Abstract
The Chinese musical film, in a broad sense - in every which way it has manifested itself and been defined - first emerged in the semicolonial 1930s Shanghai enclave. The Chinese movie musical a la Hollywood came to maturity in the British Crown Colony of Hong Kong some thirty years later. Together with the rise of numerous super singer-actresses and behind-thc-scene divas, the Chinese musical film prospered in the post-World War II decades and attracted various Chinese audiences in different overseas Chinese communities, especially in East and Southeast Asia. Somewhat ironic but figuratively as glamorous as the life cycle of the sakura blossom, the genres demise crept up on it during its heyday when the Shaw Brothers Studio churned out Hollywood-style musicals in the genres full-fledged form in the rapidly Westernizing and modernizing late-196os I long Kong. The masculine-macho sword fight and kung fu action genres gradually came on the scene to soon dominate the film industries in Hong Kong and Taiwan, subsequently establishing the Hong Kong action genre and kung fu action choreography as a globally popular form and style of action.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | China forever : the Shaw Brothers and diasporic cinema |
Publisher | University of Illinois Press |
Pages | 74-94 |
Number of pages | 21 |
ISBN (Print) | 9780252032738 |
Publication status | Published - 1 Jan 2008 |