Hong Kong’s moviegoers were in for some treats in 2007, when new and improved movie houses came into service around the city. Flashy gimmicks like vibrating seats, IMAX screens and 3-D, all at affordable ticket prices, offered renewed incentive to choose going out for a movie over other diversions. When the year’s final box office figures came in, the upgraded experience had actually helped raise Hong Kong’s overall box-office returns - some good news after years of difficulties. Chinese-language cinema as a whole also saw a lift in morale when Ang Lee’s racy Hong Kong-linked import Lust, Caution became the year’s sensation. Fresh from its Venice win, the movie opened to huge crowds, many wooed by unusually explicit sex scenes and its fine literary pedigree. Based on a novella by the late Eileen Chang, a highly regarded author and screenwriter, the exceptional spy thriller went on to beat out local rival films in takings. Lust, Caution’s success didn’t translate into a wider boom for Hong Kong’s homegrown productions, however, with few subsequent releases managing to hit the big time against the Hollywood competition.
The top-grossing local films of 2007 were Derek Yee’s Protégé and Peter Chan’s The Warlords. Yee’s drugtrade drama was released in Chinese New Year, breaking a tradition of filmmakers presenting upbeat and auspicious productions during the popular cinema going period. With Andy Lau and Daniel Wu the big names on the bill, and Chinese actress Zhang Jingchu putting in a terrific turn as an addict, Yee’s accomplished film had others playing catch-up at the box office until year’s end when The Warlords arrived. Also starring Andy Lau, as well as fellow megastars Jet Li and Kaneshiro Takeshi, The Warlords delivered a battlefield blockbuster based around the same material used for Chang Cheh’s Blood Brothers in the 1973. As it told an epic tale of brotherhood, with the three men’s bond being torn apart after liaisons with a woman, Chan’s film became a major event.
Difficult times have called for an adventurous spirit in keeping the cinema lineup lively and fun, and several filmmakers have stepped up to provide movies far out of the ordinary. Director Johnnie To, one of the city’s most lauded filmmakers, joined co-helmer and longtime collaborator Wai Ka-fai for Mad Detective, for the latest instalment in a line of quirky capers that left off with 2003’s Running On Karma. With Lau Ching-wan in top form in the title role, To and Wai’s film unraveled an elaborate story of split identities and a cop’s missing gun. To, through his Milkyway Image production house, also shook things up with crime flick Triangle, a twist on film storytelling that pieced together feature-film segments directed by To, Tsui Hark and Ringo Lam. With the three directors working in series, the process was akin to TV directors picking up where others leave off. The oddball approach caught the attention of local cineastes, who picked over the thriller to spot each filmmaker’s signature style and wit.
Also intent on trying new formulas was Pang Ho-cheung, still one of the city’s most interesting directors and, also like To, a prolific worker. Pang’s midyear release Exodus confounded expectations built up by his previous movies, from black comedies to dark dramas, instead using a lean, measured approach to frame a plot about women scheming to exterminate the men of the world. By Christmas, Pang had a new film ready in Trivial Matters, based on stories from his book of the same title. Essentially a collection of short films, at turns cheeky and touching, the delightfully creative Trivial Matters pushed censorship limits and provided winning performances from many of the city’s best young stars. In more highbrow territory, Ann Hui’s Postmodern Life Of My Aunt presented a gorgeously lensed story of selfimposed exile in Shanghai, while Wong Kar-wai’s My Blueberry Nights offered a romantic U.S. road movie. In January this year, another high concept film appeared in Stephen Chow’s CJ7, one of the very few Hong Kong movies to offer sci-fi elements, and the first local liveaction film to create its title character out of computer animation.
