Intersections of Gender, Generation, and Class at Hong Kong’s Border: Precarious Peripheries in Ann Hui’s A Simple Life (2011) and Flora Lau’s Bends (2013)

At the margins of a male-dominated film industry and working at the border between Hong Kong and the People’s Republic of China (PRC), female directors struggle to make a living in an often tense cross-border business environment. Moreover, the demands of globalization exacerbate the competition local filmmakers face in their efforts to exploit the expanding motion picture market on the Chinese mainland. Nevertheless, Hong Kong female filmmakers still manage to tell stories about women from the margins of society who navigate the uncertainties of life in the nebulous border regions of Chinese society. Ann Hui’s A Simple Life (2011) and Flora Lau’s Bends (2013) make use of the border between Hong Kong and the People’s Republic of China to explore stories about women marginalized by their reliance on men, as well as Hong Kong’s increasing economic dependence on mainland China.