聽/見九七香港電影

Sight and sound in all formal and stylistic configurations are the core subject of an aesthetic approach in film studies. To make sense of all these sights and sounds, however, we must reconnect films with their historical and cultural contexts, and engage various theories to work out our critical readings. Hong Kong Cinema 1997 is a topic par excellence to team up the aesthetic, contextual, and critical studies in cinematic art, since this was the period when many films and filmmakers had won top accolades internationally for its artistic achievements, while the handover of British Hong Kong to Communist China in 1997 was and still is an unprecedented operation—ironically not decolonization but domestic recolonization, not communist socialism but state capitalism etc.—with global repercussions. The course’s heading “Hong Kong Cinema 1997” refers to films not only made in that year or that city, or about that event directly, but also include all that deal with the topic allusively, anticipatory, or retrospectively, in order to make a fuller sense of how cinema responded to this unique historical event. This course is divided in two parts, each with a theoretical introduction at the beginning, followed by a close reading of films made around 1997. Part I introduces different theoretical frameworks for understanding 1997 cinema. Part II covers mostly the same directors discussed in Part I, now with keener ears opening to the diverse soundscapes and music, but also to those unvoiced and suppressed in the films. Parallels will be drawn between Hong Kong finding its destiny in the real world and the film finding its visual and musical closure in the cinema. Just as the function of an “imperfect” or a “deceptive” cadence in music, any filmic ending that deviates from the formal expectations could signify fantasy, resistance, and/or inspiration.

Language of instruction: English (knowledge of Cantonese is beneficial but not required; all films used in class will be shown with subtitle in English) Music proficiency is also beneficial but not required; yet an open ear for all sound and voices is essential. Time: 5CDX (10:10-13:10) & 5FGH (14:20-17:20), fortnightly: students must double check the weekly schedule and ascertain their full attendance before signing up.

Literature and other material will be available on E3.

Participation 20% Presentation 30% Final essay 50% (due on Sunday, 27 Dec. 2020)

Please see: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1onEgGyo3r2Z5JjP6Wdth3uH4ft0tcacGHa9HbzQE56E/edit?usp=sharing

地點

TBA

時間

Kam: 5E, by appointment Lo: 5E, by appointment

聯絡方式

Kam: kam@nctu.edu.tw Lo: louislo@ym.edu.tw