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.Ambivalence toward Mother ChinaFor some Hong Kong film critics, the chief virtue of FBWL is not thedevastating Bond parody as such but the biting satire on contemporarysocial problems in China, particularly those regarding the legal systemand official corruption.16 If Chow s film plays with the Bond conven-tions extensively, it also makes tireless references to contemporaryChina in the wake of modernization.Most of the scenes set in Chinashow us not only the national flag, national emblem, and portraits ofChairman Mao, but also wall slogans related to modernization.The pre-credit opening sequence begins with a close-up of a Chinese nationalflag at the entrance to an airbase in North China.The camera then tiltsdown to follow a container truck, supposedly carrying an invaluabledinosaur cranium, as it enters the base.What immediately draws theviewer s attention is the huge advertisement painted on the containerpromoting a Chinese aphrodisiac.The image at once condenses threepossible connotations.First, the product recalls the motif of sexualprowess exaggerated by every Bond film.Second, if the military rep-resents the stronghold of conservative communist ideology, then theintrusion of the commercial sign suggests that Red China has alreadybeen thoroughly corrupted by capitalism because of Deng s open doorpolicy.This interpretation is further supported by the later revelationthat the head of the Chinese secret agents is none other than GoldenGun, the villain who tries to make money by stealing the national treas-ure and selling it to an overseas buyer.Third, the source of evil now liesdeep in China itself: all the villains come from the Mainland, and donot involve the plots of any hostile foreign powers.Jeremy Black hasnoted that the Bond novels and films find it hard to accommodatethe notion of British villains. 17 Hence, Bond s major foes are Russians,foreign megalomaniacs like Auric Goldfinger, and international crime 94 007 in Late Colonial Hong Kongorganizations like SPECTRE.The situation in FBWL is just the opposite.Despite their Chinese cultural roots, Chow and his Hong Kong team,having grown up in a more liberal and Westernized colony, could laughat Chinese social ills at a greater critical distance while knowing full wellthat such freedom of expression might not last.So far as satire goes, the hilarious sequence in which Qi is almostexecuted is most memorable.It begins with a gross exaggeration of theimperfection of China s juridical procedures.Deceived by Golden Gun,Qi has signed a document without knowing that it is his confession ofsmuggling the national treasure.Within minutes, he is brought to anexecution ground without any opportunity to defend himself in court.He is horrified by the sadistic killing of fellow convicts one after theother.The scene also alludes to the notorious Chinese problem of lawsbeing compromised by personal connections.Yet instead of presentingsuch a problem in a straightforward way, the film cleverly inverts it.Right after Qi says he knows a top government official very well, hopingto evade his death, another convict boldly claims he himself is indeedthe son of that official, only to meet his fate more quickly.A subsequent joke is directed at the complete uselessness of Chinesemartial art skills in the teeth of modern weaponry.A convict standingbeside Qi, played by Chow s co-director, Lee Lik-chi, happens to be agreat kung fu master.With the iron legs he cracks the earth to deterthe firing squad and makes use of the wall to jump into mid-air.Butwhile taking his weightless flight, an unimpressed solider launches amissile from a MANPADS (Man-portable air-defence system) and blowshim into pieces.Although toward the end of the film Qi will magicallydefeat Golden Gun s high-tech weapon with his butcher s chopper andmastery of qi, or life force, this gag demonstrates that Chow is wellaware of the problematic nature of the kung fu myth fabricated byHong Kong cinema.His ultimate celebration of Chinese martial artsseems to be self-reflective and must not be taken too literally.Finallyand most absurdly, at the end of the execution sequence Qi saves hisown life simply by bribing the executioners with a one hundred dollarbill.The soldiers disrespect for laws and orders is most vividly capturedin the shot where, having taken Qi s money and shared his cigarettes,they all cheerfully wave goodbye to Qi at his safe departure.Let us return to the Bondian motif of technology in relation to moder-nity.It is not difficult to see a curious ambivalence toward technologyin FBWL, an ambivalence probably stemming from Hong Kong s uniqueposition as a meeting place between a more backward Mother Chinaand the technologically advanced Western world, and an ambivalence Eric K.W.Yu 95having also to do with a more complex and elusive ethnic identity [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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.Ambivalence toward Mother ChinaFor some Hong Kong film critics, the chief virtue of FBWL is not thedevastating Bond parody as such but the biting satire on contemporarysocial problems in China, particularly those regarding the legal systemand official corruption.16 If Chow s film plays with the Bond conven-tions extensively, it also makes tireless references to contemporaryChina in the wake of modernization.Most of the scenes set in Chinashow us not only the national flag, national emblem, and portraits ofChairman Mao, but also wall slogans related to modernization.The pre-credit opening sequence begins with a close-up of a Chinese nationalflag at the entrance to an airbase in North China.The camera then tiltsdown to follow a container truck, supposedly carrying an invaluabledinosaur cranium, as it enters the base.What immediately draws theviewer s attention is the huge advertisement painted on the containerpromoting a Chinese aphrodisiac.The image at once condenses threepossible connotations.First, the product recalls the motif of sexualprowess exaggerated by every Bond film.Second, if the military rep-resents the stronghold of conservative communist ideology, then theintrusion of the commercial sign suggests that Red China has alreadybeen thoroughly corrupted by capitalism because of Deng s open doorpolicy.This interpretation is further supported by the later revelationthat the head of the Chinese secret agents is none other than GoldenGun, the villain who tries to make money by stealing the national treas-ure and selling it to an overseas buyer.Third, the source of evil now liesdeep in China itself: all the villains come from the Mainland, and donot involve the plots of any hostile foreign powers.Jeremy Black hasnoted that the Bond novels and films find it hard to accommodatethe notion of British villains. 17 Hence, Bond s major foes are Russians,foreign megalomaniacs like Auric Goldfinger, and international crime 94 007 in Late Colonial Hong Kongorganizations like SPECTRE.The situation in FBWL is just the opposite.Despite their Chinese cultural roots, Chow and his Hong Kong team,having grown up in a more liberal and Westernized colony, could laughat Chinese social ills at a greater critical distance while knowing full wellthat such freedom of expression might not last.So far as satire goes, the hilarious sequence in which Qi is almostexecuted is most memorable.It begins with a gross exaggeration of theimperfection of China s juridical procedures.Deceived by Golden Gun,Qi has signed a document without knowing that it is his confession ofsmuggling the national treasure.Within minutes, he is brought to anexecution ground without any opportunity to defend himself in court.He is horrified by the sadistic killing of fellow convicts one after theother.The scene also alludes to the notorious Chinese problem of lawsbeing compromised by personal connections.Yet instead of presentingsuch a problem in a straightforward way, the film cleverly inverts it.Right after Qi says he knows a top government official very well, hopingto evade his death, another convict boldly claims he himself is indeedthe son of that official, only to meet his fate more quickly.A subsequent joke is directed at the complete uselessness of Chinesemartial art skills in the teeth of modern weaponry.A convict standingbeside Qi, played by Chow s co-director, Lee Lik-chi, happens to be agreat kung fu master.With the iron legs he cracks the earth to deterthe firing squad and makes use of the wall to jump into mid-air.Butwhile taking his weightless flight, an unimpressed solider launches amissile from a MANPADS (Man-portable air-defence system) and blowshim into pieces.Although toward the end of the film Qi will magicallydefeat Golden Gun s high-tech weapon with his butcher s chopper andmastery of qi, or life force, this gag demonstrates that Chow is wellaware of the problematic nature of the kung fu myth fabricated byHong Kong cinema.His ultimate celebration of Chinese martial artsseems to be self-reflective and must not be taken too literally.Finallyand most absurdly, at the end of the execution sequence Qi saves hisown life simply by bribing the executioners with a one hundred dollarbill.The soldiers disrespect for laws and orders is most vividly capturedin the shot where, having taken Qi s money and shared his cigarettes,they all cheerfully wave goodbye to Qi at his safe departure.Let us return to the Bondian motif of technology in relation to moder-nity.It is not difficult to see a curious ambivalence toward technologyin FBWL, an ambivalence probably stemming from Hong Kong s uniqueposition as a meeting place between a more backward Mother Chinaand the technologically advanced Western world, and an ambivalence Eric K.W.Yu 95having also to do with a more complex and elusive ethnic identity [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]