Voice squad

ANYONE LISTENING in at multiplexes across the city this summer would think Hong Kong's ailing movie industry was on the mend. That's because it's the voices of local actors that are filling the cinemas, keeping audiences amused with fudged punch-lines and cacophonous singsong.

But with only five major local releases this season - the slapstick Dragon Reloaded, teen fodder Bug Me Not, martial arts epic Seven Swords, thriller Mob Sister and laugh-fest Drink, Drank, Drunk - it isn't the usual spectacle of farcical overacting and strutting eye-candy. Instead, the showbiz personalities have star billing as voice-over artists in a slew of imported productions.

Imported films being dubbed in Cantonese are nothing new. There have been a number of successful localised versions of Hollywood animation and foreign comedies. But what used to be the exception has become commonplace.

This summer, local cinemas have run at least one dubbed movie every week since Madagascar was released on July 14, a pattern to be repeated throughout next month with the Disney remake Herbie: Fully Loaded, British animated feature Valiant, the anthropomorphic American drama Racing Stripes and French comedy Mean Spirit.

A scan of the movie listings for this week shows that of 34 screens showing Madagascar, only eight are in the original English language. And it is the dubbing that is making the difference in box office takings, distributors say.

As evident from the publicity campaigns, the participation of local celebrities - or in the case of Valiant, bizarre personalities - in dubbed vehicles is overshadowing the merits of the movies.