Faithless
03-11-2005, 12:51 AM
Hong Kong Film Industry Struggles to Survive (http://www.voanews.com/english/NewsAnalysis/Archive/2005-03-10-voa31.cfm)
By Benjamin Sand * Hong Kong * 10 March 2005
Hong Kong-based actor and director Stephen Chow takes on a crew of assorted gangsters in his latest comedy hit Kung Fu Hustle. He plays a hapless thief who tries to join a ruthless Chinese gang in the early 1900s. In just 45 days the movie raked in more than 60 million dollars - a blockbuster hit by anybody's standards. Film Historian David Cook at Emory University in the United States says the movie epitomizes Hong Kong's cinematic style.
"The style of the film and the style of the city have a lot in common, they're both extremely action oriented, aggressive, if I may say so, even flashy places," says Mr. Cook.
But Kung Fu Hustle's success is actually more the exception than the rule these days in an industry struggling to survive. Major investors are moving away and local filmmakers are suffering the consequences. In the 1980s Hong Kong produced nearly 300 movies a year. In 2005 only about 60 will get made. Filmmakers here say that if the local industry keeps shrinking Hong Kong could lose one if its key artistic venues and with it, a big part of its creative identity.
The first Chinese movie made in Hong Kong was shot in 1909, titled, To Steal a Roasted Duck. By the 1930s local filmmakers started producing about 15 to 20 movies a year. Film historian David Cook says the most popular were based on Chinese operas.
"They were essentially musicals, they were melodramas where popular singers would sing 10, 15 songs in the course of a film," says Mr. Cook.
The Japanese occupation of Hong Kong during World War II basically wiped out the industry until the 1950s when a new fad hit the industry: Wu Xia, or martial arts. But it was not until the early 1970s that Hong Kong's kung fu movies gained a global audience. And in 1972, a 32-year-old martial arts instructor starred in a low budget action movie called Fists of Fury.
The movie made American-born Bruce Lee an international star. It also fueled a huge demand for Hong Kong kung fu films. David Cook says Americans fell in love with the new Asian action hero.
"There was a period during in early 70s when martial arts movies were taking about 30 to 40 percent of the market share of all films released in the United States," says Mr. Cook.
For the next quarter century Hong Kong filmmakers kept at it, churning out scores of kung fu and gangster movies every year with titles like The Five Deadly Venoms and The Flying Guillotine. But in 1997 the rebounding film industry suffered the first in a series of major setbacks. That year's economic crash, which affected almost all of Asia, practically wiped out funding for local productions. At the same time, Hollywood blockbusters like The Titanic started to eat into the domestic market. Hong Kong's biggest names also started to work in America, where they could earn more money. Now it is video piracy that poses the biggest to Hong Kong's film industry with bootleg DVD's and on-line file sharing taking a huge chunk out of local profits.
Liz Shackleton covers Hong Kong film market for Screen International, a London-based trade paper. "Piracy is a massive problem," Says Ms Shackleton. "We currently have a level of piracy of about 20 percent, on the mainland it's 95 percent."
Hong Kong's government says it is doing what it can to protect the filmmakers cracking down on the illegal trade and distribution. But Ms. Shackleton says ending piracy will not solve all of the local industry's problems. To survive, she says, Hong Kong has to reclaim its share of the regional market. Local producers have their eyes on mainland China, and its 1.3 billion potential moviegoers. But it won't be easy. Along with its huge audience, China also has tough rules on what movies can - and cannot - show.
Films cannot show ghosts, no dead bodies, no gun shots in public places, nothing too scary, nothing too sexy and so on. If Hong Kong hopes to succeed in China - if it hopes to survive at all - local critics say it will have focus on quality and not just quantity. Big action scenes can't mask poor production values and weak screenplays. To regain its former glory, industry experts say Hong Kong has to slow down and stop going for the knockout punch. They say Kung Fu Hustle was a hit because of a good story and solid acting, and that, not the Kung Fu, is the key to success.
.
Then there's this thought --
Reviving film industry in China (http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-03/10/content_2677317.htm)
www.chinaview.cn 2005-03-10 10:47:14
LANZHOU, March 10 (Xinhuanet) -- Customers chat leisurely on stools laid in graceful disorder in an orange-floored room, illuminations hanging from the ceiling glitter and various drinks adorn the bar counter.
But this is not a trendy new bar; it's the lobby of the Red Orient Cinema Center, one of the two modern cinemas in Lanzhou, a city in underdeveloped inland China.
Going to slap-up cinemas is becoming one of the most popular pastimes for young Chinese at weekends -- along with bars and karaoke parlors -- in a country where the film industry had been depressed for more than 10 years.
