Shanghai gangster films and the politics of change

Bibliographic Data

ID21732736
AuthorsTatu-Ilari Laukkanen (0000-0002-6172-8594, Tampere University, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume9
Issue1
Pages81-97
Publication date2020-07-10
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueNovos Olhares (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1516-5981 • E-ISSN: 2238-7714
PublisherUniversidade de Sao Paulo, Agencia USP de Gestao da Informacao Academica (AGUIA) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.11606/issn.2238-7714.no.2020.172000
OpenAlexW3041907641
LanguageEN
References cited3

In this paper through a very close textual reading I will show the ideological differences between two films based on the life of Shanghai gangster Du Yuesheng (1888, Pudong – 1951, Hong Kong) through close formal and narrative analysis. Du was already a celebrity in his day in the Republican era and is still a con-troversial figure in Greater China. However, there are only two films based on the life of the French Con-cession opium kingpin, the recent Hong Kong/PRC co-production The Last Tycoon (Da Shang Hai, Wong Jing, 2012) and the epic two part Lord of the East China Sea I & II (Shang Hai huang di zhi: Sui yue feng yun & Shang Hai huang di zhi: Xiong ba tia xia, Hong Kong, Poon Man-kit 1993). I show how these films reflect HK's and China's politico-economic changes focusing on the representation of social class and the subject, depiction of internal migration and immigration, and nationalism. The films will be discussed in their relation to changes in the Hong Kong film industry, Chinese and world cinema and the transnational gangster genre, showing how local and global cinemas have affected these films

Art · Art history · China · Depiction · EPIC · Ideology · Literature · Media studies · Movie theater · Narrative · Nationalism · Political science · Politics · Sociology · China's Socioeconomic Reforms and Governance · History · Hong Kong and Taiwan Politics · Law · Urban Planning and Governance

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