The decline of the Hong Kong film industry

the68monkey · Post by **the68monkey** » 08 May 2005, 18:49

Most people have probably seen this article at KFC by now, but I'll post the link:

Hong Kong Film Indsutry in a Slump

Nothing new in the article that we don't already know, but it does paint a rather grim picture of the future of the Hong Kong film industry. The article ends on a very pessimistic note with a quote from Sammo, who "worries that Hong Kong has run out of ideas because movie makers went into creative overdrive during their more prolific days."
Says Sammo: "Hong Kong exhausted all its movie ideas years ago."

Yi-Long · Post by **Yi-Long** » 08 May 2005, 19:17

Well... Sammo is full of shit. This has nothing to do with creativity and 'ideas'. It has to do with the production companies mainly casting 'singers' in all kinds of (rushed) movies, and trying to replace real skill (be it martial arts, stunts, car-chasing scenes, etc etc) with crappy amateurish CGI.

Police Story wasnt all that original in it's story, but the action and the performance's made it a classic. Fist of Legend is a pretty basic story, not all that original, but it's a movie that will still be considered a classic in 30 years time.

Hong Kong should make movies again, instead of lengthened video-clips trying to pose off teen boys and/or girls as moviestars. I'm sure there are alot of talented martial artists around in HK, China, Taiwan, etc. I also KNOW there are brilliant directors and choreographers around that want to make good, decent movies, with REAL talented people, instead of having some popstars forced into their casts by some of the execs.

Hong Kong Movie Industry is shite, cause these producers think only of money, and selling their product to 15 year old local kids, instead of thinking big, making a good product, and selling it to the rest of the world.

BTW, Sammo is an influential guy in this industry. Instead of bitching and moaning, why doesnt he just make a good movie himself again? I'm sure every martial artist in the world would love to work with him, he's a brilliant director when he wants to be, and he has enough money I think to produce his own movies so he doesnt have to bow down to pressure from some guys that dont know shit about movie-making!?

China is pretty much open to use as film-location. There are still so many great martial arts stories to tell, with white-brow priests and evil eunichs and old wing chun ladies and drunken beggars etc etc. There's a whole world of martial artists available. What's the big fucking problem!? Make a goddamn good movie, spend ALOT of time on the choreography so it will stand out, and get this show on the fucking road!

Markgway · Post by **Markgway** » 08 May 2005, 19:38

Yi-Long has a point. Many of the industry's woes are self-inflicted no doubt. But on the other hand even the so-called good filmmakers seem to have trouble creating really good product. When garbage like Running on Karma is the year's ''best'' film. You have serious issues.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 08 May 2005, 20:33

It's the same in Hollywood though. Look at all the creative freedom the great director's used to have compared to what they have today.

p.s - Cheers for the link I've not seen it before.

romerojpg · Post by **romerojpg** » 08 May 2005, 21:22

I think its wrong, you dont need new Ideas to make good films and never will. Eveything is a rehash of somthing else so its wrong and they just want someone to blame really because they make soo many bad films, its the quick buck syndrome and its always been that way.

Yi-Long · Post by **Yi-Long** » 08 May 2005, 23:20

bradavon wrote:It's the same in Hollywood though. Look at all the creative freedom the great director's used to have compared to what they have today.

p.s - Cheers for the link I've not seen it before.

I dont think Hollywood is dead or anything. people are just focussing on the big budget crap that's coming out, but óver the last couple of years we've gotten masterpieces like Eternal Sunshine, Road to Perdition, Big Fish, the Pixar flicks, Garden State, Million Dollar Baby, etc etc.
I dont think the 80's or the 90's were really 'better' or anything. they released the same combination of crap and quality.

Small movies like NARC, which get very good reviews overall, but dont seem to get much media attention, aren't as rare as we fear. We just have to look.

In HK cinema however, good movies ARE rare nowadays. Which is a shame. Thank god there's still Korean Cinema, and supposedly thai cinema is also on the rise...

HK cinema will get back though. All those generations of kids that grew up with great HK movies, will now be making movies themselfs... and the movies that influenced them when they were kids, will probably cause them to make simular movies, or at least make them try and reach that same level of greatness...

BTW... Let's not all overexaggerate the quality of HK Cinema of 10-20 years ago: There were a couple of masterpieces, but there was still also A LOT of crap being released at that time as well.

Beer · Post by **Beer** » 19 May 2005, 12:37

Well... this complaint about crappy CGI movies from Sammo, who appeared in the awful The Avenging Fist, seems quite insincere...

BTW, I enjoyed Running on Karma! Funny, original... sure, very crazy and cheesy, but definitely interesting!

