Autumn and Chinese pollution are in the air, which means it’s time for another edition of the Hong Kong Asian Film Festival! Asian cinema and assigned seating being my favorite things in the world, Broadway Cinematheque’s Hong Kong Asian Film Festival is the annual event I look forward to the most each year. This year, I’ve picked 29 films to take in theatrically over the three-week period, plus several others I will catch through other means. I will try to cover as many of them here as possible, and the best way to do that is through daily entries!

Films I’m looking forward to this year include the four-hour version of SEEDIQ BALE, the Chinese road film KORA, the Taiwan-shot/China-funded STARRY STARRY NIGHT, Hong Kong indie BIG BLUE LAKE, Korean actioner THE YELLOW SEA, and Korean animated film GREEN DAYS.

But first, I watched the opening film, Johnnie To’s LIFE WITHOUT PRINCIPLE. Many of my thoughts for the film have been covered in my Twitter and the East Screen/West Screen podcast, but I will cover them again here:

LIFE WITHOUT PRINCIPLE (2011, Hong Kong, Dir: Johnnie To)

LIFE WITHOUT PRINCIPLE doesn’t have a lesson, and it’s not a morality tale (unlike many social issue films tend to become). It’s Johnnie To’s observational piece about Hong Kongers’ desire to get rich quick and how that can affect their and others’ lives. Despite being shot on-and-off over the course of three years, To and his ace editing team manage to weave a well-structured ensemble piece of three interconnected stories featuring characters all driven by greed.

To flashes a mirror at his home audience, using elements inspired by stories ripped from the headlines to show what Hong Kong society has become. He literally equates the financial market to a casino, where higher risks not only means bigger wins, but also more devastating losses. Despite being To’s quietest and dryest film since ELECTION 2 (no human meat grinding here, either), it’s an absorbing drama that takes its time to draw you into its world. The payoff yields some surprising dark comedy (To’s brand of absurdity remains), and it leaves plenty of room for you to rethink how you perceive characters that initially appear to be heroes.

I’ve seen the film twice now, and while the surprises in the final third don’t play as well the second time, the first hour is still as involving on repeat viewings. It moves slowly, but To assures you that you’re in good hands. While it’s not the most cinematically satisfying Hong Kong film of the year (that still goes to WU XIA, in my opinion), the fact that Hong Kong finally now has a good film that’s really trying to speak to the Hong Kong people makes LIFE WITHOUT PRINCIPLE the best Hong Kong film of 2011 so far for me.  What a great start to the festival.

Coming up on day 2: Amir Naderi’s CUT.

Thanks to Marco Sparmberg, I recently got my hands on the Blu-ray of SQUATTERTOWN, his independent web series.

What is SQUATTERTOWN, you ask. I’ll just let Marco do the talking:

Squattertown is a trans media production centering around a mini web series. Sole crowdfunded via 35 backers from 7 countries around the world Squattertown is an interactive web based project on a global scale. Created as first Dim Sum Western, this web series tells the grim story of “a dystopian parallel universe in which Hong Kong’s wealth gap has grown to the point where a vast underclass is forced to live in a parallel city that exists above the heads of the affluent.”

Why is SQUATTERTOWN important? 1) It’s one of the most ambitious ideas I’ve heard of for a Hong Kong indie. It actually tries to do something different with the Hong Kong cityscape on a indie budget (and it manages to pull it off) 2) It’s a successful example of crowdfunding, which involves relying on contributors from around the world to make up a budget for a film. It tests a filmmakers’ ability to pitch the project to the world, not just a boardroom of rich men.

The series is web-based (link at the end of the entry), and it can be viewed for free. But since I’m one of those contributors (LoveHKFilm is also credited in the Special Thanks section), Mr. Sparmberg was kind enough to give me the Blu-ray version of his film.

The disc includes not only the entire first season of the series, it also includes a surprising amount of featurettes, covering various stages of its production (including the world premiere!). Obviously, the blu-ray disc won’t be of demo quality, and it’s not readily available, so I won’t be going into the audio and video quality of the disc.

