SOS Hong Kong: Coproducing Espionage Films in Cold War Asia

Sangjoon Lee

doi:10.5117/9789463727273_ch12

SOS Hong Kong: Coproducing Espionage Films in Cold War Asia

School of Creative Media

Research output: Chapters, Conference Papers, Creative and Literary Works › RGC 12 - Chapter in an edited book (Author) › peer-review

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Abstract

With the success of Dr. No and Goldfinger in Asia, film industries in Asia recognized the market potential of spy movies and began churning out their own James Bond–mimetic espionage films in the late 1960s. In the US-driven Cold War sphere, developmental states in the region, particularly
South Korea and Taiwan, adopted an anti-communist doctrine to guard and uphold their militant dictatorships. Under this political atmosphere in the regional sphere, cultural sectors in each nation-state—including cinema—voluntarily or compulsorily served as an apparatus to strengthen the state’s ideological principles. This chapter casts a critical eye on the South Korea–initiated inter-Asian coproduction of espionage films produced in this period, with particular reference to SOS Hong Kong (1966) and Special Agent X-7 (1966).

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Remapping the Cold War in Asian Cinemas
Editors	Sangjoon Lee, Darlene Machell Espeña
Place of Publication	Amsterdam
Publisher	Amsterdam University Press
Chapter	12
Pages	223-239
Number of pages	16
ISBN (Electronic)	9789048555888, 9781003702702
ISBN (Print)	9789463727273
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.5117/9789463727273_ch12
Publication status	Published - 10 Jul 2024

Publication series

Name	Critical Asian Cinemas
Publisher	Amsterdam University Press

Research Keywords

postwar South Korean cinema
Hong Kong cinema
spy movies
Cold War
inter-Asian film

Publisher's Copyright Statement

This full text is made available under CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

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SOS Hong Kong: Coproducing Espionage Films in Cold War Asia. / Lee, Sangjoon.
Remapping the Cold War in Asian Cinemas. ed. / Sangjoon Lee; Darlene Machell Espeña. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2024. p. 223-239 (Critical Asian Cinemas).

Research output: Chapters, Conference Papers, Creative and Literary Works › RGC 12 - Chapter in an edited book (Author) › peer-review

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N2 - With the success of Dr. No and Goldfinger in Asia, film industries in Asia recognized the market potential of spy movies and began churning out their own James Bond–mimetic espionage films in the late 1960s. In the US-driven Cold War sphere, developmental states in the region, particularlySouth Korea and Taiwan, adopted an anti-communist doctrine to guard and uphold their militant dictatorships. Under this political atmosphere in the regional sphere, cultural sectors in each nation-state—including cinema—voluntarily or compulsorily served as an apparatus to strengthen the state’s ideological principles. This chapter casts a critical eye on the South Korea–initiated inter-Asian coproduction of espionage films produced in this period, with particular reference to SOS Hong Kong (1966) and Special Agent X-7 (1966).

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SOS Hong Kong: Coproducing Espionage Films in Cold War Asia

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