Summer movies took a similarly unusual turn as the city marked the 10th anniversary of its return to China. Samson Chiu’s Mr Cinema retold 30 years of local history from the unique standpoint of a staunchly pro-China family whose ideology moves them to the sidelines throughout the city’s spectacular economic growth. Produced by a film company itself rooted in the city’s patriotic camp, the movie’s perspective was a fascinating and illuminating one, and the family story at its centre was heartwarming. Law Wing-cheong’s Hooked On You, meanwhile, used the occasion to focus on a local community through drama set around a market slated for demolition. As its protagonists weather ups and downs, Law and his scriptwriting team effectively drew on Hongkongers’ increasing concern for local heritage and collective memories while crafting a clever, bittersweet pop package. A third film for the anniversary, Barbara Wong’s Wonder Women, alas lacked such perceptive approaches to capturing a changing Hong Kong, instead layering sound bites and product placement around a clumsy account of three women’s success.
Both Mr Cinema and Hooked On You added to a decent haul of locally themed films throughout 2007 and going into 2008. Early in 2007, Patrick Kong’s Love Is Not All Around became a surprise success at the box office. Despite haphazard production standards and a cast of moderately popular youth idols, the relationship melodrama touched its audience. Another success came in Patrick Leung and Chan King-ka’s Simply Actors, drawing on the appeal of actor Jim Chim, a stage performer who is local theatre’s brightest star. Leung and Chan’s comedy saw Chim play a cop who signs up for drama school to become a better secret agent, and audiences lapped up the boisterous Cantonese comedy. This January saw yet another distinctly local hit in See You In You Tube, directed by seven unnamed directors said to include Oxide Pang and film students. As it followed kids who join a mysterious guerilla-style film project, the movie presented cheap skits shot all over town on DV and using mostly amateur actors. As with Love Is Not All Around before it, See You In You Tube’s rough edges may preclude it from broader international attention, yet the unashamedly local feel to the production snagged it appreciative viewers who felt it was speaking to them on the level.
Among more conventional action films and thrillers, Oxide Pang’s The Detective was one of the highlights of 2007. Pang, usually known for the run of Pang Brothers horror shows like The Eye, turned his attention to a creating a tight crime thriller in Bangkok. With Aaron Kwok in an energetic lead role and a catchy score of Thai music, The Detective emerged as a cinematic pleasure. Amping up the action stakes, meanwhile, was Benny Chan with Invisible Target. The high-wire policier went all out to present maximum explosions and gunplay as three young Hong Kong cops mete out lessons in the law to visiting bad guys. Bringing on straight martial-arts filmmaking was Flash Point, the third installment of Wilson Yip’s actioners starring actor-choreographer Donnie Yen. Sticking to the formula that brought 2006’s SPL to international notice, Yip’s fisticuffs flick wrapped its rough and tumble bouts around a serviceable cop-movie framework. Lo Chi-leung’s Kidnap meantime attempted a high-budget thriller, jockeying for position as a top-flight production but let down by an anticlimactic plot.
Horror movies in recent years had become a casualty in the Hong Kong film business’s increased focus on the China market, where ghost stories are still a no-no. Nevertheless, a minor resurgence in the genre is becoming clear. Herman Yau’s Gong Tau revisited the theme of Hongkongers meeting sticky ends after Southeast Asian black-magic encounters, a distinctly local breed of film last aired a decade ago, and won its adults-only rating with flying heads and sorcery madness. While Oxide Pang gave a thriller a shot in The Detective, twin brother Danny Pang served up more supernatural-themed turns in Forest Of Death and In Love With The Dead. The latter saw Pang handle youth drama about a cancer patient with restraint until phantoms hit the scene and a questionable moral took root. Carol Lai’s Naraka 19 developed a horror tale based on a Chinese Internet novel. Telling of a cell-phone game that sucks students into a hellish scenario, Lai’s film labored through a plot played out in stages. Far more exciting was Lai’s The Third Eye, which had a single local film-festival screening in early 2006 before being dumped to video more than year later. A slasher film set in an island hostel where everyone is under surveillance, The Third Eye succeeded best in its dark atmosphere, bold HD camerawork and appealing performances. In January this year, David Lee made his promising debut with Yes, I Can See Dead People. Beyond the tongue-in-cheek title lay one of the better Hong Kong horror movies of recent years, delivering the requisite shocks while developing characters that viewers could care for.