It doesn’t matter whether you understand the story of SQUATTERTOWN or not (and you’re more likely to not anyway). It’s all about experimenting with genres, specifically a mix of Hong Kong cinema and Spaghetti Westerns. Using a gritty Hong Kong cinema aesthetic (mainly a gray palette and lots of handheld camerawork), Sparmberg slowly brings two stories together into one (their connection isn’t even revealed until the third episode), but he doesn’t offer much clues nor clear answers about his characters or their motivations. You won’t understand SQUATTERTOWN, but it might not even really matter by the end.

Hong Kong independent cinema isn’t known for its ambitions, which is why it’s impressive to see visuals like these in the series:

Yes, it looks better when the shot is moving

 Mostly shot on location on Hong Kong’s rooftops, SQUATTERTOWN really does feel like it lives in its own world. Considering that many of these locations are being torn down by redevelopers, the series also serves as a record that these old buildings really did once exist, and you don’t have to wait for the future to find people living in these rooftop housing.

In addition to the four-episode series, the SQUATTERTOWN blu-ray also includes a whole lot of special features. Marco captured practically every stage of production, including the teaser he made to gather funding (trust me, it looks VERY different from the final product) and footage from each of the real rooftop he shot at. It’s pretty much a step-to-step guide that shows how he managed to put this thing together with himself and the hard work of a few others.

Where can you get the blu-ray, you ask? Well, you can’t, unless you contact Marco directly. However, you can check out the entire series (HD available) and these making ofs on the series’ Youtube channel or links to the series on other video sites on the official website.

Like we always do at the beginning of the week, we’re looking at Chinese box office:

- As expected, the TRANSFORMERS dominance continues in China, with the robot fightin’ blockbuster taking another 369 million yuan for a grand total of 770 million yuan at the Chinese box office. It’s now officially the highest-grossing film in China in 2011, and the one billion yuan mark is not unlikely. However, business is slowing down, with 56.5 admissions per show. HARRY POTTER 7.2 (which is distributed by Huaxia, not China Film Group. Sorry about that) opens in China on August 4th, so expect the film to take a huge bite out of TRANSFORMERS’ box office this coming weekend.

Like last week, the most interesting part of this week’s box office chart is looking at how the so-called “excellent recommended films” that celebrate the Chinese Communist Party’s 90th anniversary did. First, take a look at these charts:

These are the box office gross patterns for WU XIA and BEGINNING OF THE GREAT REVIVAL, which shows a steady decrease in box office gross week-to-week. These can be considered normal trends.

However, take a look at these:

These are the box office trends for WENTIAN and GUO MING YI, respectively. Both are two of three “excellent recommended” films named in the internal memo  that I put on the July 21st Internal Memo Edition of the blog. It shows abnormal rising trends in their week-to-week grosses.

After last week’s miraculous 600% jump, WENTIAN jumped another 215% this past week, making 14.4 million yuan in the last seven days from 4,578 screenings. It has an average of 88.77 admissions per show, which is even higher than TRANSFORMERS. GUO YI MING had a similar jump in its gross as well, jumping 162.5% with  58.2 admissions per show (compared to 42 admissions per show last week).

This past weekend was the last week before the so-called “Red Month” commemorating the 90th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party ended, and with memos being issued to encourage cinemas, government departments, and the media to promote these films, it’s no surprise they would see a sudden surge in the box office. We can either credit the jump to those shady ticket printing practices point out in the cinema chain internal memo, or organizations like the People’s Liberation Army organizing group screenings. We’ll likely never know the truth, but an industry insider on weibo predicts that such practices will continue to run until National Day in October. As the famous Department of Railway spokesman said a week ago, “You can choose to believe or not, but I believe it”.

More party-approved movie grosses this past week: YANG SHAN ZHOU saw a 283% jump for a 63 admissions per show average. THE SEAL OF LOVE jumped 925% for a per-show average of 149 admissions AND an average ticket price of 55 yuan.

Another big box office story this past week is the surprising performance of animated film SEER, based on the popular Chinese online video game. The film managed to hit the no.2 spot at the box office with 27.6 million yuan over four days for a per-show average of 30.95 admissions. Opening in the middle of the summer AND cashing in on the popularity of the game, THIS is the Chinese animation miracle of the summer so far, and judging from its trailer, it probably didn’t cost that much money to make. However, the film is being trashed by netizens on Douban, with an average score of 2.9 out of 10 and 61.4% of voters giving it one star. One comment even wrote that it’s “recommended for children age three and below”. Ouch.

