Remaking Lubitsch in Hong Kong Cinema : The Ninotchka Trope in Her Fatal Ways (1991)

Hong Kong cinema has a history of remaking Ernst Lubitsch films. Sit Kok-sin and Cho Kei respectively remade The Love Parade (1929) into Romance on the Stage (1934) and the trilogy of My Kingdom for a Husband (1957), The Prince’s Romantic Affairs (1958) and My Kingdom for a Honeymoon (1958). In the early 1990s, Hong Kong cinema enjoyed a certain liberty while film censorship guidelines were relaxed. Alfred Cheung remade Ninotchka (1939) into Her Fatal Ways (1990). This political comedy was made in response to the Tiananmen massacre (1989) by narrativising Hongkongers’ fear towards the end of British colonial rule (1997). It does so by narrating a Chinese communist envoy’s uproarious encounter with a Royal Hong Kong Police superintendent. Due to colonial film censorship during the Cold War era, Hong Kong cinema was devoid of overt political representations to avoid upsetting the geopolitical ties with neighbouring countries. Her Fatal Ways’ political gags were fresh, rare and popular, thereby allowing the film to spawn into three sequels (1991–4).