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In the mid-1990s, the Hong Kong film industry was still buzzing, with over 300 films produced on average each year, by some accounts, before the frenzy slowed. By 2000, the number had reportedly plummeted to just 40. In 2018, Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF) screened only two new Hong Kong films: Simon Chung’s I Miss You When I See You and Angie Chen’s documentary i’ve got the blues, which was the sole premiere. At the time, HKIFF programmers chalked it up to cycles, but, a year later, the 43rd edition of the festival opened with a single new Hong Kong film, Bodies at Rest, a Hong KongChinese mainland coproduction directed by the Finnish filmmaker Renny Harlin, of Cliffhanger fame.
Since the nadir in 2000, production has picked up to roughly 60 films annually, half of which are coproductions with film companies on the mainland.
However, John Chong, co-founder of Media Asia Entertainment Group, a Hong Kong film production company, is not worried about competition from the mainland.
“I’m optimistic… I’ve been in the industry since the mid-1980s. Every year we’ve been in a ‘crisis.’ But Hong Kong is very nimble,” he says, noting that four of the 12 highestgrossing films ever on the mainland were by Hong Kong filmmakers. Citing the massive success of Stephen Chow’s The Mermaid, Dante Lam’s Operation Red Sea and Raman Hui’s Monster Hunt and its sequel, Chong says the real issue is aging talent.
“The current crop of local filmmakers is in their 50s and 60s. We need new blood. That’s the biggest problem.”
Albert Lee, executive director of HKIFF society and former CEO of Emperor Motion Pictures, says new talent is appearing.
“In the last few years, newer, younger filmmakers have been coming up,” Lee says, adding that while the more established directors have left to make big-budget films on the mainland, the growing number of younger filmmakers and small films “is a good sign”.
Chong, however, doesn’t think the industry needs young filmmakers particularly, just new ones. Both Chong and Lee point to programs like Create Hong Kong’s First Feature Film Initiative (FFFI) as being a major boost to new talent and one that has gone a long way to righting the ship. So far, the FFFI’s credits include Wong Chun’s Mad World, Oliver Chan’s Still Human and Lee Cheuk-pan’s G Affairs — the last two showing at HKIFF this year.
To nurture new talent, production giants like Media Asia and Emperor need to be willing to take a financial hit and remain satisfied with critical acclaim on the festival circuit or at the most a modest run at home.
Sandwiched between the Berlin International Film Festival in February and The Cannes Festival in May, HKIFF is often a victim of the calendar.
For example, as Chong says, Media Asia has a “great” film produced by Ann Hui that could have been a perfect fit for HKIFF, except that it couldn’t be shown before its release on the Chinese mainland. “The Hong Kong industry is at the mercy of the calendar,” he adds.
With profit margins so lean to begin with, entry or not into HKIFF comes “down to commercial considerations,” says Lee. Producers favor a commercial release on the mainland over showing in HKIFF. “And I have to admit I did the same thing when I was at Emperor,” adds Lee.
Despite perceived restrictions on the mainland, many filmmakers are sanguine about the reality of filmmaking there. Harlin made three films (including Bodies) in five years since moving to Beijing.
For him the decision to relocate was based on artistic opportunity: While Western filmmaking models are shrinking to fit streaming platforms, new cinemas are coming up on the Chinese mainland every day. Directors who want to make cinematic movies are likely to float toward the resources that allow such opportunities, and Hong Kong could get swept up in the shift.
“I think there is a move in that direction in some ways,” says Harlin. “If you want to make movies for the big screen there’s a lot of competition going on if you’re not a Marvel Top 10 choice, and it makes China an option.”
He adds that one has to work within the parameters of industry-specific rules in every culture and has never felt constrained by those in China. “I’ve never felt that really affects my work here.”
G Affairs’ Lee agrees, reasoning that filmmakers here simply need to understand the market. He says he is open to making a film on the Chinese mainland, given “any filmmaker wants access to as many resources and as big a budget and all the possibilities as they can get.”
In typical Hong Kong fashion, the local film industry is simply rolling with the changes rather than collapsing.
“I’m not sure Hong Kong has ever really had an ‘industry’, even in its heyday,” argues Lee, who says a true film industry is one with supporting infrastructure such as legal frameworks, banking systems and unions.
“Hong Kong is not mature. It doesn’t have the components needed to make an industry,” he says. “But there will always be people in Hong Kong making films.”