Fri, May 06, 2005 - Page 17 News List

The curtain closes on Hong Kong's film industry

The starlit industry that made Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee and once turned out 300 movies per year has faded to only 64 features last year, and many blame piracy and downloading

AP , HONG KONG

Tsung said the burgeoning use of Internet file-sharing software is becoming a bigger problem than illegal copying of movies onto video discs.

One recent Hong Kong release, House of Fury (精武家庭), has been downloaded one million times worldwide, Tsung said, without saying how the figure was reached.

Authorities have cracked down on copyright violations in Hong Kong -- they recently prosecuted a man who allegedly uploaded movies using the BitTorrent file-sharing program. But piracy is very difficult to police across borders.

Sammo Hung, star of the US TV series Martial Law, worries that Hong Kong has run out of ideas because movie makers went into creative overdrive during their more prolific days.

"The backdrop of Hong Kong is small. Our thinking is narrower," Hung said. "Hong Kong exhausted all its movie ideas years ago."

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