SCMP: Michelle Yeoh

South China Morning Post

Thursday March 21 2002

Roll With It
by Liz Shackleton

Michelle Yeoh (The Touch), Jackie Chan (Highbinders) and Jet Li (Hero) have secured vital US distribution deals. Photo: Reuters

THE OSCARS ARE upon us again but this year there's not quite so much for Hong Kong - or Asia for that matter - to get excited about. Period drama Lagaan: Once Upon A Time In India, one of five titles vying for best foreign-language film, is the only Asian movie nominated. It's already won a clutch of awards in its native India and in Europe, but faces stiff competition at the Oscars from the runaway favourite, French comedy Amelie.

It's a far cry from last year, when Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon clinched four Oscars to Gladiator's five as well as storming the international box office. Not that anyone expects to see another Chinese-language movie at the Oscars so soon. Only countries close to America's English-speaking heart, such as Australia or Britain, can hijack Hollywood's premier awards ceremony two years in a row. But a year can be a long time in the film business and the region's film-makers need to produce another global hit soon if they want to continue to attract the interest generated by Crouching Tiger's extraordinary achievements.

Local film-makers are only too aware of this. According to Crouching Tiger's Oscar-winning cinematographer, Peter Pau Tak-hei, there's been a change of mood in the Hong Kong film industry in the past 12 months. ''There's definitely been a big upswing in confidence since Crouching Tiger,'' says Pau. ''We've been producing films, or at least starting to produce films, that wouldn't have been thought possible before.''

Among these are three, currently in the final stages of editing, that could represent a new era in Hong Kong and Chinese cinema. Hero, directed by Zhang Yimou; The Touch, directed by Pau; and Highbinders, directed by Gordon Chan and starring Jackie Chan, are all what the industry describes as ''international'' in terms of budget and scale. In other words, they need to pull in audiences far beyond Hong Kong or even Asia's borders in order to recoup their hefty costs.

To get an idea of the sheer scale of these films, consider the average Hong Kong movie costs about US$3 million to US$4 million (HK$23.3 million to $31 million) to produce. The Touch has a budget of US$20 million, while Hero clocks in at about US$30 million. And Highbinders, at US$35 million, is believed to be the most expensive film ever to be financed in Hong Kong.

It appears investors, both local and foreign, are also feeling more confident about the local industry after last year's success. While Highbinders was fully financed by Hong Kong studio EMG, the other two are examples of the new breed of international collaborations starting to appear in Asia. The Touch has financing from Hong Kong, Taiwan and the United States, and Hero, produced by one of Crouching Tiger's three producers, Hong Kong-based Bill Kong of EDKO, is financed with cash from the US, Hong Kong and the mainland.

Jackie Chan Photo: Agence France-Preese

It's not surprising Crouching Tiger, the highest-grossing foreign-language movie, has made the local film industry think global. The optimists believe it has opened a vast international market for Chinese-language films. It certainly helped Yuen Wo-ping's 1993 production Iron Monkey gross a tidy US$15 million when it was re-released in the US last year.

But others believe it was a lucky exception. Until something new comes along to test the market, there's no way of knowing which theory is correct.

Rather than gauge the world's appetite for Chinese-language movies, the producers of Highbinders and The Touch are taking a more direct route to international screens. According to Thomas Chung Choi-sze, producer of The Touch along with partner Michelle Yeoh Choo Kheng, one thing that detracted from Crouching Tiger's success was that, despite its Asian content, it was mostly financed by Hollywood studio Columbia TriStar. The producers could only raise its budget - at US$15 million, still much higher than the average Hong Kong movie - when Columbia committed to buying the US distribution rights.

''I always said that after Crouching Tiger, Hong Kong should be happy for five minutes and then hang its head low,'' says Chung. ''This was a Mandarin-language movie, using the best Chinese talent, behind and in front of the camera, shot in China but financed by an American company. We should be ashamed of ourselves. We could have conjured up US$15 million and produced a Crouching Tiger but we let the Hollywood system do it first.''

Chung says his response has been to ''turn the tables'' by proving that, just as Hollywood can produce a world-beating Asian movie, so Asia can make a successful ''American'' film. The Touch has many Western elements, although its roots are still firmly in Asia. It's an English-language movie and features a few Western actors, along with a wide array of Hollywood talent behind the scenes.

The producers of Highbinders are taking a similar approach, although their movie is as much a reaction to Jackie Chan's American films, such as Rush Hour and Shanghai Noon, as to Crouching Tiger. ''We're experimenting,'' says Highbinders director Gordon Chan. ''Lots of Hong Kong talent goes to Hollywood but we want to create an environment in which we can shoot a film in Hong Kong style, but with Hollywood quality. We want to compete at their standard without losing what is unique about Hong Kong film.''

