Bettinson, Gary (2026) Kung Fu Scholar : David Bordwell's Poetics of Hong Kong Cinema. Projections: The Journal for Movies and Mind, 20 (1): 2. pp. 9-21. ISSN 1934-9688
Full text not available from this repository.Abstract
Through several pathbreaking publications including two editions of Planet Hong Kong: Popular Cinema and the Art of Entertainment (2000; 2011), David Bordwell substantially advanced the academic study of Hong Kong film. Swerving from the culturalist readings that ruled the field, Bordwell placed new emphasis on the distinctive craft traditions and creative achievements of Hong Kong's auteurs and artisans. Though widely praised upon publication, Planet Hong Kong drew censure from scholars wedded to a culturalist hermeneutics of Hong Kong cinema, an approach that understood Cantonese movies of the 1980s and 1990s as harboring veiled sociopolitical themes. In what follows, I aim to demonstrate Bordwell's impact on a field of inquiry governed by culturalist perspectives. In somewhat defensive mode, I canvass and rebut several tenacious criticisms leveled at Planet Hong Kong's approach and arguments.1 Lastly, and more positively, I seek to extend Bordwell's purview by advancing a poetics of Hong Kong film acting, probing terrain largely slighted by researchers.