Money alone won't revive HK film industry
The reference in a voiceover during this week's Academy Awards to Martin Scorsese's The Departed being based on 'Japanese' film Infernal Affairs rightly sent local pulses soaring. It was also a telling indictment on the troubles of Hong Kong's film industry.
Other speakers happily corrected the error, including Scorsese himself as he collected his Oscar for best director, praising the Hong Kong police-triad hit and its co-director, Andrew Lau Wai-keung. For many who have seen Lau's original, it is arguably a far superior movie.
Yet the regional and international respect garnered by Infernal Affairs is the exception rather than the rule as the once dominant Hong Kong movie industry struggles to recover from a long slump. The structural problems are not hard to spot. While four decades ago Hong Kong churned out blockbusters for captive audiences in Southeast and Northeast Asia, now the competition is fierce. Young Asians have wider access to western films and are also just as likely to crave South Korean, Taiwanese, mainland or Thai movies as those from Hong Kong - a reflection of the explosion of creativity as other nations develop. Hong Kong no longer has a monopoly on cultural freedoms. The days when its cultural sensitivities defined Chinese communities across the region and beyond have long passed.
In its golden age, 300 films were produced a year. Now, the number is about 50. For every Kung Fu Hustle and Shaolin Soccer, there are tens of other often repetitive and cliched films that slip anonymously from the screens in Hong Kong, faring even worse outside. Then there is the steady march of choice - the rapid expansion of internet and television options that are challenging the box office. The blight of copyright infringement further eats into the financial cake.
The many troubles suggest any catch-all solution is going to be exceptionally difficult to find. And despite whatever good intentions lay behind Financial Secretary Henry Tang Ying-yen's handout of HK$300 million in this week's budget, simply throwing taxpayers' money at the problem may not be the answer.
Previous efforts have done little. In 1999 the government set up a HK$100 million fund to help train filmmakers and promote local productions overseas. Film industry groups complained that it did little to nurture and protect grass-roots talent and innovation, instead helping to drive academic efforts through the Academy for Performing Arts and overseas promotions by the Trade Development Council. This time, as we report today, the funding may flow more directly, specifically to small-scale creative ventures. Jack So Chak-kwong, chairman of the Film Development Committee, said the money could be used to fund films, but only to supplement budgets. The film industry is wary. Some stars want better training for actors and directors. Others fear red tape.
As the debate over how to best use the cash intensifies, the funding must not be seen as a complete or permanent solution. The reality is that creative industries need to be exactly that - creative in their product as well as approach.
Other structural problems will be harder to solve. The burgeoning film industries in South Korea, Taiwan and the mainland all benefit from restrictions on foreign films - trade barriers unlikely to be tolerated in free-wheeling Hong Kong. The potentially lucrative business of film production is also proving more complex, with Thailand, New Zealand and Australia all competing hard. Tax breaks are increasingly being used to lure foreign business, while banks in other countries are also more flexible with creative industries.
Tax breaks are also unusual for any Hong Kong industry but in this case there could be a valid argument for them - at least they would help sustain the sector. There is little point improving training if young actors and directors emerge into an industry too small to showcase their talents. As the Hollywood lobby well knows, the business of movies offers many intangible benefits in cultural 'branding' and promotion - benefits Hong Kong sorely needs.
