The ideas in this book initially took shape in an essay for a monograph. The monograph was not published, but I would like first to thank its editors at the time, Douglas Pye and John Gibbs, for their helpful and creative feedback. During the long process of expanding the material into a book, I was grateful for a range of specialist assistance. John Oliver suggested many film titles that I might otherwise have overlooked and answered a number of my more esoteric questions on film production. Daniel Chan and David Chan provided useful cultural and historical background on Hong Kong.