Adapting fiction has been an established tradition since the beginning of film. In converting “ fictional language” into “screen-play language,” changes are unavoidable and discrepancies between the two different narrative forms frequent. The Hong Kong “ New Wave ” began in the late 1970’s, when a group of young directors, informed by new aesthetic paradigms and different cinematic visions, started to make their own films. Ann Hui, one of these directors, is a representative figure with a diversity of works. She is also the first in Hong Kong to adapt fictional works by Eileen Chang, which include Love in a Fallen City and Eighteen Springs. This thesis, based on a detailed analysis of these two films, compares the two narrative languages and also examines the applicability of the “Auteu...[ Read more ]

Adapting fiction has been an established tradition since the beginning of film. In converting “ fictional language” into “screen-play language,” changes are unavoidable and discrepancies between the two different narrative forms frequent. The Hong Kong “ New Wave ” began in the late 1970’s, when a group of young directors, informed by new aesthetic paradigms and different cinematic visions, started to make their own films. Ann Hui, one of these directors, is a representative figure with a diversity of works. She is also the first in Hong Kong to adapt fictional works by Eileen Chang, which include Love in a Fallen City and Eighteen Springs. This thesis, based on a detailed analysis of these two films, compares the two narrative languages and also examines the applicability of the “Auteur Theory” and various adaptation theories.