From Suzie Wong to Batman – how Hollywood studios have used Hong Kong’s distinctive cityscape to bring a splash of colour to the silver screen
- ‘Asia’s world city’ has long proven popular with Western filmmakers, beguiled by its narrow alleys, wet markets and towering high-rises
- Many of the city’s best-loved landmarks have been appropriated in films, sometimes for destructive purposes
Last year, Hong Kong appeared twice on international cinema screens: in Skyscraper starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, and Geostorm, which starred Hong Kong’s own Daniel Wu Yan-zu and the filming of which caused five blocks in Mong Kok to be shut down.
The rise of Hong Kong’s film industry in the mid-to-late 20th century put the city on the cinematic map and, since then, Hollywood studios have used Hong Kong as an exotic and often eye-catching backdrop for their movies.
Stereotyped as a place where East meets West, it is no surprise that “Asia’s world city” is so popular with Hollywood. From classics to modern-day blockbusters, this week City Weekend explores the trend that has made the city’s skyline, its wet markets and narrow alleys recognisable to many.
THE CLASSICS
Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955)
Starring William Holden, fresh from winning the best actor Oscar for Stalag 17, this tear-jerking romantic drama was one of the most famous to use Hong Kong as its setting. Based on Han Suyin’s 1952 novel, A Many-Splendored Thing, the Twentieth Century Fox production was set in 1949, at the start of the Korean war.