Hong Kong’s beleaguered movie business is trying to rekindle the eagerness for its films that after reached fever pitch throughout Asia throughout its glory days, with a sequence of high-profile “gala displays” which are sharing town’s stars — and its field workplace successes — with the area.
Wilfred Wong, chairman of the Asian Movie Awards Academy and chairperson of the Hong Kong Movie Growth Council — two of the initiative’s companions — stated the time had come for Hong Kong to discover its “future market,” given falling field workplace receipts and declining manufacturing numbers inside the metropolis itself.
“We predict that sooner or later, our films aren’t simply native. It’s worthwhile to go international and lengthen to markets inside Asia particularly,” stated Wong, who this previous week took the street present to Ho Chi Minh Metropolis, Vietnam.
He added: “So, let’s not go as far as to the U.S. and Europe. There, it’s a really totally different tradition. However Asian tradition, we’re akin to one another. So there’s a likelihood for us right here.”
A current Thursday night time noticed a whole bunch of followers collect on the Galaxy Cinema on the third flooring of the sprawling Thiso Mall Sala in HCMC for a screening of the Soi Cheang-directed motion romp Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In (2024), the $111 million Hong Kong hit that additionally earned a surprisingly sturdy $1.9 million from Vietnam.
Different movies screened over three days included Stuntman, director Herbert Leung’s paean to the unheralded heroes of martial arts films, Robin Lee’s excessive sports activities documentary 4 Trails, and the romance Final Track for You from Jill Leung. The gala presentation initiative has already staged related occasions in Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Phnom Penh and Jakarta.
“Whereas in different places individuals are being distracted by streamers, in Southeast Asia, individuals are simply beginning to take pleasure in cinema, and due to this fact there’s a future for good films being proven and launched right here,” stated Wong. “However until we come again and inform the individuals, distributors received’t have a look at the Hong Kong films. We’d like distributors, and that’s one of many functions of those journeys going in all places.”
Two of the celebs of Twilight of the Warriors, Louis Koo and martial arts legend Sammo Hung, have been available in Ho Chi Minh Metropolis — they usually have been mobbed, so the indicators have been actually constructive. One other initiative was a “Directing Tales Throughout Hong Kong and Vietnam” seminar that noticed Leung and Vietnam’s Tran Thanh Huy (Rom) dig right into a dialogue of motion films and the affect Hong Kong’s filmmakers have had throughout the area over time.
Louis Koo in Ho Chi Minh Metropolis for the Hong Kong Movie Gala Presentation.
Courtesy of the Hong Kong Movie Gala Presentation
“For a few years, Hong Kong movies have been submerged for a very long time,” stated Koo, who’s grow to be a significant Hong Kong participant in his personal proper via his One Cool Group manufacturing home.
“By displaying these movies we hope to revive the arrogance of our associates in Vietnam or associates from South Asia around the globe in our Hong Kong movies, and slowly we are able to get up once more.”
Via the heyday of Hong Kong — and Cantonese — cinema from the Nineteen Seventies to the Nineties, such nights have been a typical sight throughout Asia, reflecting town’s place because the “Hollywood of the East,” when business cinema in neighboring inhabitants facilities was nonetheless in its relative infancy. A part of that was because of the high quality of regional hits akin to John Woo’s traditional A Higher Tomorrow, a part of it to sheer quantity — with Hong Kong at its peak producing round 300 films a 12 months — and one other half to the huge Shaw Brothers studio operation, which owned cinemas as far afield as Singapore and Malaysia.
All that has modified, after all. Whereas Hong Kong in 2024 recorded its worst field workplace receipts in 13 years (even excluding the pandemic), totaling $172.5 million, Vietnam noticed an all-time excessive of $185 million. Whereas Hong Kong has seen 18 cinema closures previously two years, Vietnam now has 83 cinemas with 478 screens operated by Korea’s CJ CGV, which solely entered the market in 2011.
So whereas the occasion was a spectacle for locals, there was no escaping the truth that it was being pushed by financial necessity. And Wong vowed his workforce was solely simply getting began.
“We’re wanting additionally to festivals,” stated Wong. “Beforehand, when Hong Kong filmmakers confirmed up at a pageant, they introduced their very own stars at their very own expense. Now we’re saying, no, let’s set up the Hong Kong contingent. We’ll pay for it. If there’s a superb film, we deliver the highest stars. So now, in main festivals, we at all times have a “Hong Kong Night time.” We would like individuals to say, ‘Hong Kong continues to be right here.’”