Hong Kong's movie industry has been on a downturn in recent years, but young filmmakers still have an important role to play as Chinese films are becoming increasingly popular on the international stage, academic Emilie Yeh Yueh-yu says.
Dr Yeh, associate professor in the department of cinema and television at the Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU), won Choice magazine's Outstanding Academic Title for 2005 for the book Chinese-language Film: Historiography, Poetics, Politics, which she co-edited with Sheldon H. Lu, a professor at the University of California.
She says the Hong Kong film industry has made substantial contributions to the development of Chinese-language films.
'All the techniques, genres, [movie] stars and directors featured in Hong Kong films over the past 60 years have been assimilated into Chinese-language films, and they are seen as the most innovative and exciting part,' she says.
'Mainland directors like Zhang Yimou, Chen Kaige and, to a certain extent, Feng Xiaogang have followed suit.'
But Hong Kong's film industry is in a transitional stage. Dr Yeh says moviegoers' tastes have changed, and Taiwan, Southeast Asia and Hong Kong are no longer the primary markets - the mainland and international markets hold the keys to a film's success.