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Success at Cannes gives Hong Kong films a new lease of life
By
lifting the Golden Palm for Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival this
year, Tony Leung gave Hong Kong’s sagging film industry a much-needed
boost. Once renowned as ‘Asia’s Hollywood’, Hong Kong has
suffered in recent years from rampant copyright piracy, a flight of investors
and talent during the recent regional financial crisis, and an unhealthy
weakness for fads and quick profits.
The former British colony still produces some 150 films a year as it did
during its ‘golden years’ in the 1980s and early ’90s,
but many are little known, of poor quality and aimed at the underground
VCD market on mainland China. So, Leung’s win for In The Mood For
Love, directed by Hong Kong’s Wong Kar-wai, was a badly needed tonic.
“We’re very, very happy,” said Hong Kong-based film sales
agent Wouter Barendrecht of Fortissimo Film Sales, “If you look at
the awards, it wasn’t only Tony, but Jiang Wen and others too. It’s
a triumph for Asian cinema.”
The Chinese movie-making industry grabbed a total of four prizes at Cannes
out of 10. Mainland China’s Devils On The Doorstep by Jiang Wen took
the Grand Prize, Taiwan’s Edward Yang won Best Director for his A
One And A Two, and In The Mood For Love also scored for Best Cinematography.
Fads do their share of damage
Hong Kong, the city that produced Bruce Lee, has suffered a flight of
talent to Hollywood in recent years. Leung, Jackie Chan and Chow Yun-fat
(who co-starred with Jodie Foster in Anna And The King), being a few names.
Many younger actors and actresses have emerged in recent years to take
the local scene by storm, but have disappeared quickly when audiences
moved on to their next obsession.
Cheung Tung Joe, permanent honorary president of the Hong Kong Film Directors’
Guild, says fads decide who becomes an idol and what types of films are
made. That, in turn, saturates the market and creates unhealthy competition.
“If period action dramas are hot, everyone will start making them.
This leads to very destructive competition, which weakens the industry,”
Cheung said, “Most Hong Kong people just want quick profits. This
is the culture ... as a British colony, and after the handover (to China
in 1997) we care only for the short term, not the future.”
With the financial crisis drying up funds from the usual sources, and
filmmakers bent on fast profits, many films made in recent years were
rush jobs, frequently costing less than HK$1 million ($128,000) and taking
less than a week to make. Many never made it to cinema screens, being
targeted instead for mainland China’s VCD market. “Such practices
are harmful because such low-quality movies reduce the desire of audiences
to watch movies,” said Cheung.
The runaway piracy problem, which bleeds ticket sales and leads to industry
job losses, also bears much of the blame. “When there wasn’t
piracy, our foreign markets had lots of demand. But now VCDs are available
immediately after movies hit the screens here, so audiences don’t
need to go to cinemas. What was a huge market is now gone,” Cheung
opined.
Fight for survival
In Hong Kong, however, protracted raids at the retail and manufacturing
levels have made pirated VCDs less accessible. And there have been behind-the-scenes
efforts to nurse Hong Kong’s movie industry back to health.
In April, Barendrecht organised a forum to introduce local filmmakers
to foreign investors, including banks. But he said the industry would
have to compromise and play by internationally accepted rules, such as
completion bonds and detailed scripts — unusual in Hong Kong’s
movie-making culture.
Industry representatives have also been trying to get Hong Kong films
screened on the populous mainland. “Why do 10 foreign films get on
Chinese screens a year, but not even one Hong Kong movie?” Cheung
asked, “Only when we are in joint ventures with Chinese filmmakers,
do we get to screen in China. This is very unfair.”
But he said they will continue trying to press the case for Hong Kong.
Such solutions may succeed in the long term, but in the meantime the Golden
Palms for In The Mood For Love have boosted spirits. “The reception
has been very good. The film sold everywhere — Canada, the United
States, Taiwan, Russia, Hungary, Japan, South Korea, France, Poland, Switzerland,
Romania, you name it,” Barendrecht said, “The industry is visible
again, alive and kicking again.”
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