City on Fire: Comments by Lou Proyect

[Michael Hoover]

> There's also the fact that the HK films 
> could
> draw on the resources of hundreds of years of Chinese opera, dance and
> musical traditions, all at once. 
>
> Let's not forget that mainland China has some astounding film traditions
> of its own, too (especially the Fifth Generation filmmakers), but these
> are explicitly national or neonational allegories. 
> -- Dennis

Woo's mid-to-late 80s action films were balletic rather than frenetic,
pacing and characteristic rhythms drew on Cantonese and Peking Opera's 
sense of timing and pause.  Today, HK action tends to be frenetic rather
than balletic.

Re. 5th Generation directors such as Chen Kaige & Zhang Zimou, Rey Chow 
suggests they explore rural life in ways that, far from consolidating 
'Chineseness' as an essence residing in China's center, in effect help 
to 'other' China through portrayals of unfamiliar histories, identities, 
and means of living that persist on fringes of time and space.
Michael Hoover