Migration, Memory and Hong Kong as a 'Space of Transit' in Clara Law's &lt;em&gt;Autumn Moon&lt;/em&gt;

Tony Mitchell

doi:10.5130/csr.v9i1.3589

Abstract

Macau-born and Melbourne-based film maker Clara Law and her screenwriter-producer-director husband Eddie Fong have produced a transnational output of films which are beginning to receive critical recognition as major contributions to contemporary cinema. These ‘films of migration’ explore what Gina Marchetti has encapsulated as ‘the Chinese experience of dislocation, relocation, emigration, immigration, cultural hybridity, migrancy, exile, and nomadism—together termed the “Chinese diaspora”’. The self-imposed ‘relocation’ of Law and Fong to Australia in 1994 was the result of increasing frustration with the rampantly commercial imperatives of Hong Kong cinema and its lack of appreciation for the auteur cinema they wanted to pursue.

Highlights

Macau-born and Melbourne-based film maker Clara Law and her screenwriter-producerdirector husband Eddie Fong have produced a transnational output of films which are beginning to receive critical recognition as major contributions to contemporary cinema
As David Bordwell noted of the Hong Kong cinema scene in the 1990s in his book Planet Hong Kong: Until very recently ... local moviemaking has been unsubsidised, so internationally prestigious directors like Clara Law, Ann Hui and Stanley Kwan depend on mainstream styles, stars and genres
Law’s contribution to Hong Kong ‘pop’ cinema is largely confined to two films, her debut The Other Half and the Other Half (1989), a romantic comedy set in Hong Kong about the relationship which develops between two young people whose respective partners are living in Canada, and the Leon Lai star vehicle Fruit Punch (1992), a madcap comedy about a group of young men trying out a business venture and eventually deciding to emigrate to Australia

Summary

Introduction

Macau-born and Melbourne-based film maker Clara Law and her screenwriter-producerdirector husband Eddie Fong have produced a transnational output of films which are beginning to receive critical recognition as major contributions to contemporary cinema.

Results

Conclusion