Shaw-Retro auf dem New York Filmfestival

Im Rahmen des New York Filmfestivals zeigt die Film Society of Lincoln Center 12 Filme aus der Filmschmiede der Shaw Brothers (wie erinnern uns an dieses Weblog, das vor kurzem hier verlinkt wurde).

Terence Rafferty stellt die Reihe in der New York Times vor, bleibt dabei aber auch, vor allem was die Huangmeixi der Reihe betrifft, etwas reserviert:

"And while you may not want to order most of these dishes again, they're all worth sampling once.

The series is, in fact, far more satisfying as a history lesson than as a feast of aesthetic delights. Although I wouldn't care to make too strong a case for, say, Inoue Umetsugu's "Hong Kong Nocturne'' (1966) as a work of cinematic art, it is undeniably a fascinating artifact[.]"

Seinem Fazit hingegen kann man sich voll und ganz anschließen:

"Ultimately, this uneven but valuable retrospective seems to be telling the story of how Hong Kong cinema, between the 50's and the 70's, reinvented its mission and even its destiny. Its fate, as things turned out, was not to make moviegoers sad but to make them absurdly, unreasonably happy."