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1997(1st) ~ 2024(28th)
City of Romance : Hong Kong D & B Films Special
Stephen SHIN
Hong Kong1988 97 min Beta C Korean Premiere
George LAM, Carol ‘Do Do’ CHENG, and Rosamund KWAN — big-named heartthrobs from the 1980’s Hong Kong film scenes. Starring all three of them, Hear to Hearts makes a faithful rendition of the signature D&B production styles: urban stories with “yuppism” dominating the plot and serious cinematic esthetics. In retrospect, the 1980’s Hong Kong film community was ruled by two forces: Golden Harvest, with Jackie CHAN as its flagship star, and Cinema City, with Hark TSUI as its driving force. Given the context, films by D&B may not have been as commercially successful as those by Cinema City or Golden Harvest, which led the golden years of Hong Kong films by proposing new commercial models one after another. Still, D&B films remain highly impressive despite their limited exposure to international viewership. Interesting to see the tension between the desire for success and the artistic ambition as illustrated in Hear to Hearts. Also interesting to see how hard it is to determine whether the metropolis mood captured in the film was typically Hong Kong or a universal phenomenon found in all cities circa the late 1980’s. What is clear is that the story and the sentiments portrayed in the movie mean something to both Hong Kong and the audience outside of Hong Kong. (KWON Yong Min)