- Hong Kong's other television studio. Though they
have arguably similar programming quality, TVB routinely
wipes the floor with ATV, usually doubling or tripling
their average ratings points.
Brilliant Idea Group - Also known as BIG. Writer-director
Joe Ma and Mei Ah Film Distribution are the primary
forces behind this company.
BOB - Best of
the Best film production group. A company formed in
the late nineties by director Andrew Lau, writer Manfred
Wong, and multi-tasking automaton Wong Jing. BOB was
the driving force behind the Young and Dangerous
series, as well as Storm Riders and A
Man Called Hero. Currently affiliated with StarEast,
BOB is best known for their opening credit flourish
set to the "Best Partners" tune of Aces
Go Places fame.
- Formed in the early eighties, Cinema City was behind
the the popular Aces Go Places series starring
Sam Hui and Karl Maka. Maka was one of the co-founders
of the company along with Dean Shek and Raymond Wong
Bak-Ming (who would go on to found Mandarin Films).
Tsui Hark and John Woo worked for Cinema City earlier
in their careers.
Cop Soap Opera
- A term used frequently on this site referring to
police films that dramatize the lives of cops and
their wives, girlfriends, parents, pets and/or financial
difficulties. There are usually bad guys in these
films too, but the main focus of the Cop Soap Opera
is the existential angst of the modern day Hong Kong
cop. Or something like that. See The Final Option,
Option Zero, or Expect the Unexpected for
crap - This
term is not a standard Hong Kong term nor is it something
that really needs defining. It is, however, very frequently
used throughout this website to describe various films.
This may apply to a film's empirical quality (i.e.,
production values or subject matter) or to its overall
subjective quality (i.e., the movie is awful). So
just because we say Naked Killer is crap doesn't
necessarily mean that we think it's a bad movie. However,
we think China Strike Force is crap, and that
means it sucks.
Feel 100% - a popular comic book about Generation
X love and romance in Hong Kong. Since 1996, there
have been three movies using the Feel 100%
comic as its direct inspiration. The term is used
liberally throughout this site to describe just about
any modern day comedy dealing with omnipresent Generation
X love/romance issues.
flower vase - A term used to describe female
film roles which amount to little more than appearing
onscreen and looking very pretty. Another term for
this would be "scenery."
Goo Wat Jai -
The Cantonese term for modern triads, which gets a
mention in every other film that comes out nowadays.
The Young and Dangerous movies are actually
titled Goo Wat Jai 1, 2, 3, ad nauseum.
gweilo - Literally
"Ghost Man." While initially used as a derogatory
identifier for Caucasian males (the female version
is gweipor), this term has since become not
necessarily negative, and has become standard shorthand
description for pretty much any Caucasian person in
jade girl -
A term used to describe the "girl next door"
type. Popularly applied to celebrities like Miriam
Yeung and Gigi Leung.
Jiang Hu - Also
known as "Gong Wu." There is no true English
translation for the concept of Jiang Hu, and it's
been rendered in subtitles as anything from "The
Underworld" to "The World of Martial Arts"
to "Emprise's Field" (in Tsui Hark's classic
The Blade). Basically, it's a term meant to
describe a portion of the world that has its own mores,
ideals and social concepts. Think HK's modern Triad
societies and you'll get the idea.
- An important person to mention because his long-acknowledged
position as the "richest man in Hong Kong"
means he gets a mention in nearly every other Hong
Kong film made. For a more direct reference, catch
He Ain't Heavy, He's My Father, where Tony
Leung Chiu-Wai gives a poor Lee Ka-Sing (Waise Lee)
real estate tips, thus insuring Lee's eventual dominance
of the real estate trade.
Way - Well-regarded film production group run primarily
by Johnnie To Kei-Fung and Wai Ka-Fai. Primarily the
source of Hong Kong's recent internationally acclaimed
gangster epics (The Longest Nite, The Mission),
the group has added comedies (Needing You) and
even smaller independent works (Spacked Out)
to their catalog of films.
mo lei tau -
"Makes No Sense" is a reasonable translation
for this term, which refers to the special brand of
comedy made popular by Stephen Chow Sing-Chi. This
is comedy made up of non-sequitors, anachronistic
fourth-wall references, and lots and lots of Cantonese
wordplay. As such, it's nearly impossible to translate
into other languages, which is why Stephen Chow was
unpopular outside of Hong Kong during the early nineties.
- Credit goes to Sanney Leung of HK Entertainment
News in Review, who brought us popular English usage
of this term used by Hong Kong's notorious entertainment
press. The "points" referenced are usually
the nipples of female or male celebrities, though
it can apparently be applied to other private parts
Sky King - A
term applied to certain members of the Hong Kong entertainment
circle, specifically Andy Lau, Jacky Cheung, Leon
Lai and Aaron Kwok. The title is an approximation
of the literally translated "Heavenly King."
It's widely known that there are only four real Sky
Kings, though a "Little Sky King" label
does pop up occasionally.
Sky Queen -
See Sky King. The female equivalent of the "Heavenly
Queen." The identities of these women are less
established than those of the big four Sky Kings,
though unofficial popular consensus seems to dictate
that Sammi Cheng, Faye Wong and Kelly Chan are those
deserving of the title.
StarEast - The primary people behind BOB (Wong
Jing, Manfred Wong) are the instigators of the latest
Hong Kong studio which doubles as a management company
for Hong Kong's plentiful cast of idols.
- When the late nineties Japanese Drama (or Soap Opera)
craze hit HK, every other film contained a reference
to the popular member of Japanese band SMAP, who also
starred in the immensely popular dramas "Long
Vacation" and "Love Generation."
triads - For
the truly uninitiated, this term may seem unusual
but it becomes very familiar very fast. The Triads
are Hong Kong's mafia, popularized in movies like
Young and Dangerous and A Moment of Romance.
TVB - Hong Kong's
primary television station/studio which produces TV
serials that are more popular locally than most Hong
Kong films. Many popular HK actors got their start
at TVB, including the likes of Tony Leung Chiu-Wai,
Maggie Cheung, Chow Yun-Fat and Stephen Chow.
UFO - The United
Filmmakers Organization. Founded in the early nineties
by filmmakers Peter Chan, Lee Chi-Ngai and Jacob Cheung,
producer Claudie Chun, and actor Eric Tsang, the United
Filmmakers Organization was responsible for numerous
highly regarded HK films of the nineties, most notably
He's a Woman, She's a Man and Comrades,
Almost a Love Story. UFO's primary focus was sophisticated
urban comedy-dramas centering frequently on the "yuppie"
population of Hong Kong. UFO was acquired by Golden
Harvest in the late nineties and has since been used
as a label on the occasional "prestige"
wuxia - A genre
classification which encompasses certain types of
martial arts films which were popularized in novels
by authors like Jin Yong (AKA: Louis Cha). The primary
crux of these novels/films is usually a costume martial
arts story bearing certain iconography (i.e. a revenge
plot). Also known as "swordplay" films or
"Flying Kung-Fu Movies" for those who like
their definitions loose.