Looking through the Japanese movies in Hong Kong in the 80's

Abstract

Japanese culture, especially Japanese movies, was deeply rooted and merged into Hong Kong culture in the 1980s’.It was a good timing for the emergence of Japanese film with its distinctive style and it also provided a valuable business opportunity for the Hong Kong film industry. In 1990,“Kimurake no hitobito” showed for 524 days, setting a record for the longest-running film in the history of Hong Kong Cinema, making more than 10 million Hong Kong dollars at the box office. “Shall we dance” released in 1997 was also one of the legends. It won all of the awards in Japan Academy Prize, including best actress, best actors, best picture and best director. Another Japanese horror movie “The Ring” with the haunting scene of a long hair ghost crawling from the television was ranked in 2010as one of the 100 best films of world cinema. “The Ring” proliferated and reinforced the status of Japanese films in the industry; translated into different languages, it brought the Japanese style of horror to Hong Kong and the rest of the world. The success of the Japanese animation “City of Sky” (天空の城ラピュタ),grossing thirteen million Hong Kong dollars in 1987, encouraged the animation culture of Hong Kong. The paper aims to foster an understanding of the conditions, and account for the emergence, sustainability and development of Japanese films in Hong Kong in relation to both culture and business since the 1980’s.