"It may be a signal of the industry's recovery," said Yan Bing,manager of the Red Orient.
Film was once the most popular entertainment among Chinese people. In the early 1980s box office revenue in Gansu Province totaled more than 30 million yuan (about 3.6 million US dollars) per year with tickets costing just a few jiao (1 jiao equivalent to 0.1 yuan).
The industry began to suffer in the 1990s, especially when televisions became common in Chinese households. Gansu's box office earnings in 2000 were only 3 million yuan despite ticket prices of 15 yuan (1.8 dollars) each.
Analysts say defects in cinemas themselves, such as cramped space, creaky seats, foul air and outdated acoustic equipment, helped restrict the industry's development.
But, things are changing. China has built 15 five-star cinemas since 2003, when the nation officially began to classify its cinemas for the first time.
The Red Orient is one. The newly opened cinema has four film projection rooms equipped with digital technology, Yan said.
The first five-star cinema in Beijing, UME International Cineplex, boasts an unusually large screen of 430 square meters and 1,200 seats with 1.2 meters between each row. Moviegoers can buy tickets on the POS and film posters in special shops there.
The number of cinemas has also soared. China had 36 cinema chains with 1,188 theaters and 2,396 screens as of 2004, said TongGang, director of the Film Bureau of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television.
Poor quality is another reason Chinese film fell out of favor, said Jiao Bingkun, former president of Lanzhou Film Studio.
"Technology ranging from shooting to editing in domestic films was backward, which made audiences turn to TV programs."
But the past year was exciting for industry insiders, media andmovie critics as well, given the fact that three Chinese films -- "House of Flying Daggers" by Zhang Yimou, "Kung Fu Hustle" by HongKong comedy star Stephen Chow and "A World Without Thieves" by Feng Xiaogang -- topped domestic box office at 153 million, 125 million and 101 million yuan respectively.
China shot a record 212 films in 2004, a 50 percent increase over 2003, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television said, adding that total box office revenue in 2004 totaled 1.57 billion yuan (about 189 million US dollars).
Analysts are optimistic about the Chinese film industry, sayingits momentum is favorable thanks to the improved cinemas and films.
"We have the potential to raise box office revenue to 5 billionyuan (602 million US dollars) in 2005," said Kang Jianmin, executive vice-president of the China Film Association. Enditem
By Benjamin Sand * Hong Kong * 10 March 2005
Hong Kong-based actor and director Stephen Chow takes on a crew of assorted gangsters in his latest comedy hit Kung Fu Hustle. He plays a hapless thief who tries to join a ruthless Chinese gang in the early 1900s. In just 45 days the movie raked in more than 60 million dollars - a blockbuster hit by anybody's standards. Film Historian David Cook at Emory University in the United States says the movie epitomizes Hong Kong's cinematic style.
"The style of the film and the style of the city have a lot in common, they're both extremely action oriented, aggressive, if I may say so, even flashy places," says Mr. Cook.
But Kung Fu Hustle's success is actually more the exception than the rule these days in an industry struggling to survive. Major investors are moving away and local filmmakers are suffering the consequences. In the 1980s Hong Kong produced nearly 300 movies a year. In 2005 only about 60 will get made. Filmmakers here say that if the local industry keeps shrinking Hong Kong could lose one if its key artistic venues and with it, a big part of its creative identity.
The first Chinese movie made in Hong Kong was shot in 1909, titled, To Steal a Roasted Duck. By the 1930s local filmmakers started producing about 15 to 20 movies a year. Film historian David Cook says the most popular were based on Chinese operas.
"They were essentially musicals, they were melodramas where popular singers would sing 10, 15 songs in the course of a film," says Mr. Cook.
The Japanese occupation of Hong Kong during World War II basically wiped out the industry until the 1950s when a new fad hit the industry: Wu Xia, or martial arts. But it was not until the early 1970s that Hong Kong's kung fu movies gained a global audience. And in 1972, a 32-year-old martial arts instructor starred in a low budget action movie called Fists of Fury.
The movie made American-born Bruce Lee an international star. It also fueled a huge demand for Hong Kong kung fu films. David Cook says Americans fell in love with the new Asian action hero.
"There was a period during in early 70s when martial arts movies were taking about 30 to 40 percent of the market share of all films released in the United States," says Mr. Cook.
