"Hong Kong audience likes more action. So when I went to America I needed to adapt myself to a script-driven action film," said Chan. "A division still exists between my American audience, who prefer more drama, and my Asian audience.... So I've decided to make two kinds of films," he said.
But whether US-style or Asian-style, many agreed that action films were doing well at the Cannes market last week. Eugene Mandelcorn, a buyer from Film Artists Network said, "this year action films are very big. Our best seller is in fact a story about ninjas." Tsui Hark (徐克), the director of Once Upon a Time In China (黃飛鴻), Swordsman (蜀山劍俠) and Chinese Ghost Story (倩女幽魂), however, looked at the Crouching Tiger phenomenon from a slightly different perspective. "The phenomena is interesting. But movie-making isn't about doing the same things," he said at the press conference.
"As a former colony, Hong Kong has been flexibly situated between the East and West. And it's good at introducing the East to the West and West to the East. From a positive angle, this is good for the industry's survival. But from a negative angle, you may say that Hong Kong films have no depth," said Tsui.
Peggy Chiao also expressed her worry over the industry's tendency to "following the herd." She suggested that only the films released in the first heat of the Crouching Tiger mania will really benefit, sharing in the profit-making opportunities it has created. "If more and more action or kungfu films are released in a short term, it may not necessary be a good thing for Hong Kong's industry," said Chiao.
What Hong Kong's international filmmakers are working on:
* Jacky Chan
* Tsui Hark
* Fruit Chan
* Peter Chan
* Stanley Tong
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