (Rouge, 1987) and even Wong Kar-wai, who caused a stir with As Tears Go By (1988) and Days of Being Wild (1990).
We have 35mm prints of all the above-mentioned films in our collection and they form the backbone of a 28 film Collection on Screen retrospective with which we are fulfilling a heart's desire and responding to a necessity. With the major undertaking of moving our film archive to the Arsenal, our own resources will be blocked for several months. This includes print inspection, which guarantees that the films are projectable. We have therefore selected prints in advance for two major Collection on Screen series, which will be the main focus of our program in March/April and May/June while the remaining sections will mostly have to remain digital.
Our tribute to Hong Kong cinema's Golden Era – focusing on the boom period of the 1980s/90s before the handover to China – is also an appreciation of an especially cinematic popular filmmaking. Due to its strongly commercial orientation, intended above all to be worthy of export, the cinema of the Asian metropolis is extremely visual, as belied by its unbelievable action choreography. It is really only possible to appreciate the cinematic force of this particular visual language (right up to the more experimental effects in Wong and Tsui) in the analog projection of a film print; at the same time, the Hong Kong boom marks a point when, for the last time, an autonomous national cinema produced ideas and stylistic artifice that were copied around the world.
While a selection dictated by our collection means we are missing some of our favorite films and very important names like Jacky Chan and Ann Hui, overall, the retrospective offers a perfect overview of the diversity of a cinema that stretches well beyond the old cliché of bone-breaking exploitation, tackling every genre, including a masterful melodrama like Peter Chan's Comrades: Almost a Love Story (1996), which outdoes Hollywood (not only) with its own methods. To round out this overview, we are also including John Woo's Hollywood films, even if the electrifying experience of Hong Kong cinema becomes somewhat polished in them: Namely, the amazing and liberating ability quickly to combine the widest range of tonalities, often from one moment to the next. From apocalyptic apotheosis to brute slapstick, from hard action to the tenderest emotions, you never know what to expect. (Christoph Huber / Translation: Ted Fendt)
In memoriam David Bordwell
Introductions by Christoph Huber at selected screenings
"Hong Kong cinema is one of the success stories of film history." With this sentence American film historian David Bordwell, who passed away in 2024, begins the first chapter of his groundbreaking book Planet Hong Kong: Popular Cinema and the Art of Entertainment. When Bordwell's book was published in 2000, Hong Kong cinema's major boom period was already on the decline, but its worldwide visibility had reached its zenith. Becoming a prize-winning star artist among Hong Kong directors with films like Chungking Express (1994) and Happy Together (1997), Wong Kar-wai produced an instant classic with his elegant love story In the Mood for Love (2000). With his own production company, Milky Way, sovereign stylist Johnnie To celebrated his international breakthrough thanks to imaginative thrillers like Running Out of Time (1999) and The Mission (1999). Action master John Woo, who delivered a definitive and defining work of the Hong Kong boom with The Killer (1989), managed in the following decade to establish himself in Hollywood, where he was even able to direct a blockbuster like Face/Off (1997) full of mind-boggling Hong Kong elements.
The seeds of the "New Wave" had born fruit: After major studios like Shaw Bros. ruled Mandarin-dominated production until the late 1960s, martial arts cinema brought about a radical change of direction as super star Bruce Lee spearheaded worldwide success with films like Fist of Fury (1972). Meanwhile, the transition to the Cantonese language boosted the industry's self-confidence. As part of a major shift late in the decade and with names like Ann Hui – to whom we devoted a retrospective in 2023 – and Tsui Hark, the Hong Kong New Wave brought artistic ambition and diversity into the metropolis's purely commercial cinema. Tsui, especially, succeeded not only as a director, but also as a producer: Peking Opera Blues (1986) and A Chinese Ghost Story (1987) count among films which internationally created an exciting and, in every respect, boundary-pushing cinema outside Western norms. A second wave was already rolling in, represented by queer pioneer Stanley Kwan (Rouge, 1987) and even Wong Kar-wai, who caused a stir with As Tears Go By (1988) and Days of Being Wild (1990).
We have 35mm prints of all the above-mentioned films in our collection and they form the backbone of a 28 film Collection on Screen retrospective with which we are fulfilling a heart's desire and responding to a necessity. With the major undertaking of moving our film archive to the Arsenal, our own resources will be blocked for several months. This includes print inspection, which guarantees that the films are projectable. We have therefore selected prints in advance for two major Collection on Screen series, which will be the main focus of our program in March/April and May/June while the remaining sections will mostly have to remain digital.
Our tribute to Hong Kong cinema's Golden Era – focusing on the boom period of the 1980s/90s before the handover to China – is also an appreciation of an especially cinematic popular filmmaking. Due to its strongly commercial orientation, intended above all to be worthy of export, the cinema of the Asian metropolis is extremely visual, as belied by its unbelievable action choreography. It is really only possible to appreciate the cinematic force of this particular visual language (right up to the more experimental effects in Wong and Tsui) in the analog projection of a film print; at the same time, the Hong Kong boom marks a point when, for the last time, an autonomous national cinema produced ideas and stylistic artifice that were copied around the world.
While a selection dictated by our collection means we are missing some of our favorite films and very important names like Jacky Chan and Ann Hui, overall, the retrospective offers a perfect overview of the diversity of a cinema that stretches well beyond the old cliché of bone-breaking exploitation, tackling every genre, including a masterful melodrama like Peter Chan's Comrades: Almost a Love Story (1996), which outdoes Hollywood (not only) with its own methods. To round out this overview, we are also including John Woo's Hollywood films, even if the electrifying experience of Hong Kong cinema becomes somewhat polished in them: Namely, the amazing and liberating ability quickly to combine the widest range of tonalities, often from one moment to the next. From apocalyptic apotheosis to brute slapstick, from hard action to the tenderest emotions, you never know what to expect. (Christoph Huber / Translation: Ted Fendt)
In memoriam David Bordwell
Introductions by Christoph Huber at selected screenings
For each series, films are listed in screening order.