For the next quarter century Hong Kong filmmakers kept at it, churning out scores of kung fu and gangster movies every year with titles like The Five Deadly Venoms and The Flying Guillotine. But in 1997 the rebounding film industry suffered the first in a series of major setbacks. That year's economic crash, which affected almost all of Asia, practically wiped out funding for local productions. At the same time, Hollywood blockbusters like The Titanic started to eat into the domestic market. Hong Kong's biggest names also started to work in America, where they could earn more money. Now it is video piracy that poses the biggest to Hong Kong's film industry with bootleg DVD's and on-line file sharing taking a huge chunk out of local profits.
Liz Shackleton covers Hong Kong film market for Screen International, a London-based trade paper. "Piracy is a massive problem," Says Ms Shackleton. "We currently have a level of piracy of about 20 percent, on the mainland it's 95 percent."
Hong Kong's government says it is doing what it can to protect the filmmakers cracking down on the illegal trade and distribution. But Ms. Shackleton says ending piracy will not solve all of the local industry's problems. To survive, she says, Hong Kong has to reclaim its share of the regional market. Local producers have their eyes on mainland China, and its 1.3 billion potential moviegoers. But it won't be easy. Along with its huge audience, China also has tough rules on what movies can - and cannot - show.
Films cannot show ghosts, no dead bodies, no gun shots in public places, nothing too scary, nothing too sexy and so on. If Hong Kong hopes to succeed in China - if it hopes to survive at all - local critics say it will have focus on quality and not just quantity. Big action scenes can't mask poor production values and weak screenplays. To regain its former glory, industry experts say Hong Kong has to slow down and stop going for the knockout punch. They say Kung Fu Hustle was a hit because of a good story and solid acting, and that, not the Kung Fu, is the key to success.
.
Then there's this thought --
Reviving film industry in China (http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-03/10/content_2677317.htm)
www.chinaview.cn 2005-03-10 10:47:14
LANZHOU, March 10 (Xinhuanet) -- Customers chat leisurely on stools laid in graceful disorder in an orange-floored room, illuminations hanging from the ceiling glitter and various drinks adorn the bar counter.
But this is not a trendy new bar; it's the lobby of the Red Orient Cinema Center, one of the two modern cinemas in Lanzhou, a city in underdeveloped inland China.
Going to slap-up cinemas is becoming one of the most popular pastimes for young Chinese at weekends -- along with bars and karaoke parlors -- in a country where the film industry had been depressed for more than 10 years.
"It may be a signal of the industry's recovery," said Yan Bing,manager of the Red Orient.
Film was once the most popular entertainment among Chinese people. In the early 1980s box office revenue in Gansu Province totaled more than 30 million yuan (about 3.6 million US dollars) per year with tickets costing just a few jiao (1 jiao equivalent to 0.1 yuan).
The industry began to suffer in the 1990s, especially when televisions became common in Chinese households. Gansu's box office earnings in 2000 were only 3 million yuan despite ticket prices of 15 yuan (1.8 dollars) each.
Analysts say defects in cinemas themselves, such as cramped space, creaky seats, foul air and outdated acoustic equipment, helped restrict the industry's development.
But, things are changing. China has built 15 five-star cinemas since 2003, when the nation officially began to classify its cinemas for the first time.
The Red Orient is one. The newly opened cinema has four film projection rooms equipped with digital technology, Yan said.
The first five-star cinema in Beijing, UME International Cineplex, boasts an unusually large screen of 430 square meters and 1,200 seats with 1.2 meters between each row. Moviegoers can buy tickets on the POS and film posters in special shops there.
The number of cinemas has also soared. China had 36 cinema chains with 1,188 theaters and 2,396 screens as of 2004, said TongGang, director of the Film Bureau of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television.
Poor quality is another reason Chinese film fell out of favor, said Jiao Bingkun, former president of Lanzhou Film Studio.
"Technology ranging from shooting to editing in domestic films was backward, which made audiences turn to TV programs."
But the past year was exciting for industry insiders, media andmovie critics as well, given the fact that three Chinese films -- "House of Flying Daggers" by Zhang Yimou, "Kung Fu Hustle" by HongKong comedy star Stephen Chow and "A World Without Thieves" by Feng Xiaogang -- topped domestic box office at 153 million, 125 million and 101 million yuan respectively.
China shot a record 212 films in 2004, a 50 percent increase over 2003, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television said, adding that total box office revenue in 2004 totaled 1.57 billion yuan (about 189 million US dollars).
Analysts are optimistic about the Chinese film industry, sayingits momentum is favorable thanks to the improved cinemas and films.
"We have the potential to raise box office revenue to 5 billionyuan (602 million US dollars) in 2005," said Kang Jianmin, executive vice-president of the China Film Association. Enditem