DPHU1005 Chap.10 National Cinemas
National Cinemas
National cinema sounds obvious until you try to define it. A film might be national because of where its funding came from, where it was shot, what language it speaks, who watches it or what story about the nation it tells, and each answer gives a different list of films.
The Week 10 lecture treats the category as a question, which makes it the place where the course's third learning outcome, explaining how film style works with contextual factors to shape meaning, becomes most concrete.
The Week 10 screening is Andrew Lau and Alan Mak's Infernal Affairs (2002), a Hong Kong police thriller about two moles, an undercover officer inside a triad and a triad member inside the police.
Released five years after sovereignty over Hong Kong passed from Britain to China, it can be read as a story about divided identity and belonging. The Week 11 tutorial reading by Law Wing-Sang approaches the film through time and memory in post-handover Hong Kong. This chapter offers four lenses on national cinema, industry, text, audience and identity, and a rule for keeping contextual claims tied to scenes.
Quiz 3 in Week 11 covers the topic.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Defining national cinema: a question rather than a fact
- 02
Four lenses: industry, text, audience and identity
- 03
Hong Kong as a case of a small territory with a large film industry
- 04
The 1997 handover as context
- 05
Infernal Affairs: doubled identities and the undercover self
- 06
Reading context without losing the film
- 07
Transnational lives: the Hollywood remake
- 08
Quiz 3 coverage of Weeks 6 to 10
Worked example · free
Linking a stylistic choice to national context
- +1Name an observed feature: the rooftop meeting place of the two moles, high above the city.
- +1Interpret it: a space between two worlds that belongs to neither man.
- +1Contextualise it: uncertainty about identity and loyalty in a city after 1997.
Key terms
- National cinema
- The films associated with a nation, defined variously by production, content, audience or the identity they project.
- Transnational cinema
- Filmmaking whose funding, personnel, audiences or stories cross national borders.
- Remake
- A new film based on an earlier one, often relocating its story to a different culture or period.
- Allegory
- A story whose characters and events can be read as standing for a larger situation, such as a political one.
- Handover
- The transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong from Britain to China in 1997, a key context for films of the period.
National Cinemas FAQ
What is national cinema?
It is a way of grouping films by their relationship to a nation. Scholars weigh several factors, including who funded and made a film, what themes and styles it uses, who watches it and what idea of the nation it projects. A single film can count as national on one measure and international on another.
Why does the course use Infernal Affairs?
It is a celebrated Hong Kong thriller whose story of two moles living double lives can be read in relation to Hong Kong's situation after 1997. It also travelled widely, including through a Hollywood remake, which makes it a good case for discussing national and transnational cinema.
How do I write about context without losing the film?
Follow every contextual claim with a sentence about a specific technique, such as framing, editing, sound or performance, that supports it. Context should explain what you see on screen rather than replace it, and the assigned reading should sharpen a point about a scene.
Which assessment covers national cinemas?
Quiz 3, held in the Week 11 tutorial, covers the content of Weeks 6 to 10, so national cinemas appears alongside sound, genre and documentary. The topic also gives you useful contextual tools for the final sequence analysis in Week 12.
What is the difference between national and transnational cinema?
National cinema groups films by their ties to one nation's industry, audience or identity. Transnational cinema describes films whose money, crews, stories or audiences cross borders, such as co-productions or remakes. Many films are both at once, and noticing the tension between the two is itself a useful analytical point.
Assessment move
Apply the four lenses to Infernal Affairs in a short table, one line each. Then pick two scenes and write a film sentence followed by a context sentence for each. Read Law Wing-Sang's essay for one idea about time or memory you can attach to a specific moment, and review Weeks 6 to 10 terms before Quiz 3.
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