Hi, everyone, I would like to thank Hiroshi for organizing the workshop. I'm proposing to work on the relationship between Hong Kong cinema and Japanese manga by focusing on those films based on Japanese comics. Examples include “Dragon from Russia” (1990) based on “Crying Freeman” (Kuraingu furîman); “The Wicked City” (1992) on Yôjû toshi; “Story Of Ricky” (1992) from “Rikki-O”; “City Hunter” (1993) based on ShitīHantā; “Love on Delivery” (1994) based on Takashi Hamori’s King of Destruction; “A Battle of Wits” (2006) based on Hideki Mori’s Bokkō; “Initial D” (2005) adapted from Inisharu Dī by Shuichi Shigeno; and “Shamo” (2007) adapted from the manga with the same title. I believe they are not simply escapist products, but by appropriating the manga aesthetics, these movies attempt to reimagine Hong Kong identity in the postcolonial era and some of their cross-racial impersonation of one Asian national as another also produces some sort of otherness that offers a different perspective to reflect on the formation of identity itself.
Look forward to meeting you all in October.
K.C.Lo, from Hong Kong
