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SCMP Reporter

Scene one, take one: Shanghai, the original Hollywood of the East, decamps to Hong Kong post-1949 and helps the local industry to grow into the third largest producer of films in the world and the second-largest exporter.

 Scene two, take one: flashback to 1993. Triads are blamed for a massive onslaught of cheap inferior offerings in the local market and audiences experiment with Jurassic Park - making it the highest-grossing film in Hong Kong's history. Local movies still gross three times their Western counterparts, however, and nobody realises the writing is on the wall.

 Cut to the present day: after a four-year slump, figures for 1997 reveal that for the first time in memory, overseas films outgrossed Cantonese movies. It is a shock, but it has been advancing with all the menace of a spitting velociraptor (The Lost World, a sequel to Jurassic Park, was Hong Kong's highest-grossing film in 1997 by a significant margin).

 The Hong Kong film industry is in a massive state of flux.

 This past year has not determined where it will end up - the figures merely indicate the map is still being significantly redrawn.

 Local production is down, down, down.

 With 90 Cantonese movies screened in Hong Kong last year, the SAR can no longer lay claim to being the world's third-largest film producer (after the United States and India). Pride aside, that spells a more than 50 per cent drop in production in three years.

 More tickets were sold to Hong Kong films in 1997 - an encouraging rise of 27 per cent in actual sales - but the circuits which screen local products around-the-clock were forced to shave prices by up to $20 per ticket to attract audiences, lowering the grosses.

 For years the authorities ignored the local film industry, but now the Tung administration has moved quickly and a new Film Services Office looks set to be established in April - but is it too late to reverse the trend?  In a market which is desperately unsure of itself, local movie-makers have worked hard to find a new level at which to work. Budgets have shot up, scripts have improved, and production values are significantly higher. A new breed of independent film-makers has tried to fill the gap in the market - but there is no arguing a Jackie Chan, Chow Yun-fat or Stephen Chiau Sing-chi movie is still the only guaranteed success in Hong Kong.

 While Wong Kar-wai won a directing Palme D'Or at Cannes with Happy Together ; Fruit Chan's Made In Hong Kong scored rave reviews and Peter Chan's Comrades, Almost A Love Story took the Hong Kong Film Awards by storm, none made a significant dent at the box office.

 Even Young and Dangerous IV, classified as a local hit, took less than Warner Bros' Batman And Robin - generally regarded as a flop.

 We still love to go to the cinema in Hong Kong - in fact, we go 4.3 times a year, which makes us some of the most dedicated film fans in the world. But our tastes have changed radically.

 We adore dinosaurs: Jurassic Park and The Lost World are the two all-time top-grossing films in Hong Kong taking $61.8 million and $58.2 million at the box office respectively, forcing Jackie Chan's First Strike and Rumble In The Bronx into third and fourth places, with $57.5 million and $56.9 million. Chow follows with God Of Gamblers 2 while Titanic is already taking sixth place with $50.8 million as of last Thursday and looks set to challenge Jurassic Park at the top of the charts. Chiau's Justice My Foot is followed by Independence Day, All's Well Ends Well with Speed rounding off the all-time top 10 in Hong Kong.

 In 1997, we voted for The Lost World with our feet, followed it up with Titanic, Chan's Mr Nice Guy ($45.4 million), All's Well End's Well '97 ($40.4 million), Once Upon A Time In China And America ($30.2 million), Face/Off ($30 million), Men In Black ($29.5 million), Lawyer Lawyer ($27.1 million), Armageddon ($23.7 million) and Lifeline ($20.7 million).

 Consider these figures and remember that in 1992, there were no Western films in the top 10 grossing movies.

 Two local circuits - Newport and Golden - are dedicated to Hong Kong films and these have lowered their admission prices to as low as $40, in comparison with the UA or Golden Village cinemas which charge $60 for mainly Western fare. On Tuesdays, a ticket costs $30 and special concessions have been introduced for students and the elderly.

 But the overall box office in Hong Kong has still continued its decline, despite a 21 per cent rise in admissions in 1997.

 Last year, the pie shrank to $1.156 billion (in 1993, it stood at $1.53 billion).

 The only good news was for overseas producers, who notched steady yearly rises in a depressed market.

 Four years ago, the Hong Kong film industry was still a shining example of how local markets could resist the might of Hollywood. It is still not over - but it is different and it is going to change further.

 Take, for example, Lunar New Year, which is the top slot for local films and a traditional box office bonanza. Next week, Chan will pitch Who Am I against Chiau's latest, The Lucky Man. Chow is also in the running, along with Michelle Yeoh - but the money they earn will go back to Hollywood, not Hong Kong (Chow is starring in Columbia's The Replacement Killers while Yeoh appears in the new Bond movie, Tomorrow Never Dies, from MGM-UA).

 Stars and directors are moving to Hollywood as quickly as a contract is waved in their faces.

 Who is to blame? There are many factors. Producers here ripped off the industry with cheap products, which helped turn people off local films. Low-cost home entertainment slugged the industry even further, and the fact you can now buy a pirate version of Tomorrow Never Dies for $40 a week before it opens is a below-the-belt hit. But the pre-Tung administration was inexplicably unhelpful. Who knows why it refused - without explanation - to countenance the establishment of a Film Commission for more years than anyone cares to remember?  In an amusing instance, Jackie Chan is now acting as a tourism ambassador for Hong Kong - but he has not fully made a film here for years. Several different government departments deal with the film industry, and producers scream with frustration at the impossible paperwork involved in obtaining shooting permits, at their inability to import any explosives for stunts.

 Never mind the difficulties of attracting overseas productions to sink their money into Hong Kong, given the high cost of living and these difficulties in co-ordination.

 Finally, the Government is moving to help the embattled industry. The establishment of a Film Services Office was outlined in Tung Chee-hwa's general policy speech and deputy secretary for Broadcasting and Culture, Rita Lau Ng Wai-la, is confident it will be up and running by April.

 The Government has identified the film industry as one of 14 key sectors to support and promote - and instead of establishing a non-government film commission, it will take the job in-house.

 The Film Services Office will act as a one-stop shop for local and overseas producers, providing a data base and the co-ordination of permits. A delegation of film-makers and government officials is in Los Angeles examining the problem of importing explosives - at present banned - for movie-work into Hong Kong.

 The Recreation and Culture branch is also talking to academic institutions about training courses in new technology.

 The Government will also put a three-hectare site in Junk Bay out for tender for a film studio in March. It is assumed Golden Harvest, now occupying a lease in Hammer Hill, will be interested in bidding.

 'It can't all depend on the Government, however,' Ms Lau warns. 'The industry has to be market-driven - producers need to put their finger on the pulse of what people need.'  Woody Tsung, chief executive of the industry-financed Motion Picture Industry Association, is phlegmatic, if concerned.

 'For years, the Government has ignored our cries for help,' he says.

 'They wouldn't even consider the idea of a Film Commission.

 'This proposal for a Film Services Office is an encouraging sign - but that's all it is at the moment, a proposal,' Mr Tsung says.

 'The number of Hong Kong films is decreasing, but maybe that's not too bad. Two, three years ago, the audience was fed up.

 'But the scene is changing. Everyone's trying a new way of getting out of this slump. The quality is improving. We're seeing better films,' he adds.

 Attendance figures for 1998 will be closely watched as producers work out where Hong Kong is going - to Hollywood, or back to Hollywood of the East? 



Nightmare on Film Street