WHEN THE MAKERS of hit movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon attend the star-studded presentation of the Oscars in Los Angeles next month, they will provide Hong Kong's film industry with a much-needed boost.
The martial-arts epic, featuring key contributions from talented members of the SAR's movie world, was nominated for a record 10 Oscars on Tuesday, including best film, best foreign film and best director.
Chow Yun-fat, the megastar actor from Lamma Island, plays a master swordsman who falls in love with a character played by Michelle Yeoh, who rose to stardom in Hong Kong. Yuen Woo-ping, a local veteran martial-arts choreographer, is the film's stunt director.
The Taiwanese movie's success is warmly welcomed by film-makers in Hong Kong. But it is the long queues outside local cinemas - to see this film and other blockbusters - which provide the most tangible evidence of a revival in the industry's fortunes.
Only two or three years ago, gloom surrounded the local film industry as it plunged into a 'dark age' prompted largely by the economic downturn and copyright piracy. Cinemas at that time were virtually empty, as many people ditched the idea of paying $50 or more for a seat and opted for home entertainment, sometimes viewing pirated video compact discs costing only $20 each.
The number of local films screened in Hong Kong dropped to only 94 and 92 in 1997 and 1998 respectively, compared with about 200 annually in the early 1990s. Local films represented only half of all those shown in the SAR. It was a far cry from the boom of the 1980s, when Hong Kong films constituted 80 per cent of the local film market.
Now, after enduring the slump, things are at last looking up. The Hong Kong movie is back.
