Critical formation of Hong Kong noir: Historiographical and methodological reflections

Abstract

The critical formation of Hong Kong noir has been a conspicuous and ever-growing thread running through the scholarship on Hong Kong cinema for some time. This essay charts the history of and methodological grounds for the critical formation of Hong Kong noir, while providing historiographical reflections more generally on the field of Hong Kong cinema studies and on the tantalizing idea of a global film history. Dividing the history of the critical formation of Hong Kong noir into two phases, this essay discusses the development of Hong Kong noir as a critical category from ‘Kowloon Noir’ and ‘Tsim Sha Tsui noir’ to ‘Hong Kong neo-noir’ and ‘Hong Kong noir’ in conceptual terms. It also reflects on the methodological shifts in the study of noir-esque Hong Kong films from synchronic to diachronic approaches, from the perspective of localism to that of world film history, and from auteurism and reflectionism to historical poetics. In particular, it suggests that a wider application of the problem/solution perspective, which emerged in the second phase of this history, is imperative to fill gaps and correct misunderstandings in narrations of Hong Kong noir.