Critical reception of Hong Kong action films in USA (1985-1997): strategies of artistic legitimation

Abstract

. During the 1990s, Hong Kong action films attracted the attention of a number of American critics. But they faced several challenges that made difficult their interpretation and evaluation, since the films came from a foreign cinematography, were linked to a popular genre and exhibited features hard to assess using the criteria commonly used by Western film criticism. The critics were forced to pursue discursive strategies that would allow them to value a series of films that they found laudable, even fascinating, but were easily dismissed according to the usual parameters of Western film criticism. The present work tries to illuminate how this process of negotiation took place, exposing the type of strategies used and criteria proposed for the valuation of a popular cinema from another cultural space.