ABSTRACT
This article explores the cultural and ideological vicissitudes of mixed intimacies in the transnational space of post-1997 (and pre-2019) Hong Kong through a close reading of the independent United States–Hong Kong co-production Already Tomorrow in Hong Kong (2015). I use cosmopolitan theory in order to highlight the contradictions brought about by globalization between the other-directed, lofty ideals of cosmopolitanism and its everyday practice. I use the term “cosmopolitan trouble” to describe the ways in which utopian ideals are negotiated in the context of contemporary intimate encounters as exemplified in the romantic relationship between the film’s protagonist couple. Given the prominence of space in both romantic comedy and cosmopolitan discourses, the role played by Hong Kong’s charged history, as well as its urban layout and cultural and social discourses, is central for our understanding of both the film’s construction of its romantic scenario and its contribution to contemporary cosmopolitan debates. Thus, in the film the city becomes a powerful iteration of cosmopolitan trouble in the specific field of intimate encounters in neoliberal times.
