There's an interesting article in the latest edition of Variety about the continuing decline of the once-vibrant Hong Kong film industry.

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117915942?categoryid=1743&cs=1&query=hong+and+kong+and+film&display=hong+kong+film

You can sign up for a free trial subscription to read the whole thing, but here are the main talking points, as quoted from the article:

“In its heyday -- the late '70s to early '90s -- there were 300 films a year being produced in this territory of 7 million people. These films flooded the region and were seen as the trendsetter for Asian cinema.”

“Fast-forward to 2005 and some industry insiders are predicting as few as 40 local film productions. Last year 64 local films were produced, including two digital video productions.”

“Piracy and lack of regulation of the video industry are causing the lion's share of the problems. While forging closer ties to China could bolster the strength of the industry, there are several obstacles to that course.”

“Hong Kong copyright law doesn't give rental protection to film, which makes it difficult to take action against shops that rent the consumer sell-through video as opposed to the licensed rental copy. As a result, the distributor doesn't get money from the rental license.”.

“Peer-to-peer file sharing of movies through the Internet for no commercial gain also isn't addressed by Hong Kong law. Tsung estimates that 50% of the box office in Hong Kong is lost to this kind of downloading.”

"An emergency taskforce of about 20 industry insiders convened in late November to discuss these issues with government officials. The industry plans to submit comments on these matters during the government's public consultation period on copyright protection, says Nansun Shi, a senior adviser for Mandarin Entertainment and veteran producer."

“Another issue plaguing the industry is money. Investment dollars are difficult to come by because returns are low. As a result, films are made quickly with low budgets and result in low ticket sales. Some companies opt for bigger productions with a budget between $18 million and $25 million, which are expected to bring a higher return with broader international distribution.”

“An example of big budget rising to the top is "Kung Fu Hustle," helmed and written by Stephen Chow ("Shaolin Soccer""Shaolin Soccer"), who also stars in the action comedy. A Columbia Pictures investment, the pic dominated the local B.O.B.O. for 2004 after showing for just eight days. It has brought in $4.8 million to date.”

“Applause's Peter Chan agrees that to make money, you have to spend money, which leads to another problem -- the platform for new talent to emerge is eroding as the industry cuts back. "The decline of any industry is the lack of new blood," Chan says.”

“Historically, Hong Kong hasn't had to deal with competition. But South Korea and Thailand have given Hong Kong a run for its money as their industries have taken off in recent years.”

“It's difficult to talk about Hong Kong's future without including China, especially as regional sales for Hong Kong are no longer a given. Lack of exhibition and distribution infrastructure on the Mainland, differing sensibilities and censorship are several problems blocking the development of a pan-Chinese film industry. Audiences have become wary of Hong-Kong/China co-productions, which are often watered down and end up pleasing no one.”

End of quotes
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About a year ago, I was in one of Toronto's bustling Chinese shopping centres with a friend of mine and his Chinese friend from work. We got to talking about the tremendous amount of bootleg CDs and DVDs available in these malls (ten to one against legit retailers, most of whom don't even carry DVD any more), and how much harder the practise probably hits a film and recording industry like Hong Kong's, where these days funding is scarce, new talent can expect short careers, and there's little protection of intellectual property. The Chinese guy said, half-jokingly "You know, we're our own worst enemies. Ripping each other off is done all over the world, but you'd think we do it best by looking at this place!" and then launched in to a rather unexpected little diatribe about how this was far more likely to happen in the Chinese culture, and in particular Hong Kong's "survival of the fittest" culture than anywhere else. Obviously, we all knew that piracy and downloading and all that had taken a big bite out of entertainment industry revenues the world over, but he believed that many other industries and governments were at least were taking preventive measures rather than waiting for the death of an industry to slap them on the face.

Now I know many of us lose little sleep over the decline in income of some rich pop star or director or producer, but when you consider the money these folks make in Hong Kong versus the money afforded their U.S. and even European counterparts, you can only imagine how this hits the low-end sound man or electrician or special FX designer or set decorator or tea lady or what have you, who all must now worry whether there will even BE an industry in which to work some day.

I wish I could say I was honestly anti-piracy, but the truth is if it wasn't for bootlegs of one kind or another over the years, many of us wouldn't have had access to these great films. Which of course fueled even more bootlegging. This particular Chinese Toronto resident mentioned a scheme whereby several VHS rental shops would be kept well supplied with movies by one or two "suppliers" who simply ran dupes of the latest laserdisc releases back in the day, then distributed them to the neighborhood shops. Laserdisc piracy of mainstream U.S. discs was barely a problem back in those days.