Meanwhile, MYSTERIOUS ISLAND now at 86.3 million yuan, WU XIA now at 173 million yuan, and Wong Jing’s TREASURE INN now at 103 million yuan.

- In Taiwan, the comedy KILLER WHO NEVER KILLS, starring pop singer Jam Hsiao and a bunch of Hong Kong actors, did fairly well in its moderate release over the weekend. The film, based on a novel by popular author Giddens, is partly funded by the Hong Kong government’s Hong Kong Film Fund.

This is an interesting development, considering this is a film co-financed by the Hong Kong government that has a very clear Taiwanese identity. More about this film fund in a focus story in the future.

And now, some casting news:

- Speaking of MYSTERIOUS ISLAND, a big part of its success is reportedly due to the popularity of star Mimi Yang. An artist under contract at Mei Ah, she will be getting big roles in all the upcoming major Mei Ah productions. First, it’ll be THE GREAT WUDONG, opposite Vincent Zhao. Then it’ll be Alan Mak/Felix Chong’s WIND SEEKER opposite Tony Leung (the film is still in pre-production, according to an inside source). Finally, it’ll likely be BUTTERFLY CEMETARY, which is only in the planning stages right now. Go, Mimi….I guess.

- Nicholas Tse’s next role will reportedly be a Chinese television drama in which he’ll play an entrepreneur with depression, and that he’ll be starting the shoot soon. This will keep him in Mainland China for a while. Anyone who doesn’t know where I’m going with this should look at the tabloids.

- Donnie Yen reportedly has four additional films lined up already, including a comedy opposite Eva Huang (produced by director/actor Yang Zi…ahem…), the next Raymond Wong-produced Lunar New Year comedy, the ASSASSINS COUPLE film reportedly opposite Cecilia Cheung, and the one you all will care about, the next Jackie Chan production.

According to the report, he will be co-starring with Jackie in the action film, and he will be playing a master decoder (whatever that means). The 100 million yuan-plus production will start production around China in November.

However, his spokesperson said that Donnie is currently on vacation in the states, and that nothing will be confirmed until he returns to Hong Kong.

Moving into production news:

- Legendary talent manager Willie Chan and pop star-turning-actor Juno Mak have officially announced the start of their production company. In addition to the latest Wong Ching-Po film, Kudos will also be producing Stanley Kwan’s upcoming adaptation of a novel by racecar driver/author Han Han, subject to censorship clearance.

-  In an event in Shenzhen, director Tsui Hark, with Polybona chairman Yu Dong’s approval, revealed that he’s planning to adapt Qu Bo’s TRACKS IN THE SNOWY FOREST as his next project. The film, about People’s Liberation Army soldiers hunting bandits in the snowy northeastern China, will likely go into production at the end of the year for a year-end 2012 release. The first choice for star at the moment is Jiang Wen, though nothing is confirmed at the moment.

And now, I read Weibo so you don’t have to:

- An anonymous industry insider reveals that Jackie Chan’s 1911 has been heavily cut to please Chinese censors. One of the rumored points of contention is that they want the film to skim over presence of “the other party’s flag as a symbol.”

Also, with 1911 having obvious symbolic meaning and SORCERER AND THE WHITE SNAKE having the backing of a major distributor, Gordon Chan’s MURAL will likely be the loser of the National Day time slot this year.

- Wong Jing wrote on his weibo that fans have asked him why he hasn’t done anything in the horror genre lately. With the shoot for his latest romantic comedy wrapping up, he said he may use his free time in August and September to shoot a horror double feature with director Patrick Kong. The 90-minute film will feature two 45-minute piece - one by each director. However, this post apparently did not go through his spokesperson, who says this project is not confirmed. So don’t take it as anything more than spitballing by a director.

Next time: Hong Kong cinema this summer, and more news.

Sources:

Entgroup
Film Business Asia 1
Film Business Asia 2
Film Business Asia 3
Mtime
Sina 1
Sina 2
Sina 3

Note: box office graphs also from Entgroup. 

