Action-narrative is an approach to describing the transformation of human motion or action from a pure aesthetic movement to an expression of meaning in media. I investigate this concept from the transformation of my Hong Kong cinema practice from a visual narrative-based approach to what I have termed an ‘action-narrative’ approach. This transformation takes place within the traditional constraints of Hong Kong cinema including the production process, director-writer relationships, actor-marketing concerns, and Chinese censorship. Rather than constraints, I see these as generative parameters for the entire creation process.

I take Hong Kong action film practice as the background and investigate how a specific social-cultural environment creates this unique film genre. I explore how the interventions of a variety of stakeholders related to the movie production can drive the creation of the story in terms of their values and concerns. Deleuze’s description of deterritorialization and reterritorialization informs my reflection on my work to reveal the relationships behind the transformation of my process. The insights from this study contribute to the knowledge of screen production and creative writing practice in entertainment media and reflect the interactive relationship between the practice and the socio-cultural transformation of the region.