Week 9 - Infernal Affairs: Hollywood importing indigenized works

i.      What is ‘Asianisation’? Klein (2004: 268) writes that the “ … transnationalization of labor and style is clearly leading to the Asianization of Hollywood – but this Asianization is taking diverse forms.” Examine an text from an Asian nation that embraces the Hollywood star, celebrity or persona model, includes a distinctly Hollywood style or visual, genre or narrative convention, or is an example of how “Hollywood imports indigenized versions of its own, previously exported styles and modes of narration”.

Infernal Affairs: Hollywood importing indigenized works

 

When you enter a cinema to watch a movie, have you ever noticed that the Hollywood movie you are watching is more Asian-like. The above situation is nothing surprising because we are now experiencing “a partial erosion of the boundaries that once separated Hollywood from local Asian film industries, and a consequent intertwining of industries, on both sides of the pacific” (Klein 2004, p. 361), and “Hollywood is becoming Asianized in diverse ways” (p. 361). Now, I would like to look into such phenomenon with reference to a Hong Kong movie Infernal Affairs.

 

 

Infernal Affairs (2002) 

 

Infernal Affairs is a Hong Kong crime-thriller crime starring major actors such as Tony Leung and Andy Lau. It tells the story of two police officers: one infiltrating a triad and one working for the same triad. It had a major box office success in Hong Kong and had two sequels in 2003. Its story plot was described as intense and exciting, and gained high reputation among Asian audience. In 2003, Hollywood expertise obtained the rights to remake the film from Media East Entertainment Group. In 2006, Infernal Affair was remade as a Hollywood film The Departed by the director Martin Scorsese. This symbolises “Asianization of Hollywood” (Klein 2004, p. 368). In this case, The Departed is a movie that embraces “narrative conventions that are strong identified with a particular Asian film industry” (p. 368), in this case, the Hong Kong movie industry.  

 

 

The Departed (2006)

Hollywood has been introducing similar action movie like Lethal Weapon (starring Mel Gibson and Danny Glover) in the 1980s. However, from the mid-1980s, Hong Kong has grown as a major production base or producing action, crime and detective films. Many expertises have gained their ticket to Hollywood because of their excellent performance in making (E.g. John Woo and his A better tomorrow) and acting (E.g. Jackie Chan and his Police Stories series) in these films. Because these genres and their features such as stunts, actions, visual effects has since been extensively and professionally used in Hong Kong, their narrative conventions have in turn been more swift, more “securing” to ensure box office balance, if not a tremendous profit. This explains why Hollywood directors and producers would like to imports indigenized versions of its own, previously exported styles and modes of narration, and consequently obtain rights to remake Infernal Affairs.

 

Police Story (1985)

 

 

A Better Tomorrow (1986)

 

 

References

Klein, C 2004, ‘Martial arts and globalisation of US and Asian film industries’, Comparative America Studies, vol. 2, no. 3, pp. 360-384.