Hong Kong cinema’s problems showed few signs of
abating in 2008. A few blockbusters wowed the hometown
masses, but the year will mainly be remembered
for the delays, interference and confusion surrounding
some of its biggest releases. There were also concerns
about local movies retaining their distinctiveness.
Despite a warm reception for Stephen Chow’s sci-fi kids
flick CJ7 in January and a selection of impressive films
through the year, Hong Kong moviegoers in 2008 saw
advertised release dates pushed back, local festival
screenings cancelled and months without major new
movies. Behind the scenes, filmmakers grappled with
tightened mainland Chinese censorship, a slowdown in
approvals across the border and the continuing decline
in local interest. Fifty-three Cantonese and Mandarin
movies were released in Hong Kong in 2008. In the
past, local films alone would have easily topped that figure.
At the heart of film industry’s worries in 2008 were
difficulties with co-productions between Hong Kong
moviemakers and partners in China. That’s still a key
line of filmmaking, with movies being geared toward the
larger Chinese market. Hong Kong filmmakers were
already feeling the pinch early in the year when Chinese
authorities toughened control over movies in the wake
of controversial releases. Both Li Yu’s Lost In Beijing
and Ang Lee’s Lust, Caution had caused a stir with
mainland officialdom, and closer scrutiny followed.
Hong Kong producers struggled to meet seemingly
fluid censorship standards applied to scripts, completed
films and even titles. Without a go-ahead in China, an
official co-production cannot reach cinemas anywhere.
A list of no-nos aimed at “purifying screen entertainment”
was released by China’s State Administration of
Radio, Film and Television in March (taboo topics
included excessive violence, crime reconstructions,
police investigation techniques and even sexually suggestive
sound effects) many filmmakers continued to
wonder what was allowable in getting their movies into
China.
A further stumbling block came with August’s Beijing
Olympics. Chinese authorities held back on green-lighting
new films in the lead-up to the Games, effectively
clearing the path in July for the prestigious first installment
of John Woo’s mainland historical battlefield epic
Red Cliff. That was, at US$80 million, Asia’s most
expensive film production. Release delays continued
past the Olympics and up to the October 1st National
Day holidays, after which the number of major new
movies finally picked up again.
The conundrum is how Hong Kong filmmakers can
reconcile the allure of the vast Chinese market with the
demands of the Chinese authorities and the mainland’s
markedly different taste in film. By working with mainland
co-production partners, Hong Kong companies
gain increased budgets and better prospects for commercial
success - something the unpredictable and
often uninterested Hong Kong audience no longer guarantees. Success stories continue: Gordon Chan’s
Painted Skin, a tale of the supernatural based on classic
literature, performed strongly in China, as too did
Wilson Yip’s martial arts biopic Ip Man. Production values
of high-concept, expensive thrillers like Benny
Chan’s Connected and Dante Lam’s The Beast Stalker
also benefitted from the increased funds afforded to
co-productions.
But co-productions also mean changes and delays in
gaining mainland approval, and a softening of the anything-
goes spirit that won Hong Kong cinema international
attention. Felix Chong and Alan Mak’s crime
caper Lady Cop & Papa Crookwas edited to near incoherence
to appease censors after its release date was
pushed back four months into 2009. Before that, A
Decade Of Love,a low-key omnibus of short films by 12
directors celebrating Hong Kong, saw its April festival
premiere cancelled and a story removed before its
spring release. For some filmmakers, conforming to
censorship in China is like past efforts to release films
in strict markets like Singapore and Malaysia. Those
that opt out of the Chinese market are left making lowbudget
affairs riding on the local appeal of idols, niche
genres and social issues.
CJ7, an inoffensive children’s film about a schoolboy
befriending an alien, started the year well by wooing
large crowds. The movies that followed couldn’t match
even half of CJ7’s cinema takings, but 2008’s high
points offered a variety of pleasures. Sylvia Chang’s
Run Papa Run (FEFF 2008) remained one of the
classiest pictures of 2008, its ambitious and nostalgic
gangland family drama covering local history with
finesse. Benny Chan’s Connected was another strong
movie. A remake of the Hollywood thriller Cellular,
Chan’s modern actioner strung together over-the-top
action sequences and urban mayhem as its leading
man unwittingly becomes a hero. Equally strong in contemporary-
set action was Dante Lam’s The Beast
Stalker, a grim thriller about a cop atoning for accidentally
killing a barrister’s daughter. As the policeman
later sniffs out the creepy kidnapper holding the dead
girl’s sister hostage, a gritty yet compassionate run of
thrills follows.
