HKmovies today

by **pjshimmer** » Sat May 26, 2001 8:42 pm

HK's golden age of its cinema was probably between 1990-1994. All sorts of classics came out during that period, and mega stars such as Jet Li, Chow Yun Fat, Jackie Chan, Stephen Chow, Tong Leung, Andy Lau and Brigitte Lin... & legendary directors such as John Woo, Yuen Woo Ping, Tsui Hark, Wong Kar Wai certainly enjoyed this period of time. Right now HK cinema is nearly dominated by Ekin Cheng alone, and the most popular genre is of course the new wave action, perhaps with some special effects. Looking at the top grossing HK movies of 1998, only 2 movies topped over $30 million HK. If I'm not mistaking, the theatrical grosses have been getting worse in 1999 and 2000. There were probably less movies to gross $30,000 total in 1993 than that of 1999. Nowadays, 90% of the movies don't make it to $5 million, which is to be expected; the production values today are no match to those 8 years ago. Like most critics and audiences, I have no clue where HK cinema is heading. I have only seen 4 or 5 HK movies made between 1998-2001, and those were the highly anticipated ones. Besides Gen-X Cops, I'm not sure if HK has had anything else to offer to a nonfanatic of the contemporary action genre such as myself.

by **xiaoka** » Sun May 27, 2001 10:08 am

Hmm... I think you're being a little pessimistic about the current scene and a little too nostalgic about the past. A /LOT/ of crappy movies have come out HK from every year... remember how many period dramas came out in the early and mid nineties after Wong Fei Hong hit it big? Remember how many gangster dramas they made after the first Young And Dangerous came out? Is the latest crop of copycat action movies any different? And of all your 'mega-stars' only Jet and Chow Yun Fat have left the HK industry for Hollywood. Jackie is still making HK films, as are Andy, Tony and Stephen Chow. (Bridgette Lin just retired...), Wong Kar-Wai of course is still around too. The 'Brain Drain' to Hollywood has changed the nature of the industry, but don't think that its so fundamentally different from before. -Xiao Ka

by **pjshimmer** » Sun May 27, 2001 8:07 pm

Maybe I am being a little hypercritical of the current situation in HK cinema. The problem I have with it is the genres and stars that are dominating it. Perhaps I will get used to them someday, but that certainly won't come today or tomorrow. Actually, the more I think about the TV series I've seen when I lived in China, the worse my opinion is of the movie industry. As you may or may not know, a lot of [developing] Asian countries tend to be big on TV rather than movie, and China is certainly one of them. I can remember the then-magnificent wuxia (wu da) TV series that made my life more complete whenever I saw them. Nowadays I only watch HK movies, and as good as some of them are, I still think more highly of the TV industry made in the Chinese-speaking communities. What I notice about pre-1995 HK movies is that they are mainly adapted from novels of TV series or folk legends. Since 1995 or 1996, I'm not sure if this fact still holds true. With primarily action/comedy films these days, HK cinema is leaving the era of adaptions (at least I think so). However, I'm not sure if this is a good thing; I'm not sure if HK cinema can survive this way.

by **PAUL MARTINEZ** » Tue May 29, 2001 6:23 am

I can definately understand the concerns some of you have about the current state of HK films. I however am not overly pessimistic about it. There are always lulls before a boom. Unfortunately there hasn't been a new direction set yet. But I feel confident it will become evident soon enough. When it does we will have another boom. After a while they will be overdone copying of that and we will have a lull again.The cycle continues.

by **pjshimmer** » Sun Jun 03, 2001 4:05 am

Like Will stated, I personally grew up watching Chinese wuxia TV series, none of which were made without wire. However, I was too young to realize that wire was part of the trick that made the series larger than life to me. I personally dispite old school martial arts movies that lacked uses of wire. Oh what the hell, I might as well admit that old school martial arts movies were anything but martial arts to me. Look at Wang Yu's Return of One-Armed Swordsman. It's got a perfect story (which most films of the era tended to have), but as far as martial arts is concerned, it's not even worth a [1/10] rating. Without wire, martial arts looks terribly fake, cheaply unworthy, and out of date. Let me clearify that my theory of martial arts is more of the TV wuxia kind, rather than the old school kung fu. I love it when people are flying and using supernatural power, i.e. shooting laser beams, & special effects as used in Storm Riders (see Storm Riders and Deadful Melody), and absolutely cannot stand strictly hand-to-hand, one-move-at-a-time kung fu (see "Shatter" or "The Sword" [Adam Cheng] and you shall see exactly what I'm talking about) In all respects, Buddhist Fist was the worst Yuen Woo Ping movie I've ever seen. Of course the horrible dub didn't help any, but it's the boring old school kung fu that made me hate it with my guts.

by **pjshimmer** » Sun Jun 03, 2001 11:05 pm

It's not like 90% of the movies we see anywhere don't have some unrealistic elements in it. We see all the time stories that are simply impossible. Like in Shaolin and Wu Tang (not sure if you're seen it), there's no way Wang Lung Wei's sister could have known Gordon Liu was going to teach her traditional shaolin kung fu in the cell. In addition, the guards almost killing her later, knowing she is their master, is also unconvincing. Yet we see similar plots in every genre. Still, we see people jumping out of a 5 story high window and landing safely on solid ground everyday. We also see 30 bullets fired upon one person and all missed, yet when our hero fires one shot, it is never missed. We see people going through all kinds of torture and still not dead, and out of 5 billion people, one person in search of another easily finds him. Not to mention all these sci fi and new action movies with tons of special effects in them. I find all these quite unrealistic, and that's why I'm staying away from Western films. I can totally understand you not agreeing with the wire aspect. I just personally find it unique of my culture, just as Western movies starring John Wayne are pretty authentic of the American.

by **pjshimmer** » Tue Jun 05, 2001 6:38 pm

There are plenty of good comedy pieces in HK cinema - Stephen Chow is probably the best start. I also think some people, especially those who don't understand the spoken dialogues, simply cannot (not anyone's fault, of course) preceive some of the humor delivered. Even I sometimes have difficulty grasping funny moments in Cantonese language (I speak Mandarin). The way I look at the genres is this: any culture can make a comedy; any country can make a drama; anybody can make a horror film. But only the Chinese culture (and a few others) excel at Martial Arts flicks. That's why I think more people look specifically for those in the martial arts genre in HK cinema.

by **xiaoka** » Thu Jun 07, 2001 8:49 am

What the F are you talking about? Fortune cookies (as pointed out) were invited in the US. I don't think they even have them in China at all. And whats up with this exotification of Asian culture? "The east is known for there legends" -- I think you've been watching too much David Carradine or something, Asia's folklore or body historical fiction is no more or less developed than anywhere else's. Just because they happen to make more movies about them... CTHD was by no means 'believable' (as far as the physics or lack there of) -- its just a story, just like Star Wars, where people have superhuman abilities. (ie there is a reason to suspend disbelief) If you enjoy the genre thats one thing, but don't try to cloud it w/ some sort of cultural BS. -Xiao Ka

HKmovies today

Re: HKmovies today

20/20 hindsight...

Re: 20/20 hindsight...

It's A Cycle

Wires

Oh, come on

Good comedies

huh?

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