Sex movies, Andy Lau’s martial arts skills, an early female director – 7 things about Hong Kong filmmaking history you may not know
- Andy Lau knows kung fu, sex films were a studio staple in the 1970s, a woman directed films in the ’30s – some of the Hong Kong film facts that may surprise you
- Did you know, too, about the political position in China that led Chang Cheh to become a martial arts filmmaking master, or Michael Hui’s early non-comedy role?
Hong Kong has been a prolific film-producing territory for around 100 years and has a rich and varied cinematic history.
There are some facets of that history of filmmaking you may not know about.
There were sex films before Category III movies existed
Hong Kong’s sex- and violence-laced Category III films (adults-only) are well known everywhere, but although the category was not introduced until 1988 there was a fashion for such salacious fare back in the 1970s.
Kung fu films had run out of steam, and studios such as Shaw Brothers thought sex was the way to win back audiences at home and abroad.
“Hong Kong moviemakers have been frantically searching for an alternative screen success which now seems to have reappeared in that ever-ready standby, sex – spelled Sensual-Erotic-X-rated,” said trade magazine Film Asia in 1977.
“Local producers hope to penetrate the lucrative film market by pandering to the European craving for Asian erotic forms of sexual pleasures.”
