Transnational imagination in action cinema : Hong Kong and the making of a global popular culture

Taking action cinema as an example, this paper outlines a historical approach to the transnational study of globally popular cultural forms. Action cinema has long had a complex economy in which Hollywood not only trades stars, styles and narratives with the hybrid culture of Hong Kong cinema itself, but draws on a vast 'direct to tape' industry significantly based in East Asia. The paper outlines a Hong Kong-based approach to two earlier phases in the history of action: the 'international co-production' as an industrially innovative form (1973-85), and the golden age of the 'direct to tape' industry enabled by the rapid spread of video technology (1985-93). Focusing on the latter, it suggests that the global uptake by filmmakers of a 'contact' narrative and an ethic of emulation taken from Hong Kong cinema allowed direct-to-video action to address issues of social class in emotionally complex ways.