On a role, filmmakers queue up for the mainland blockbuster

The Lunar New Year may still be a few weeks away, but the Hong Kong film industry has already received its lai see: the Closer Economic Partnership Arrange- ment (Cepa). The much-vaunted trade agreement, which kicked in at the start of this year, makes it easier than ever for Hong Kong producers to get their films relea- sed on the mainland. It also makes it easier for them to co-produce with mainland partners.

So it's hardly surprising that Hong Kong cinema has set its sights north of the border. 'The wonderful thing for the Hong Kong film industry is that now we have this additional market of China so we can afford much higher budgets for our films,' says veteran producer Nansun Shi, who runs Film Workshop with her husband, director Tsui Hark. Adding weight to her enthusiasm is the fact that the Hong Kong film industry is already on an upturn. Talk to anyone in the industry and they'll tell you that last year was a game of two halves.

The first was all doom and gloom - Sars, disrupted produc- tion schedules, plummeting box office and fears about dwindling investment. Then in the second half, Hong Kong films rallied magnificently. From The Twins Effect in June all the way to Golden Chicken II at Christmas, the industry scored hit after hit at the local box office.

The sudden turnaround had the distributors of Hollywood films wondering what to do about the competition. According to the Motion Picture Industry Association, Hong Kong films grossed $366 million last year - up nearly 12 per cent from the previous year - and that was before the big Christmas films had opened. The increase in receipts was achieved even though the number of films released had slipped to 77 compared with 92 the previous year.

'I think we've learnt the lessons of the hard times and what we're seeing now is more emphasis on quality scripts and improvements to distribution and marketing,' says association chief executive Woody Tsung. 'We're also seeing more variety. There seems to be a much wider choice of genres than five or six years ago.'

Hong Kong films still face a struggle to claw back market share in places such as Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia. Among the highlights this year are:

New Police Story - Jackie Chan seems to be pulling out all the stops for this police action flick directed by Benny Chan Muk-sing, which also stars Nicholas Tse Ting-fung and Daniel Wu Yin-cho. A rumoured security alert about 'unknown' personnel sighted on the roof of the Convention Centre earlier last year turned out to be the actors shooting a fight scene.