Browsing through the rich film program of the Festival des 3 continents de Nantes, which took place from Friday, November 15 to Saturday, November 23, I came across the mysterious title of this cycle: “Derek Yee, the other current of Hong Kong’s new wave. » Or a double conundrum for mere mortals who supposedly don’t know who Derek Yee is or what he is “the other current” of a Hong Kong new wave that arguably says very little in itself. The systematically well-filled rooms – where a curious young man seemed to return – were fortunately guided by the insights of Hong Kong critic and programmer Clarence Tsui, with a perfect and clear knowledge of his subject.
Let’s picture the situation at six-four-two. Everything happens in the background Shaw brothersa legendary studio founded in Hong Kong in 1958, the golden age ofa cinema in Hong Kong which, between sword and kung-fu, spreads throughout Asia with virtuosos such as King Hu (1932-1997) or Chang Cheh (1923-2002). The studio, which soon produced mass entertainment, began its decline in the 1980s as a young guard of directors aspired to a less standardized cinema. Its closure in 1985 marks the emergence of a new wave of Tsui Hark (Chinese ghost stories1987) and John Woo (killer1989) become the leading figures.
If these two directors brilliantly redefine the codes of action cinema, to the point of exporting them to Hollywood, others, less known internationally, are opening up to other horizons, more realistic, more intimate, more social. This is the case of Ann Hui, to whom the Nantes festival paid tribute in 2023.
Behind the mirror of capitalism
It’s also Derek Yee’s. Born on December 28, 1957 in Hong Kong, the latter has a career as an actor, screenwriter, director and producer spanning forty years. He has someone to take care of. His father was a producer, his mother, brothers and sister, actors. Joining Shaw Brothers in the late 1960s, he achieved his first major success as an actor in 1977 in Death Duelby Chor Yuen, an ornate and swirling fantasy in which he plays a living sword god whom all the land’s warriors, including a defiant harpy, dream of slaying.
When the studio closes, Derek Yee, very tired of the sword, takes the opportunity to move to the other side of the room. It was to this part of his career that he essentially paid tribute to the corpus of Nantes, in 12 films. The result is, to say the least, disconcerting. Because he is less of a virtuoso stylist like Tsui Hark or Wong Kar-wai that we discover that a craftsman with unbridled eclecticism, concerned with each of the genres he tackles to show, through suffering and marginalized characters, the other side of the mirror of capitalism in Hong Kong. Social film (lunatics1986), heist film (The People’s Hero1987), melodrama (That’s life, my dear1993), erotic comedy (Viva Erotica1996), documentary (Pan Yuliang, painter1994), thriller (One night in Mongkok2004), everything works.
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