Sept. 21 ?s

Stephen Teo, Director in Action

Chapter 3 Conclusion (p. 98-100)

1. What do you think about Teo’s suggestion that To served the “author function” for the early Milkyway Image films? How does this complicate the assumptions of authorship criticism?

I'm not sure one can truly be an author unless they are in direct control of the creation of the film, and it is difficult to determine whether To can be considered an author on the films he produced, but then again the producer in Hong Kong, as Teo suggests, especially for a director/producer like To, is given a lot of creative control over a film and "directs the directors." All this has to be taken into consideration when calling him an author of all these films, because even thought the director is typically considered the author, a director/producer like To can have quite an influence as well, if not more so.

Chapter 4 Conclusion (p. 142-144)

2. What does Teo mean by his claim that To is the active agent in genre evolution and that in To’s films we see “a gradual shift in emphasis from social value to formal aesthetic value”? Explain what he means using The Mission as an example.
To is re-inventing genre conventions by ignoring the typical fast-paced, guns a blazing action scene and replacing it with his action through stillness and shutting out the outside world techniques, both of which were seen in The Mission, especially the mall scene, and place more of an emphasis on aesthetic value.

Chapter 5: The Uneven Auteur

5. To understand Teo’s argument about To and Postmodernism, take the following small steps, and consider the relationship between your answers:

a. If genre is considered to be a social institution which leads to constraints on the author, in what ways do filmmakers (including To) “overcome structural constraints as part of a movement of postmodern cinema”? Hints: What does Teo say about generic plurality on p. 147 and sectarian modes of thought on p. 148?
Directors overcome genre constraints by blending genre and form and by applying the progression of postmodern cinema throughout the world to current generic forms, therefore advancing genre elements and allowing further progression of postmodern cinema.

b. How is the answer to a. related to the “uneven market capitalist conditions” and the history of Hong Kong in the 1990s?
Because of the great amount of changes (socially, politically, etc.) occurring at the time, film itself had to apply said techniques in order to create a new kind of cinema.

c. How is the answer to a. and b. related to the claims that “postmodernism is a social theory that celebrates kitch and camp, the bad along with the good”?

Perhaps that some elements or forms of the past are so bad that they are good, that even though certain elements of film throughout the years is overused and cliche, it still appeals to the masses and as such deserves some sort of recognition. With the evolution of breaking away from genre constraints, filmmakers can choose to incorporate elements of camp and kitch as an homage to films in the past or expand upon them to create new and revolutionary forms of camp and kitch.

d. Tie all of these answers together: Why has the Hong Kong film industry and audience produced such a “broad church” definition of genre? How is this "broad church" related to Teo's claims about unevenness in the films in this chapter?

Due to the myriad of cultural presence in Hong Kong, genres cannot be specifically defined and must therefore be brought under a "broad church" definition. Filmmakers like Johnnie To must blend and adapt to an ever-changing, ever-growing audience, and must do so in a way that is seen as "uneven." However, To uses this inconsistency to create a large range of unconventional, but still widely acceptable films that easily support him with his title as an uneven auteur.