Promise and perhaps love: Pan-Asian production and the Hong Kong-China interrelationship

The paper discusses the phenomenon of Pan-Asian production from the perspectives of the Hong Kong and Mainland Chinese cinemas, two historically separate cinemas increasingly being integrated through economic cooperation and co-production, a process also facilitated by political imperatives. As Hong Kong's film industry has declined over the past ten years and more, apparently with no hope of recovering its 'golden age' of dominance, it has turned to Pan-Asian production and distribution methods to shore up its markets while trying to gain a foothold in the vast China market. What is China's role in the phenomenon of Pan-Asian production? This paper examines the phenomenon and its characteristics through the specific examples of Chen Kaige's The Promise (2005) and Peter Chan's Perhaps Love (2005), analyzing the interrelationships between the Hong Kong cinema and its Mainland Chinese counterpart and considering the extent to which Pan-Asian production is or is not able to realize the ideal of an Asian cinematic identity.