Before getting into the news today, here’s a friendly reminder:

The SQUATTERTOWN premiere is happening on July 30th at 7:30 pm Hong Kong Time. I will be there, checking in live on Twitter and Facebook with constant updates before and after the film. You can check out the details on Facebook or see what’s going on live at the ustream page. It’s going to be a great night, and we’ll cover the premiere with a special entry next week, so stay tuned!

- Today’s focus story comes from Jinan Shibao, and it attempts to explain why the star-studded propaganda film BEGINNING OF THE GREAT REVIVAL did not do as well as the predecessor FOUNDING OF A REPUBLIC.

Here’s some background: BEGINNING OF THE GREAT REVIVAL is China Film Group’s big blockbuster made to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party. The film features 170+ stars from the Greater China area (plus Taiwan, depending on your politics), and it was expected to do major business at the box office ahead of the party anniversary on July 1st. You can read Boss Kozo’s review here.

In case you don’t know (and if you’ve been reading western media, you probably don’t), BEGINNING OF THE GREAT REVIVAL was expected to be a record breaking box office hit. China Film Group said they were targeting 30 million admissions for a gross of 800 million yuan. They didn’t just want to barely pass by LET THE BULLETS FLY’s reported 700 million yuan record, they wanted to DESTROY IT, and 800 mil was the sensible next step. There were 89,000 showings in the first 5 days alone, with organized screenings by governmental organizations and a huge advertising campaign. Yes, an advertising campaign for a movie advertising the communist party.

Problem was, it wasn’t enough. The film only had an average of 36 admissions in each of those 89,000 showings, meaning that they screened it, but not enough people came. As of July 24th, it has only made 367 million yuan (roughly US$57 million) after 40 days. Sure, that’s no small number, considering it’s currently the highest-grossing Chinese film of 2011 so far. However, it’s far lower than the 800 million target set by CFG, and it’s still below the gross of FOUNDING OF A REPUBLIC two years prior, when there were less screens (It made roughly 410 million yuan). REVIVAL has already been released on DVD, and it has already made its way to the legal streaming sites, which means no revival for this poor fella.

Why can’t a country with reportedly 80 million communist party members get enough people to watch a movie about the communist party? I will first paraphrase each point provided by the article, followed by my own comments in bold.

1) Scheduling. BEGINNING OF THE GREAT REVIVAL picked what seemed to be a perfect opening date on June 15th - right in the beginning of summer - with only an “alternative” film like WU XIA and low-key dramas like SNOW FLOWER AND THE SECRET FAN in its way. However, FOUNDING OF A PUBLIC opened during the extended National Day holiday in October, and it was able to benefit greatly from that. On the other hand, REVIVAL could only benefit from school holidays, and students is not the target demographic for the film. Even though REVIVAL saw more organized screenings than REPUBLIC, it did not attract enough audiences to voluntarily watch it.

Let’s not kid ourselves here, China Film Group may not be a prolific film producer, but they are the biggest distributor of films in China. They serve as distributor/co-distributor on at least half of all Chinese films released, and they are one of the only two distributors of foreign films, including KUNG FU PANDA 2, TRANSFORMERS and HARRY POTTER. They held TRANFORMERS 3 , the biggest threat to REVIVAL’s box office dominance, back by a month.

Of course, the holding of foreign films to give local films a leg-up is an unofficial annual tradition in China, and this practice is only getting extra attention this year because the leg-up was given to a propaganda film. So it’s hard to say whether they held TRANSFORMERS back for commercial or political reason. All we can say is that they held it back. There was also a rumor that WU XIA (not distributed by China Film Group) could’ve done better if it had opened on the extended July 1st weekend in China, and that it “voluntarily” pushed its opening date to the following Monday. We’re not going to guess if that’s true or not. And you probably shouldn’t, either. 

One thing the article speculated and probably got right was that REPUBLIC benefited from an extended national holiday, and REVIVAL didn’t. Not even the communist party anniversary holiday helped the film get the boost it needed. 

In a future entry, we’ll look at the art of scheduling in the Chinese film industry. 