But taking on Hollywood in its own backyard isn't easy. According to Hollywood lore, two requisites for cracking the American cinema market are a ''bankable'' star and a distributor with deep pockets and an abundance of marketing savvy. Although Crouching Tiger had to overcome the language barrier, it had both Columbia TriStar and Chow Yun-fat working in its favour.

The good news for Hong Kong's new crop of big-budget pictures is that all three have pinned down US distribution. Columbia TriStar has bought all distribution rights to Highbinders outside Asia, while Miramax Films, not strictly a studio but an indie distributor with considerable clout, has bought rights to Hero and The Touch for the US and several other Western countries.

When it comes to star power, all three films are quite heavily armed. Highbinders star Jackie Chan was recently rated the 17th most bankable actor in Hollywood, alongside Robert De Niro, so can be considered a safe bet. Hero, as an auteur film, is relying on a combination of talents rather than straightforward star power, but with Jet Li in its line-up isn't doing so badly on that score either. Michelle Yeoh, who is starring in and producing The Touch, is well known in the West following her roles in Crouching Tiger and Bond movie Tomorrow Never Dies. However, Miramax still insisted on casting a recognisable Western face, British actor Ben Chaplin, as the male lead.

Jet Li Photo: Reuters

These films seem to have the right formula to succeed on an international level but they're still taking a big gamble, which is something their producers are painfully aware of. The stakes are high. Not just for these three individual pictures but for the region's film industries in general. On the one hand, they have the task of maintaining the high profile of Hong Kong and Chinese cinema among global audiences. On the other, their performance is seen as a test case for the US studios' continued investment in local film.

Of all the studios, Columbia and Miramax have demonstrated the greatest commitment to Hong Kong and Chinese cinema. Miramax has thrown its weight behind a string of foreign-language successes in Europe, including this year's Oscar favourite Amelie, and was not pleased at missing out on the Crouching Tiger phenomenon. It's doing its utmost not to make the same mistake again. Apart from its involvement in Hero and The Touch, it has also bought US distribution rights to Stephen Chiau Sing-chi's Hong Kong mega-hit, Shaolin Soccer, which it plans to release in a dubbed version in 1,000 American cinemas this spring.

''We're testing the waters with Shaolin Soccer [renamed Kung Fu Soccer in the US] because we've never really handled a Hong Kong comedy before,'' says Miramax senior vice-president of acquisitions, Matt Brodlie. ''But we have high hopes for it. We're giving it a wide release because we believe it will appeal to a wide audience, particularly kids.'' According to Brodlie, Miramax is also looking to follow Columbia's example by investing in Hong Kong films from script stage, rather than simply buying rights to completed films. It also plans to bring some of its own productions to China. Quentin Tarantino's next movie, Kill Bill, and John Dahl's The Great Raid, starring Benjamin Bratt, will both be partly filmed in China this year.

Meanwhile, Columbia hasn't been resting on its laurels. A Crouching Tiger sequel is in the works, but as director Ang Lee has only just started shooting The Hulk for Universal Pictures, it's still some way down the line. In the meantime, the company has produced or bought rights to five films from the mainland in the past year. ''They're all smaller than Crouching Tiger but then we're not expecting to repeat that kind of success every year,'' says Barbara Robinson, managing director of Columbia's Hong Kong production outpost. ''Being realistic, if we can make three to five films a year and get them through our distribution system around the world, then that for us is working just fine.''

The other studios have been much more cautious. One studio executive points out that Crouching Tiger wasn't a huge box-office success on home territory, and a safer strategy is to invest in small movies that are meant to work in one or two Asian countries, rather than to try to take on the whole world with an Asian film. But observers believe if movies such as Hero, Highbinders and The Touch are deemed successful, it's only a matter of time before the other studios follow Columbia and Miramax. ''The Hollywood studios are testing Hong Kong film-makers right now,'' says Pau. ''This is our chance to show them that there's another way of making a film.''

There are certainly plenty of projects in the early planning stages that would welcome the investment. Chung is already lining up a sequel to The Touch and a US$25-million movie based on the life of legendary female warrior Mulan. Media Asia, the company Chung used to head, is developing a US$40-million Jackie Chan picture, Titanium Rain, and Gordon Chan plans to follow Highbinders with a US$20-million martial-arts drama, Swordbearer.

But does Hong Kong really need to make international movies? Chung argues it's a case of do or die. Hong Kong films were popular throughout Asia until the early 1990s when they lost the market to Hollywood products and local film-makers were forced to scale back budgets. ''If we want to create an Oriental version of Hollywood, we need to improve quality and - whether we like it or not - quality costs,'' says Chung. ''We can't generate that kind of money from the Hong Kong market so we need to look at overseas markets. We have to think beyond producing a movie that sells from Yuen Long to Central, but can't even be taken to Taiwan.''