Of Ghosts and Gangsters: Capitalist Cultural Production and the Hong Kong Film Industry

This article contends that ghosts and gangsters are not merely popular genres in the Hong Kong film industry; they are also legitimate participants in the film production process itself, influencing financial, creative, and logistical resources and decisions. Film personnel's accounts of the po...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inVisual anthropology review Vol. 28; no. 1; pp. 32 - 49
Main Author Martin, Sylvia J.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.05.2012
Subjects
Capitalist economy
capitalist production
Cosmology
Criminality
Cultural identity
Film industry
ghosts
Hong Kong
media ethnography
Media studies
Offenders
production studies
Supernatural
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Summary:This article contends that ghosts and gangsters are not merely popular genres in the Hong Kong film industry; they are also legitimate participants in the film production process itself, influencing financial, creative, and logistical resources and decisions. Film personnel's accounts of the possession and protection of their bodies by members of the cosmological and criminal underworlds, particularly in location filming in graveyards and gangster turf as well as ritual payments and appeasements made to the underworlds, reveal the diverse risks and cultural practices in film production. This article argues that despite the rationalization of commercial filmmaking, “enchantments” in the form of religion and feudalistic crime linger within capitalist production.
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ISSN:1058-7187
1548-7458
DOI:10.1111/j.1548-7458.2012.01109.x