Transnational imagination in action cinema: Hong Kong and the making of a global popular culture

Abstract

Taking action cinema as an example, this paper outlines a historical approach to the transnational study of globally popular cultural forms. Action cinema has long had a complex economy in which Hollywood not only trades stars, styles and narratives with the hybrid culture of Hong Kong cinema itself, but draws on a vast ‘direct to tape’ industry significantly based in East Asia. The paper outlines a Hong Kong‐based approach to two earlier phases in the history of action: the ‘international co‐production’ as an industrially innovative form (1973–85), and the golden age of the ‘direct to tape’ industry enabled by the rapid spread of video technology (1985–93). Focusing on the latter, it suggests that the global uptake by filmmakers of a ‘contact’ narrative and an ethic of emulation taken from Hong Kong cinema allowed direct‐to‐video action to address issues of social class in emotionally complex ways.