Main Melody Films - (Edinburgh Studies in East Asian Film) by Stephen Yiu-Wai Chu (Paperback)

About the Book

Provides an in-depth study of Hong Kong directors' participation in Chinese 'main-melody' blockbusters in the 2010s.

Book Synopsis

Main melody films are propaganda works that pay tribute to the Chinese nation, the party and the army. Since the turn of the century, they have gradually developed into the main genre of Chinese cinema, and its "blockbusterization" is arguably the most phenomenal aspect of the 2010s Chinese film industry.
As an increasing number of Hong Kong directors are commissioned to direct main melody blockbusters, Chu examines their contributions to this genre, shedding light on the development of cross-border cooperation between the mainland and Hong Kong film industries.

From the Back Cover

Main melody films are propaganda works that pay tribute to the Chinese nation, the party and the army. Since the turn of the century, they have gradually developed into the main genre of Chinese cinema, and its "blockbusterization" is arguably the most phenomenal aspect of the 2010s Chinese film industry. As an increasing number of Hong Kong directors are commissioned to direct main melody blockbusters, Chu examines their contributions to this genre, shedding light on the development of cross-border cooperation between the mainland and Hong Kong film industries. Professor Yiu-Wai Chu is Director and Professor of Hong Kong Studies Programme at the University of Hong Kong. He has authored and edited over twenty books, including Lost in Transition: Hong Kong Culture in the Age of China (2013), Hong Kong Cantopop: A Concise History (2017), Hong Kong Culture and Society in the New Millennium: Hong Kong as Method (2017) and Found in Transition: Hong Kong Studies in the Age of China (2018).

Review Quotes

Chu's work brings a major development in Chinese cinema to broader attention and is exemplary in its reference to an impressive range of sources, which testify to a near encyclopaedic knowledge of China's and especially Hong Kong's cinematic output, as well as the rapidly increasing scholarship on these topics.

--Kristof Van den Troost "China Perspectives"

In a cultural realm where nationalist fervor and market incentives are intertwined, Chu spotlights the imprints of a versatile Hong Kong left by some of the city's directors on Chinese main(land) melody films. Packed with lively details and narrated with zest, this book is an impressive record of these directors' creative ventures in a vast new entertainment network.

--Rey Chow, Duke University

This book, the third of the author's trilogy on Hong Kong popular culture after 1997, is a timely intervention to delve into the mainland-Hong Kong cooperation in making main melody blockbuster films. The in-depth analysis of "north-bound" film directors such as Tsui Hark and Ann Hui brings to light their creative and at times ambiguous roles in bringing state propaganda to young audiences. This is an important book for understanding the developments of the former British colony's film industry in the era of cross-border integration.

--Po-Shek Fu, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

About the Author

Professor Stephen Yiu-Wai Chu is Director and Professor of Hong Kong Studies Programme at Hong Kong University