An Emerging Modernity: The Roaring 60s

Hong Kong in the 1960s verged between economic and social suppression and youthful restlessness, building up tension and fear bound to erupt. Growing up in the age when the tide of economic prosperity rose, baby boomers, with their penchant for Western lifestyle as the impetus and popular culture as the catalyst, embarked on a voyage of self discovery and identity. The cinema of Hong Kong as a mirror of society morphed from edifying realists to out-and-out dazzling entertainment, giving birth to a constantly updated and ever-stimulating urban sensuality.

Cantonese cinema saw a surge of effects-driven martial arts fantasy in the early 1960s; then a string of colour musicals celebrating youthful exuberance made a splash in the latter half of the decade. In the Mandarin camp, Shaw Bros unleashed the new style martial arts picture that utilised a mix of heavy-handed, gory combat and a healthy dose of passion and mystery. Taking a cue from the West, both technically and creatively, melodrama offered some disturbing exploration of the darker side of the human psyche. Years of mounting tension finally took its toll as youthful felicity turned frantic with anger and frustration after the 1967 Riots.

The “An Emerging Modernity: Looking Back on the Cinema of the 1960s” exhibition and an oral history publication on 1960s Hong Kong cinema will be launched concurrently as a tie-in with the screening programme, forming parts of the Archive’s retrospective on the 1960s.