Hong Kong’s Tightened Film Censorship and Its Implication on Hong Kong Cinema
Hong Kong’s Tightened Film Censorship and Its Implication on Hong Kong Cinema

Summary/Abstract: Hong Kong’s film censorship had become completely apolitical on the eve of the city’s change ofsovereignty from Britain to China in 1997. This paper will review film censorship practices in theearly handover period, drawing from the first-hand experience of the author, who was a public officerworking in the film censorship institution. It will examine how film censorship practices in HongKong have changed to reintroduce political censorship following the Chinese government’s tightenedgrip over this former British colony, such as imposing the National Security Law (NSL) promptedby a massive civic movement in 2019. Political censorship has begun to manifest in a more covertmanner within the film industry. Filmmakers, distributors, and screening organisers are finding waysto navigate the tightened censorship, ranging from circulating works overseas to incorporating actsof censorship as part of the creative process. The dynamics between the state’s control, the industry’scollaboration, and the filmmakers’ reactions are collectively shaping the evolving landscape of HongKong cinema under a mutating political environment in the post-NSL Hong Kong.

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