2) The star syndrome. The biggest selling point of FOUNDING OF A REPUBLIC was probably its large cast of stars. BEGINNING OF THE GREAT REVIVAL attempted to cash in on that same selling point, packing it with stars like Andy Lau, Chow Yun Fat, Zhou Xun, Liu Ye, Chang Chen, and all those Mainland Chinese stars with two-word names. However, after REPUBLIC, fans of the stars knew that their idols would likely only appear for several minutes in order to fit in the next star appearance. As a result, fans would rather skip wasting money on seeing their idol for a few minutes in REVIVAL and instead saved their money for a movie where they knew their idol would actually be appearing for longer than five minutes.

Likely true, but I’m not sure if it really played that huge of a role, since audiences will likely see more than one of their idols in a movie promising 170 stars. 

3) (lack of) Critics’ influence/word-of-mouth. While REPUBLIC sparked conversations on the internet and elsewhere, REVIVAL saw decreased enthusiasm and negative word-of-mouth from audiences. The film had no professional reviews, which meant general audiences weren’t properly guided on whether the film was good or not. On movie rating sites Douban and Mtime, the rating system and the discussion sections were both shut down, preventing people from having a public opinion on the film. These days, young audiences like to check movie rating sites to see word-of-mouth on a film before they choose to watch it. Without that tool, people simply decided not to watch it. One netizen speculated that since REPUBLIC didn’t run into to the same situation, the powers that be must’ve been afraid that the focus of discussions would be placed on Tang Wei.

This being a mainstream media report, they wouldn’t point out the fact that the rating system was initially opened on douban, only to be shut down later that day when the average score was only 2.2/10. For a film to be so often voted on with such a consistently low score on only opening day, netizens were obviously having fun trashing the film. Douban’s immediate action of shutting voting down didn’t help the film’s publicity, either, as people then simply skipped the film out of principle. It’s true that the film had negative word-of-mouth, but what the report didn’t point out was that it started long before the film even opened. 

On the other hand, weibo didn’t shut down any opinions on the film (it even had its own unique trending section), but most of them were sarcastic comments and netizens trashing the movie. Either way, REVIVAL was damned whether they allowed Douban and Mtime’s voting system to be opened.

Other than this report (which was reposted on at least Mtime’s news section), not many mainstream Chinese media has covered REVIVAL’s box office failure. China Film Group is acting nonchalant, saying that they will accept whatever the free market dictates them to do. With REVIVAL obviously making a profit and China Film Group still laughing to the bank with TRANSFORMERS and KUNG FU PANDA’s record-breaking box office grosses, it appears that China Film Group is simply moving on and not looking back.

With the Douban/Mtime situation, the reported “box office gouging”, and now the box office piggybacking of other China Film Group-involved party anniversary commemoration films all dragging down the reputation of commercial “mainstream” (as in “mainstream values”) films, what will happen to it in the future? Will there be any more large-scale propaganda film for the next big national anniversary? We’ll keep an eye out in the years to come.

- Speaking of “mainstream films”, August 1st Studio - the People Liberation Army’s film division and the producer of patriotic films like WEN TIAN - is releasing another party anniversary movie this weekend. SHOU WANG TIAN SHAN depicts the heroic efforts of the PLA during the paving of the Tianshan highway in Xinjiang province. Judging from WEN TIAN’s miraculous box office performance this past weekend, I’m looking forward to see what the August 1st Studio and distributor Hua Xia has in store for us come Tuesday.

- Film company Media Asia (INFERNAL AFFAIRS, LEGEND OF THE FIST) has been merged with fellow eSun subsidiary East Asia Music to become just Media Asia. In addition to the IPO, it announced that it will be targeting the Macau/Mainland China market. At the press conference, the company announced that it will be producing the latest Johnnie To film, and it will be reuniting Sammi Cheng and Andy Lau. Andy will be playing a cop who loses his sight working on a case, and Sammi will be playing his lover.

Pang Ho-Cheung, Miriam Yeung, and Shawn Yue also made an appearance to talk about LOVE IN A BUFF, the sequel to LOVE IN A PUFF. Pang revealed that the Hong Kong section of the shoot is complete, and that they will be starting the Beijing portion of the shoot soon. In fact, Pang recently asked on Weibo for couples to join as extras for a scene on August 18th. If you’re in Beijing and interested, check out Pang Ho Cheung’s weibo. I assume if you can show up, you can read and speak Chinese, so you can look for the post yourself.

