1 - Memories of War in Toho/Cathay's “Hong Kong Trilogy”

“Hong Kong Trilogy”, Toho/Cathay Organisation’s coproduction film series released in the early 1960s, has attracted research interest in the context of international politics, given its production background and depiction of scenes and characters. Previous studies have analysed the films from the perspective of intra-Asian cultural exchange, postwar Japanese film’s expansion into Asia and its relationship with Hong Kong, and the pursuit of neocolonialist desires within the Cold War structure. These studies clearly show how the popular desires projected by cinema were developed in the context of international relations.

This paper, based on the above studies, discusses the “Trilogy” from the perspective of war memory. Each of the trilogies refers to the memories of the Sino-Japanese War. A Night in Hong Kong (1961) and Star of Hong Kong (1962) depict the Japanese roots of the Hong Kong woman played by You Min and her father’s relationship with Japan. The end scene of Honolulu, Tokyo, Hong Kong (1963), in which a Hong Kong woman played by You Min strikes a Japanese man played by Takarada Akira, recalls a famous scene from the wartime film China Night (1940). In addition, this “Trilogy” shows elements related to Hong Kong’s perception of Japan and vice versa. By analysing these elements, this paper points out that Asianism, the ideology of Japan’s involvement in Asia since the prewar period, has been transformed in the Cold War structure and appears in these films.