And let's not abandon hopes. I thought that Andrew Lau was a crappy director after seeing Stormriders, A man called hero and Avenging Fist (though Stormriders was enjoyable)... and then he made the Infernal Affairs trilogy, which IMHO are some of the best crime movies (not only HK) I have seen in the past 10 years.

Mordib · Post by **Mordib** » 19 May 2005, 12:57

bad patches are a good thing, because they make the good patches seem that much better... like most things in life, w need the downs to make the ups worthwhile

Yi-Long · Post by **Yi-Long** » 19 May 2005, 13:16

Mordib wrote:bad patches are a good thing, because they make the good patches seem that much better... like most things in life, w need the downs to make the ups worthwhile

Who cares if the ups are 'worthwhile' , if you can have multiple forgettable ups without having any downs!?

Anyway, is there any news yet on that Sammo/Donnie movie!?

Mordib · Post by **Mordib** » 19 May 2005, 14:18

hehe, an excuse for an analogy....

I grew up in a village next to 'Rutland Water', the biggest man made resevoir in Englan or some such nonsense. To me rutland water is boring and not that pretty, to the thousands of tourists, my friends and family who came to visit it was beautiful and amazing. Moving to birmingham has made me appreciate rutland again.

the moral of the story, if you constantly get a good thing it no longer feels as good. the ocasional bad thing makes you appreciate a good thing even more!

Yi-Long · Post by **Yi-Long** » 19 May 2005, 14:42

Yeah but the morale of MY story was: If you would have moved to Hawai, surrounded by gorgeous 20 year old women, would you still have cared about that old crappy lake!? No!

memetic · Post by **memetic** » 19 May 2005, 22:52

Beer wrote:And let's not abandon hopes. I thought that Andrew Lau was a crappy director after seeing Stormriders, A man called hero and Avenging Fist (though Stormriders was enjoyable)... and then he made the Infernal Affairs trilogy, which IMHO are some of the best crime movies (not only HK) I have seen in the past 10 years.

Then he made The Park. :sad1:

There's still hope though.

Ricochan38 · Post by **Ricochan38** » 23 May 2005, 14:17

everyone makes mistakes :shock:

Ricochan38 · Post by **Ricochan38** » 25 May 2005, 09:32

Andrew Lau is now recording the movie Daisy in the netherlands, with Lee Sung Jae (Public Enemy), simon yam, Jeon Ji-hyun ! , Jung Woo-sung.... action director Dion Lam .....producer gordon chan...they are all in Haarlem now and will be move to Amsterdam soon to shoot the rest of the scenes there....i will try to go there and get some dvd's signed

Some guys already did that, and it was no problem.. i want the autograph also from the sassy girl !

Someone made some pics already that he posted...

http://joey6666.herejezus.nl/

Yi-Long · Post by **Yi-Long** » 25 May 2005, 10:07

Haarlem. I AM in Haarlem!!! Where the hell are they shooting!? Station (like ocean's 12?)

edit: aw it's in the city-centre... damnnnnnnnnn I wanna leave work now and go there!!! We'll never be this close to eachother again!!!

Yi-Long · Post by **Yi-Long** » 25 May 2005, 10:11

Hopefully, tomorrow they'll also still be in Haarlem (seriously doubt it) cause I'll have my camera with me then...

Ricochan38 · Post by **Ricochan38** » 25 May 2005, 11:54

tomorrow is the last extra day of shooting in haarlem!!!

Strange u not heard about it before

Yi-Long · Post by **Yi-Long** » 25 May 2005, 14:22

I just came back from the set!
I was doubting and doubting if I should go, and everyone said I should go, so I went around asking of anyone had a digital camera, which no-one had.
finally, I could borrow a phone-camera from a collegue, and went to the centre of town.

It was relatively quiet. I learned from the guy with big long hair that they would still be there tonight, and probably tomorrow as well (hospital/station)
I could sit pretty close, about 10 meters orso from Jeon JH, but alot of production people were in the way...

I was able to take 2 pictures, but since theyw ere taen on a phone, I cant say if the quality is any good yet...

I asked the dutch guy if I could take a picture of JJH (close-up) and she brought me to some cranky dutch woman, who started with ' I believe I have seen you before, havent I!?' Like I'm some kind of stalker or something...
Anyway, she said they would prefer if no-one came close to the actors... so then I left.

Ah well... at least I've seen her in person. I bet when I tell JJH in 3 or 4 years time she could have had the opportunity to meet a fine man like me 3-4 years earlier in haarlem, i bet she'll be mighty pissed at that Dutch woman...

Ricochan38 · Post by **Ricochan38** » 30 May 2005, 07:59

yesterday they were shooting at the hospital and the central station, this week they will go to amsterdam, not sure where yet...