Also announced: Shawn Yue will be joining the cast of THE FLYING GUILLOTINES, LIFE WITHOUT PRINCIPLES has completed shooting, Media Asia will be opening its own cinema chain in China, and it will be working on a major Hollywood production.

-  Also recruiting for people is Japanese paid television network WOWOW. During their free preview weekend, they are looking for someone to help dub their Japanese version of Jackie Chan’s PROJECT A. You will be trained to become a professional voice actor AND join in on the new Japanese version of the PROJECT A theme song. Check out this page for details. Again, if you’re looking to become a Japanese professional voice actor, I assume you already speak Japanese, so no translation.

- According to Donnie Yen’s Weibo, he has signed up to star in “Assassin Couple” (translated from Chinese title), an unofficial Chinese take on MR AND MRS SMITH (unofficial because they probably didn’t buy the rights). The production company has yet to confirm, but the media is reporting that Cecilia Cheung will be starring opposite Donnie, and she will be getting 15 million yuan for the role. What’s Donnie getting? 30 million yuan. Production budget is reportedly around 80 to 100 million yuan. No other talent attached yet.

- I will be using this article again for the horror focus story later. What’s relevant now is that MYSTERIOUS ISLAND director Chung Kai-Cheong said that he is still working on a 3D JIN PING MEI movie. In case you don’t know, JIN PING MEI was the source material for the SEX AND CHOPSTICK films. Who is Chung planning to get as his star? Jeon Do-Yeon. Yes, Cannes Best Actress winner and one of the best actresses in Korea Jeon Do-Yeon.

He also explained that Jordan Chan skipped out on promotional activities for MYSTERIOUS ISLAND because he went home to conceive a child with his wife Cherrie Ying. I am not joking at all about this.

- The Venice Film Festival lineup was recently announced, with Ann Hui’s A SIMPLE LIFE representing Hong Kong and SEEDIQ BALE representing Taiwan. One film that was being rumored to enter the festival was Zhang Yimou NANJING HEROES. However, the film wasn’t announced to be screened at neither Venice nor Toronto. A reporter talked to the film’s production company, and the spokesperson simply said they’re not in the position to comment right now. Either the film is really going the commercial route and giving up the festivals for direct commercial distribution (the way LET THE BULLETS FLY went), or it’s that mysterious Venice film that will be unveiled during the competition. Or it could be going to another fest.

Who cares? We’ll all get to see it in December anyway.

Next time: A special Hong Kong Book Fair edition.

Sources:

Cinema Today
Jinnan Shibao
Mtime 1
Mtime 2
Sina 1
Sina 2
Sina 3

First, we’re following up on the “internal memogate” that we devoted our previous entry to:

- A reporter for Sina has followed up on the story and managed to come up with the actual memo that even includes literally the stamps of approval from all six committees: The Propaganda Department of the Communist Party of China, State Administration of Radio, Television, and Film, The Organization Department of the Communist Party of China, the People’s Liberation Army General Political Department, the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, and the so-called “Good Activities Guidance Committee” (not actual English name).

However, the approved memo simply includes the point about using union/party membership fees to pay for the film. It also orders the PLA to organize screenings for its troops, that departments must ensure that as many people as possible get to see the “excellent recommended films”, and for the media to give these “excellent recommended films” as much coverage as possible to provide “positive guidance” and “elevate its influence amongst audiences”. What it DOESN’T include is that theaters should piggyback the films on any other films as double features and gouge box office gross.

Instead, it was the theaters who decided to do it. The reporter got in touch with Wu Hehu, the Vice President of the Shanghai United Circuit, where the original memo originated. Wu outright admitted that the internal memo, which was specifically for the Shanghai United Circuit, does exist, and that he believes it’s the cinemas’ responsibility to promote Chinese-made films. This is his exact quote (loosely translated):

“What people think is their business, we will not refute them. We are upholding our own responsibilities. The six committees asked us to recommend these three films to more audiences, and we have a responsibility to use any means necessary to promote Chinese films. We are upholding our own responsibilities.”

To be clear, the government nor China Film Group never asked on paper for these special “double features” and “group tickets”.  This is purely the act of at least one cinema chain. The reporter surveyed several Beijing cinemas and saw no such promotion. Also, Gao Jun, a cinema chain owner and the guy that’s been quoted by the western media about the so-called 800 million yuan requirement for BEGINNING OF GREAT REVIVAL, also said that his cinemas are not using such a tactic.