Wilson Yip continued his collaborations with actor and
martial arts choreographer Donnie Yen for Ip Man. A
biopic about the life of kung-fu master Yip Man before
he fled China in 1949, the film charted the passage of
a local hero through the Japanese occupation. Though
it played fast and loose historical detail, the rousing
martial arts scenes were enough to score with audiences.
Yip’s picture wasn’t alone in the kung-fu stakes:
Tsui Siuming’s Champions and Nicky Li and Wu Jing’s
Legendary Assassin also joined the fray. The Olympicthemed,
1930s-set Champions added a lively
Cantonese community to a patriotic picture of training
and idealism, with an action sequence in a family home
a terrific highlight. The low-end Legendary Assassin
saw Wu gain his first co-directing credit while starring
as a killer trapped in a remote Hong Kong village with
thugs in pursuit. Martial arts also figured in Painted
Skin’s mix of old-style spooky tales, action and highend
period drama, with Donnie Yen top-billed as a warrior.
Period epics remain a prominent line in the industry.
Just before John Woo’s Red Cliff and Red Cliff II
caught plenty of attention in Asia for their spectacular
battlefield action, Daniel Lee’s Three Kingdoms:
Resurrection Of The Dragon mined the same source
material. Told with highly stylised war sequences, and
with Andy Lau in the lead, the film attempted to refashion
how dusty epics are presented onscreen. While costume epics caught attention on pan-Asian
release, other styles garnered plaudits on the wider
international scene. Wong Kar-wai’s wuxiaepic Ashes Of
Time Redux(an update of his 1994 film Ashes Of Time)
made its 2008 bow in Cannes and garnered a roster of
festival showings and cinema releases. The film’s local
premiere, however, was held back for nearly a year. Also
continuing to get notice abroad was Johnnie To’s pickpocket
caper Sparrow(FEFF 2008), a minor success on
its summer Hong Kong cinema release. It had a charming
roster of shadowy characters.
A range of smaller pictures has been attracting
young Hong Kong cinemagoers and film lovers keen on
local stories. Some are well-made, like Sparrow and
Ann Hui’s The Way We Are. Others are scrappy commercial
pictures. Hui’s exceptional The Way We Aretook
viewers to Tin Shui Wai, a satellite town maligned in the
media as a “city of sadness”. Taking a non-sensationalist
approach for a story of local residents, Hui’s HDshot
feature is a quiet, sympathetic affair offering an
unvarnished look at everyday life. The film was effectively
the low-key lead-in to Hui’s subsequent Night And
Fog, a more expensive movie about a family murdersuicide
in the same area that shows problems in social
welfare, policing, citizenship rules and Hongkongers’
attitudes to migrants from China. The Tin Shui Wai district
also appeared in the fierce youth drama Besieged
City, from Lawrence Lau. Taking a more in-your-face
approach, Lau delivered a risqué picture of youth gone
wild. Lau also co-directed the sport-related personal
drama City Without Baseball with new helmer Scud, and
the Taiwan-set political thriller Ballistic.
Herman Yau remains a key director of investigative
Hong Kong stories. His social drama True Women For
Sale followed from his 2007 film Whispers And Moans
by covering sex workers and the issues that affect
them. Working with regular co-writer Yang Yeeshan,
Yau’s incisive and lightly comic work also depicted
wider issues like securing right of abode for both
migrants and the mainland-born children of
Hongkongers. Yau’s latest work, Rebellion, sits in the
triad genre, and shows gangland figures ripped apart
by infighting. Also giving social issues screen time with
a keen eye for realism was new director Heiward Mak.
The screenwriting graduate made a splash with High
Noon, a vital tale of underachieving schoolboys passing
through trouble and coming of age. Ivy Ho, the
acclaimed writer of Comrades: Almost A Love Storyand
July Rhapsody, also made a fine start to her directing
career with Claustrophobia. Told in reverse, Ho’s subtle
narrative charted a workplace romance and lived up
to its title with scenes often set in cars and offices.
2008 was also the year that writer-director Patrick
Kong to made an impact in the youth market. Kong’s L
For Love, L For Lies surprised with a switch to
respectable filmmaking after the director’s previous far
less accomplished movies. He followed with the horrorstyle
Forgive And Forget and the teen comedy
Nobody’s Perfect, both weaker works, before starting
his 2009 slate with the moody Valentine’s Day flick
Love Connected. Kong’s collaborations with lead
actress Stephy Tang strike a chord with young cinemagoers,
and the helmer’s low-end auteur status is
apparent with repeated themes about cheating, backup
lovers, romance contracts and questionable morality.
But it wasn’t all tears and love chaos for actress Tang.
She also headlined Chan Hing-ka and Janet Chun’s La
Lingerie. A smart, playful and often charming romantic
comedy with an underwear theme, Chan and Chun’s
movie upped the quality for its genre and clicked with
fans.