David Lee’s film was one of several impressive recent debuts. Yau Nai-hoi’s Eye In The Sky, shown in the 2007 FEFF, has commanded the most attention with further film-festival showings, while other newcomers delivered smaller features. Adam Wong followed up his fabulous DV-shot 2004 film When Beckham Met Owen with Magic Boy, his first movie on 35mm. Set in the bustling youthoriented Mongkok shopping district, Wong’s film leavened its romantic drama with charming fantasy touches and vibrant mixed-media approaches. Derek Kwok, too, added fantasy elements to his nostalgic ganglandthemed The Pye-Dog, presenting a classy and sure-footed first film. Also catching attention was Breeze Of July by Stanley Tam, which explored themes of identity and family roots, and Susie Au’s Ming Ming, a flashy but impenetrable genre bender.
As for actors, Hong Kong’s leading men continue to be finding top roles onscreen, including Andy Lau, Jet Li and Kaneshiro Takeshi in The Warlords. Mid-tier productions are similarly offering prominent turns to the likes of Aaron Kwok, Simon Yam, Tony Leung Kar-fai, Daniel Wu, Lau Ching-wan, Anthony Wong and Ronald Cheng. Among leading ladies, Miriam Yeung, Teresa Mo and Charlene Choi all put in fine leading performances, but once again many of the year’s top roles went to actresses from abroad, like Zhang Jingchu, Xu Jinglei and Zhou Xun from China, and René Liu from Taiwan. Promising new talent remains thin on the ground, with young pop singer Stephy Tang catching the most attention for Love Is Not All Around and In Love With The Dead, and Kate Tsui still winning plaudits for her Eye In The Sky debut.
With the film industry’s health not yet in the clear, and the number of local films released in 2007 dipping to 50, collaborations with mainland partners remain a key means to finance movies and ensure cinema release in China. As has been the case since the current wave of co-productions started under 2003’s Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement, filmmakers still contend with catering to distinct markets and censorship in China and Hong Kong. One film that aimed for broader appeal at the expense of Hong Kong flavour was CJ7. Stephen Chow’s innocuous, China-set sci-fi feature lacked much of the distinctly local comedy once key to the directoractor’s earlier appeal, and cut his previously excellent use of Hong Kong screen veterans and character actors. Kenneth Bi’s The Drummer took a notably different direction for co-productions, instead gaining German partners. With adequate funds to incorporate Taiwan’s noted U-Theatre percussion troupe and plenty of lush Taiwan location work into a story opening as Hong Kong gangland drama, Bi’s film set itself apart from the crowd.
A new government assistance package was announced in early 2007, offering US$38.5 million to the Film Development Fund for it to provide up to 30% of financing to small- to medium-size projects. Movies to benefit from the fund, being administered by the newly formed Film Development Council, have to satisfy criteria that stress commercial viability and an intention to cater to mass audiences. Applications opened in November last year and the first two recipient projects were announced this February: the next installment in the popular Mcdull animation series and a romantic comedy from first-time director Ivy Ho, best known as the acclaimed screenwriter behind July Rhapsody and Comrades, Almost A Love Story. Unlike government assistance to indie movie ventures channeled through the Arts Development Council to other bodies, the new funding approach shows a clear intent to assist and promote commercial fare and help woo more cinemagoers to local movies.
CJ7’s lengthy Chinese New Year theatrical run started 2008 with positive news, as too did the minor success of See You In You Tube. By Easter, notable releases had appeared in the likes of Ching Siu-tung’s martial-arts drama An Empress And The Warriors, Jingle Ma’s actionromance Playboy Cops, Johnnie To’s love story Linger and Patrick Kong’s bittersweet youth flick L For Love, L For Lies. And local film buffs soon had an appealing film lineup to look forward to in the likes of Johnnie To’s playful pickpocket feature Sparrow, Sylvia Chang’s magical gangland piece Run Papa Run and Daniel Lee’s costume epic Three Kingdoms. As the release schedule became busier once again across the genres, the city’s filmmakers looked keen to regain momentum for their hometown productions.
Tim Youngs