As for the minimum ticket price, TRANSFORMER’s distributor has revealed that the minimum ticket price for the 35mm version is 15 yuan and 20 yuan for the 3D version, which means the 20 yuan share for TRANSFORMERS pointed out in the previous entry does NOT break the law.

In other words, it’s douchey, but it ain’t illegal. Take that, world!

If you care (and most chances is that you don’t), TRANSFORMERS 3 broke the record for highest opening day in China (91 million yuan), highest midnight show grosses in China (12 million yuan), and highest single-day box office in China (112 million yuan on July 23rd.). It is the first film is make more than 100 million yuan in a single day. After 3 days, the robot fightin’ movie has made 295 million yuan. By now, it has likely beaten the total box office gross of BEGINNING OF THE GREAT REVIVAL and maybe even FOUNDING OF A REPUBLIC. Michael Bay: Communist propaganda killer!

- In case you haven’t noticed, it’s been a pretty exciting week for trailer fans. We saw the latest trailers for THE GRANDMASTER, THE SORCERER AND THE WHITE SNAKE, and if you’re at a Chinese cinemas this weekend, you can add Tsui Hark’s FLYING SWORDS OF DRAGON GATE (and THE DARK KNIGHT RISES teaser, but that doesn’t matter) to that list. A news article has pointed out that the battle of the December films has started early, with all three of these films premiering their trailer in the same week in cinemas. However, note that the GRANDMASTER December release date is only tentative, just like the last 20 release dates Sil-Metropole scheduled.

With these (especially GRANDMASTER and FLYING SWORDS) and the not-too-bad LOVE IN SPACE teaser that also hit the web this week, it seems that the art of trailer is now being appreciated in Chinese cinema. A executive at Polybona (who’s releasing the Tsui Hark film) says that trailers used to be just about three things: introducing the main talents, introducing the film’s genre, and introducing the film’s release date. Now, a film will release multiple trailers - a teaser, a final trailer, and sometimes one more in between - as part of their extended promotional campaigns.

To be honest, I really was impressed by these new trailers. It’s not because they make the films look good (some do, some don’t), but rather because it seems like film companies here finally recognize the value of well-made trailers. Due to resources and other unknown reasons, Hong Kong trailers tend to be put together very sloppily without much sense of storytelling. Instead, they simply serve the points of showing cool moments/dialogue and introducing the stars. As a result, you have trailers that literally tells you nothing about the film except the people in it. The last really great Hong Kong trailer I can remember is ISABELLA. Yes, it may have something to do with me being a Pang Ho-Cheung fan, but the trailer makes me want to watch the film again whenever I see it. Not only do the song and the visuals effectively establish the tone of the film; the dialogue actually gives you an idea what the story is about for once. Once you’ve sat through it, you want to see more of it. THAT’S what a good trailer is about.

What do the LOVE IN SPACE, FLYING SWORDS, and GRANDMASTER trailers have in common? None of them tells you what the story will be, but all three of them give you a taste of the tone of the film instead of just the selling point of the film. Not only are they clear about the tone they want to strike with audiences, they also work as well-edited pieces of video in their own right.

Of course, there’s also the issue of really good trailers leading to really bad films (MR. AND MRS. INCREDIBLE, anyone?), but that’s not something we’ll talk about here.

Two other trailers hit the web this week: Wong Jing’s TREASURE HUNT (Starring Cecilia Tse Cheung, Ronald Cheng, and Lucas Tse), and the new TVB/Shaw Brothers production FORTUNE BUDDIES. They open in Hong Kong on August 18th and August 11th, respectively.

And if you’ve read this far, here’s a little reward for you.

- Back to Hong Kong news, Juno Mak picked up the Best Actor award at the Puchon Fantastic Film Festival for REVENGE: A LOVE STORY. I’ll let Film Business Asia pick up the rest later on.

- With the announcement of the Venice Film Festival line-up coming this week, Sina speculates which Chinese-language films has a chance of getting in. For strictly Mainland China, we have Zhang Yimou’s NANJING HEROES and THE SORCERER AND THE WHITE SNAKE. Ann Hui’s A SIMPLE LIFE may end up representing Hong Kong/China. There’s word that Taiwan’s mega-budget SEEDIQ BALE is a shoo-in.