Other highlights from the past 12 months include Law
Wing-cheong’s policier Tactical Unit: Comrades In Arms,
the 35mm entry in a series launched with featurelength
TV episodes and drawing on Johnnie To’s earlier
PTU. Law took his team of cops into the countryside
for the latest installment, creating a pleasing diversion
from his usual urban locales. Also of note was The
Moss, the new thriller from sophomore director Derek
Kwok, as well as two low-end horror shows from new
helmer Cub Chien: Scare 2 Die and The Vampire Who
Admires Me. Oxide Pang, best known for making ghost
flicks, gave frights a rest for Hong Kong’s latest terminal-
illness romance, Basic Love. Even old-style sex cinema
made a comeback with Cash Chin’s two-part series
The Forbidden Legend: Sex & Chopsticks.
Several Hong Kong filmmakers traveled to China to
shoot contemporary stories, including Tsui Hark and
Jacob Cheung. Tsui’s flashy All About Womenfollowed a
career woman, a love-potion experimenter and a rocker
girl, lending his characteristic style to modern
Chinese stories. Cheung’s Ticketwas a less frantic affair
following a young woman’s search for her birth mother in picturesque rural backwaters. Filmmakers from outside
Hong Kong were also drafted for locally shot
movies: Singapore’s Kelvin Tong made the effective
horror flick Rule #1and China’s Liu Fendou offered the
sleazy art house misfire Ocean Flame.
Onscreen talent continues to be led by Stephen Chow
and actor Andy Lau, who was top-billed in Three
Kingdoms and the 2009 Chinese New Year film Look
For A Star. Louis Koo has had a strong year, first with
Run Papa Run,then with Connectedand this year’s top
local Chinese New Year film All’s Well End’s Well 2009.
Simon Yam has been busy with smaller pictures including
Sparrow,the Tactical Unitfilms and Night And Fog.
Tony Leung Chiu-wai and Kaneshiro Takeshi were
among the main draws for the Red Cliff series. Ronald
Cheng kept with comedy for decent parts in La Lingerie
and All’s Well End’s Well 2009. And Nick Cheung
impressed with his turn as the bad guy in The Beast
Stalker(upstaging star Nicholas Tse), and also led the
comedy My Wife Is A Gambling Maestro. But other top
stars, like Daniel Wu and Aaron Kwok, went a year without
new releases.
The finest roles for women in locally set movies came
in the low-budget arena. Prudence Liew performed well
as a sex worker in True Women For Sale, as too did
Race Wong as an immigrant in the same film. Pau Heiching
and Chan Lai-wun were both superb in understated
roles in The Way We Are, while Night And Fogboasts
an affecting turn from Chinese actress Zhang Jingchu.
Stephy Tang meanwhile stepped up her game for relationship
dramas and romantic comedies, and starlet
Elanne Kong is also on the rise with films like Scare 2
Die. In higher-budget works, Sammi Cheng returned
from a several-year break for Lady Cop & Papa Crook,
and mainland Chinese and Taiwan actresses like Zhou
Xun, Vicky Zhou, Kwai Lun-mei, Barbie Hsu and René
Liu all delivered memorable performances in their films.
New Year 2009 was a mixed success. Neither of the
two seasonal films matched the takings of past hits. So
the year ahead will once more be one of challenges.
Creases in tackling the mainland market still need to be
ironed out, and the local crowd needs to be drawn in
with consistent, quality filmmaking. The careless failures
of 2008 - like John Hau’s The Pretty Women, a
mind-numbing piece about mainland career girls - will
not succeed in winning over tired viewers when better
options are vying for attention at the cinema.
Fortunately, several filmmakers are keeping Hong
Kong cinema in the limelight with distinguished films.
The government-backed Film Development Fund, new
private funds like the pan-Asian Irresistible Films and
enthusiastic producers like Eric Tsang look set to continue
supporting worthy commercial productions by
new filmmakers. And not all major directors are relying
on the China market for commercial success. Johnnie To
collaborated with French investors for his upcoming
crime story Vengeance, a film starring French singeractor
Johnny Hallyday that’s stoked interest among
European cineastes. Also making news early in 2009
was director Derek Yee, whose Japan-set thriller
Shinjuku Incident- which stars Jackie Chan - was pulled
from future China release to avoid censorship. “We
tried to cut the violent scenes to meet the requirements
of the Chinese market”, Yee told the Associated Press
in February, “but producers invited to watch that version
thought it was incomplete”.
Not every filmmaker can afford to forgo reaching the
mainland audience like To and Yee can, but 2008’s
experiences showed a need to keep other options open
whenever possible.
Tim Youngs