David Bordwell on Tsui Hark - Essay Example

Tsui Hark is a director of a wide horizon and rich experiences. He is able to appeal to inner world of every viewer and thus he makes a puzzle for modern cinema critics who try to find an answer to the question why his films are popular. David Bordwell has devoted a lot of his works and discussions to Tsui Hark. He considers this director in an unprejudiced manner and it is quite interesting to follow development of his ideas. Hark’s nature is divided as it is claimed by Bordwell. It is interesting, what does Bordwell mean?

Hark shots his films under conditions of modern globalization and it is relevant to him to follow the needs of the modern society and to find a way to hearts of Western and Asian viewers. Bordwell underlines, that “The transnational nature in his cinema helps him to both establish his personal style and gain commercial success in Asia” (Bordwell 2000, p. 140). Moreover, “In Tsui’s best films, Hong Kong cinema becomes a Chinese feast, spiced by indigenous entertainment traditions, replenished by an artist’s pragmatic energy and restless imagination” (Bordwell 2000, p. 148). From these two claims it is quite obvious that Bordwell means multi-sided nature of Hark’s films. . Versatility of Tsui Hark’s films can be explained by combination of different genres, Asian and Western cultures and adding technological effects in his films.

In Once Upon a Time in China Tsui shows relationship between Eastern and Western worlds, if to be more exact, between China and Western countries. Tsui chooses the best period for showing peculiarities of Chinese society development under conditions of being captured by Western countries. All spheres of life of Chinese people were influenced by ‘strangers’. Western civilization put an end to the Qing dynasty. On the example of martial artist Huang Feihong Tsui shows possible alternatives of dealing with Western invasion.

Western technological progress was like a huge machine oppressing centennial cultural heritage of China. Nevertheless Tsui appeals to his viewers and underlines that it is necessary to reconstruct realities of China in accordance with generally accepted norms and ideals all over the world. Though Tsui presents multi-sided consideration about China’s reaction to the changes introduced by Western civilization, he has a strong background of his claims, a theory by Sheldon Lu on China and transnationalism.

Lu’s theory was not chosen incidentally by Tsui as well, because Lu’s considerations are also ambiguous: “In the domestic and global arena of image production and consumption, we may distinguish two opposite yet complementary strategies in the politics of self representation of China” (Bordwell, 2000, p. 145). Consequently, Lu suggests that satisfaction of viewers of the Western world would emerge in case erotic and exotics of Chinese worlds was