Pirates focus on HK blockbusters

PIRATE copies of two Hong Kong blockbuster movies have been found circulating in a northeast province days before the movies were to be officially released there.

Copies of the movies - one starring Hong Kong's top comedian Stephen Chiau and another by Jackie Chan - were widely available in stores in Shenyang, Liaoning, early last month.

The semi-official China News Service said Chiau's movie, A Chinese Odyssey in Hong Kong, was available in Shenyang days before its premiere in local cinemas.

It said the Liaoning Provincial Film Company, which bought the copyright, first found several pirate copies in a school in Shenyang.

The company then tracked down the supplier and found as many as 22 copies of A Chinese Odyssey and four copies of Chan's Rumble in the Bronx.

The report did not say what happened to the suppliers.

The Hong Kong producer of A Chinese Odyssey, Brilliant Star Development Ltd, said it was still investigating, but expected no further action in the near future.

A spokesman from the Golden Harvest Group, which distributes Rumble in the Bronx, said it was aware of the problem and was looking into it.

The chief executive of the Hong Kong Motion Picture Industry Association, Chung Chun-ming, said: 'Bootleg versions are shown in many different places and it's hard to stop the practice.

'Chinese-language films are especially vulnerable to piracy because of high popularity among mainland viewers.' China's State Copyright Administration has set up a registration system for Hong Kong films before their release to prevent unauthorised copies entering the market.