Word: honge
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...chief among filmmakers championing hometown stories, and his latest work, Sparrow - a stylish pickpocket caper starring Simon Yam that premiered in February in Berlin and opened at the top of the box-office list in June in Hong Kong - is infused with an affection for Hong Kong's people and cityscape, as well as concern for threatened urban landmarks (a very topical preoccupation). "The movie is a way to gently vent my protest," To says. Among other directors, Sylvia Chang's accomplished triad-cum-family drama Run Papa Run, released in April, covers decades of Hong Kong's social transformation...
...Under a 2003 trade pact, Hong Kong - Chinese co-productions are recognized in the lucrative mainland market as Chinese films, not as imports subject to tight quotas. This partly explains the current trend for big-budget period pieces, which by being politically uncontroversial play very well in China. (Each one also bears the potential to cross over to international viewers in the way that Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon did after it was released in 2000.) "I can say the China market is even more important than the Hong Kong domestic market," says John Chong, CEO of Media...
...there is a big catch to having a production classified as Chinese, and that's censorship. Mainland regulations can stifle creativity and place tight restraints on Hong Kong cinema's anything-goes style. Ghost stories are ruled out or carefully tweaked, as are sociopolitical comment and almost anything racy. Finales with wrongdoers walking off scot-free are among other no-nos, too. For some, meeting Chinese standards is a matter of good business sense. "You just have to adapt when it comes to the market," says Wellington Fung, secretary general of the Film Development Council (FDC), a government body established...
...happening," says director Lawrence Lau, who is known for gritty youth dramas like May's Besieged City. "In that sense we don't have any idea of what's allowed and how much we can get away with." Then there are questions of whether audiences in China and Hong Kong actually understand films in the same way because of the significant cultural divergence between the two populations. "So why not go back to filming localized movies?" says To. "When you try to serve both markets, actually you will normally lose something...
...While some filmmakers are lucky enough to secure funding from elsewhere - Yu Lik-wai's Venice competition entry Plastic City has partners in Hong Kong, Brazil, Japan, France and China - the choice facing most directors is stark. "You either do very low-budget films for the local market, or some side markets like Southeast Asia, or you do really huge, huge-budget films as a co-production with China," says Lau. Medium-sized productions are few, meaning that up-and-coming directors are finding it hard to make the transition to mainstream features. Occasionally, established filmmakers will nurture prot...