I suppose this was inevitable as the audience for all types of films have become much more savvy these days, and the rough-and-tumble patchwork style that once helped Hong Kong cinema rule the Asian markets is no longer cutting it with many viewers, even though many Hong Kong filmmakers (from the mid-range on down) seem to be stuck in a technical time-lock from those halcyon days. The good stuff may be getting better, but there definitely less of it about.

On the upside, I suppose those of us staring at towering stacks of "to watch" DVDs on our shelves won't have to worry about falling behind in our watching and reviewing habits, since the industry doesn't appear likely to ever get too far ahead of us. Who knows, maybe one day, the HKMDB will be a complete, finite resource!

Your thoughts?

I wish I could say I was honestly anti-piracy, but the truth is if it wasn't for bootlegs of one kind or another over the years, many of us wouldn't have had access to these great films. Which of course fueled even more bootlegging. This particular Chinese Toronto resident mentioned a scheme whereby several VHS rental shops would be kept well supplied with movies by one or two "suppliers" who simply ran dupes of the latest laserdisc releases back in the day, then distributed them to the neighborhood shops. Laserdisc piracy of mainstream U.S. discs was barely a problem back in those days.

It was one thing back in the day when movies were unavailable to the general public. But, that story is no longer the norm. DVDs are easy to buy and the legit ones at that.

Sorry, but that statement is a poor one and only for those who pretend that they support HK flicks with boots. HK is dying because of the boots and the lack of control of the criminal element. DVDs for movies are issued so quickly now that boots should not be an option. If you buy a boot, you are contributing to the demise of the HK film industry. Simple as that! If you gotta buy a boot, don't post that you are proud of your accomplishment.

You've missed my point somewhat. I'm against piracy today because I know the damage it has done, as I mentioned above. I am, however, willing to admit that bootlegs were bought and/or rented and/or watched by me, and many others like me, back in the early days of discovering Hong Kong cinema, thus my comment that even I can't be completely "anti-piracy" because I knew what I was doing was WRONG even then, but like others, it often felt like I had no alternatives. Once I could afford a laserdisc player, everything changed, and thanks to my guilt, I now have nearly two hundred Hong Kong LDs bound for the dumpster, once I can bear the thought of parting with them. And thanks to the ridiculous pricing schemes of Tai Seng and their Canadian distributor Bravo Communications back in the early 90's, I don't even want to THINK about how much money I'm out!

My collection of Hong Kong movies is largely boot free. I say largely, because the transiition from majority-legit retailers to majority-boot retailers in Toronto took barely a year, and in that time, there were many instances where you couldn't distinguish the real from the fake, such was the quality of the latter, and thus there are some bastard DVDs in my collection, and I'm not afraid to admit it. Now I know better and I've found that patience is a virtue in this regard. If you don't have to have all the new releases the day they are released, you can usually clean up a month or two down the road with great price reductions at the legit retailers who have survived. Unfortunately, the fact that the prices of legit product drop so rapidly is yet one more consequence of the bootlegging industry. But then again, about two weeks ago, I picked up 42 factory-sealed, legitimate HK DVDs (mostly Mei Ah, Universe and City Connection) at one of those Chinese cutey-gifty shops at 3/$20 CDN, and for every six in the pile, I got a free one, so I can't really complain.

So to reiterate, I was in NO WAY claiming I was proud of buying or watching boots (I did more of the latter), ONLY that for many of us, it was the only option once upon a time. Unfortunately, OUR support of it in those days only contributed to the problem as it exists today, in showing the bootleggers that there was a market for it beyond Asia and the international Asian communities. For that, we should all feel a little ashamed. Just because we don't do it now, doesn't make what we did then anymore justified. We COULD have waited, really. It's all available legitimately now, but we wouldn't have known that then. I genuinely feel bad that it's come to the point it has in one of my favourite film industries, and I'm at least willing to accept my small part of the blame. I feel better when I'm in Toronto's Chinatown areas giving my business to the handful of little shops that even still stock DVDs (or to online retailers) while the bootleg places, sorry to say, are literally crammed with people of every colour.

Well, I'm glad you've gone legit, because piracy in HK is still a big issue. HK stars are gonna put on a concert to provide more support to try and get people away from buying boots and generally inferior products. Anyone who buys a boot has to understand that they are taking away from future productions and giving money to criminals.