Hong Kong Cinema

Serious devotees of car crashes, chases, technological disasters, explosions and death-defying stunts in what are euphemistically known as ""action"" movies may already be aware that the Hong Kong film industry leads the world in this genre and that Jackie Chan, its ubiquitous acrobatic star, is among the most popular film actors in the world. Readers can only marvel at the revelations of this essay--an expanded version of New Yorker staffer Dannen's considerably more accessible article of August 7, 1995, in that magazine. For example, the authors tell us that the industry is dominated by gangsters who will kill, kidnap and otherwise terrorize to get the script, directors or actors they want; that actors commonly do their own dangerous stunts; and that most of the actors are poorly paid by Hollywood standards and work much harder. Four-fifths of the book, written with New York City Hong Kong film collector Long, is devoted to plot summaries of more than 300 Hong Kong movies, biographical sketches and brief interviews with leading filmmakers. The authors go into more detail here than any but an ardent Hong Kong film buff may want to know about ""Babylon."" Photos not seen by PW. (Nov.)