This year, Hong Kong arrived in Cannes, and in the glow of success that Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (臥虎藏龍) has given the Chinese-language film industry, it celebrated its arrival with all the glam and vulgarity for which it is famous. On Saturday night, Hong Kong Night took place at the Majestic Hotel and major hotels along La Croisette (the main festival drag) are adorned with huge posters of Hong Kong stars.
It was no surprise that the background music for the Majestic Hotel function drew on tracks from Crouching Tiger, and Chinese culture was represented by performances of martial arts by movie stunt crews. There was also a large format screen showing non-stop clips from classic Hong Kong movies.
Hong Kong has never before featured so prominently at Cannes. This year, its high profile is due to HK$8 million (approx. NT$33.7 million) poured into the venture by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, who have brought 220 members of the Hong Kong film industry to Cannes for the festival. A specially set up Hong Kong Pavilion brings together 13 of Hong Kong's largest film companies, and 38 other firms have set up stalls at the Cannes Film Market. Screen International has also released a special issue during the festival dedicated to Hong Kong films.
PHOTO: SUNG HSIN-YING, TAIPEI TIMES
"Hong Kong film companies received very encouraging responses at the American Film Market in Los Angeles in February. While international buyers, as expected, were hunting for more action and martial arts products, film investors were also inquiring about the possibility of joint ventures with Hong Kong filmmakers," said Wellington Fung (馮永), Deputy Managing Director of Media Asia Group.
"Remember," he said, "this [interest was shown] before Crouching Tiger won all those Academy Awards. The spin-over impact will be seen at Cannes. Buyers will be very active searching for potential Hong Kong films, film talent and filmmakers." For this reason, Fung is optimistic about the Hong Kong film industry's prospects despite the shrinking of the industry in the face of the economic slump. He sees Hong Kong transcending its traditional markets of Taiwan, China and SE Asia and taking its place in the international market. "The Hong Kong film industry is making use of the global phenomena of Crouching Tiger, turning it into a profit-making opportunity," said Peggy Chiao (焦雄屏), a film critic and producer from Taiwan in reviewing the "Hong Kong in Cannes" event. "This is a very reasonable and practical move to vitalize the industry," she said.
Indeed, whether Hong Kong filmmakers want to admit it, Crouching Tiger has exerted a powerful influence on the films that they are hoping to make and the way they hope to market them.
PHOTO: SUNG HSIN-YING, TAIPEI TIMES
Of the 17 films screened at the film market, nine films are action features, many of them going so far as to appropriate the tiger and dragon images of Crouching Tiger. A Sammo Hung (洪金寶) is starring film is called Flying Dragon Leaping Tiger (龍騰虎躍). Another action thriller is called Roaring Dragon, Bluffing Tiger (九反歲月), and other films on offer include Guns of Dragon and Dragon the Master (寶貝雙龍).
Action star Jacky Chan (成龍) agreed that the Hong Kong film industry is still very oriented towards action. "Hong Kong films are still largely about action, which has existed as a genre for the past 20 years" he said at the pre-Hong Kong Night press conference on Saturday.
"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.
PHOTO: SUNG HSIN-YING, TAIPEI TIMES
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.
PHOTO: SUNG HSIN-YING, TAIPEI TIMES
What Hong Kong's international filmmakers are working on:
* Jacky Chan
* Tsui Hark
* Fruit Chan
* Peter Chan
* Stanley Tong
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