Abstract
Asian Shakespearean cinema is an oft-neglected area of Shakespeare criticism, owing to the field's focus on English-language productions on film and stage productions in Asia. Hong Kong cinema in particular has been derided as "not exactly Shakespeare". However, the situation is more complex than this: several filmmakers in the former colony have paid homage to Shakespeare's works, while simultaneously subverting the British cultural hegemony they represent. This essay examines two Hong Kong films based on Romeo and Juliet, and the ways in which they adapt the play to highlight the social, political and cultural divides of the city in the 20th century. Lo Wei's Crocodile River (1965) uses its warring families as analogues of Hong Kong and mainland China, torn apart by an interloping industrialist and physically separated by a river, which is finally bridged after the film's lovers drown. Michihko Obimori's Young Lovers (1978), meanwhile, places its families at opposite ends of Hong Kong's social spectrum, polarised by the economic boom. Here, the lovers' deaths accomplish nothing, arguably representing the powerlessness of Hong Kong's people, denied a political voice for over 150years.
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