Also, the report updates the production statuses of several high-profile director’s latest: Wang Quan’an’s latest film just started the scoring process and is nowhere near completion. Lu Chuan’s LAST SUPPER is still in production. LIFE IN PRINCIPLE recently just began reshoots. Wang Shaoshuai already said his latest film will go to a very reputable film festival that doesn’t have an official competition (report guesses Toronto).

And now, I read Weibo so you don’t have to:

- Dante Lam writes that he’s already cut a one-minute long trailer for THE VIRAL FACTOR. The action film literally just wrapped shooting and is aiming for a Lunar New Year release.

- Wong Jing writes that the Nicholas Tse letter to Cecilia Cheung floating around the internet has to be fake because Nic’s Chinese is just OK, and that he would write such a letter in English, not Chinese.

- Yang Zi, the director of CHASE OUR LOVE and executive producer of THE SORCERER AND THE WHITE SNAKE, unveiled a new musical to star Eva Huang (rumored to be….well, I don’t have to say it). Hong Kong director Lee Lik Chi was also at the press conference, but he’s not the director. He was apparently just there.

Next time: Finally we’ll look at how one Chinese new report analyzes why BEGINNING OF THE GREAT REVIVAL flopped, and maybe the in-depth story about REST ON YOUR SHOULDER. It depends how much sleep we get here.

Sources:

M1905.com
Sina 1
Sina 2
Sina 3

Everyone thinks of China Film Group’s BEGINNING OF THE GREAT REVIVAL as THE film celebrating the 90th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party, but that is actually not true. In the month of July, three more films have been released in Chinese cinemas under the 90th anniversary celebration banner.

WENTIAN is a film by the notoriously patriotic August 1st Studio about the Chinese space program. GUO MING YI is a biopic chronicling 16 years in the life of a devoted party member who is presented as the modern Lei Feng. YANG SHAN ZHOU is another biopic about a party member’s achievements working as the party secretary.

What do these three films have in common? China Film Group is the co-distributor of all three films.

This afternoon, a self-proclaimed film industry insider (who is obviously remaining anonymous, but with over 6,000 followers, obviously influential) posted pages of an internal memo from a cinema chain in China on Weibo:

Of course, I’m not going to translate the whole thing, but here are the essential points

1) 6 (possibly governmental) committees have issued a memo about organizing party members to watch WEN TIAN,  YANG SHAN ZHOU, and GUO MING YI. The essential goal of the memo is to make sure these three “recommended, excellent films” are properly distributed, and to do so with “principles that break the usual methods, but don’t violate the rules”. The memo not only said that admissions for these films can be paid with party and union fees, it also said that these films can be watched together with, and I quote, “imported films such as TRANSFORMERS 3, HARRY POTTER, and THE SMURFS”.

2) Here’s the fun part, so guess what? I’ll just let the memo do the talking:

“The screening period of the party 90th anniversary films coincides with the screening of popular import films TRANSFORMERS 3 and HARRY POTTER 7 (part 2). These two films have two points in common: they’re both major 3D, IMAX films, and they’re both the last film in their respective series. As a sort of a farewell, these films are expected to attract more audiences than usual. Attempts can be made to screen these together with the three excellent recommended films in order to get results that may not be achieve through the usual methods.”

Yes, what this memo is saying is that theaters should try double features, doubling TRANSFORMERS and HARRY POTTER up with one of the three “excellent recommended” films. The memo then details the rules - two tickets must be printed (one for each film), the ticket price for both films cannot be higher than the ticket price for a single film, each film’s share of the price cannot be lower than the mandatory minimum ticket price, the second film MUST screen as long as the audience is still there, and of course, NO REFUNDS.

Now, in consideration of the audiences’ energy, the memo also suggests that the two screenings can be at separate times, meaning the two films will be sold as “group tickets”. The rules about ticket prices and no refund still applies, but this means audiences don’t have to sit around for two films on the same day.

Here’s another part that needs to be quoted:

“The ‘Double Features’ and ‘Group Tickets’ methods of sale are absolutely approved by most audiences, because economically, the audience receive savings from them. However, the possibility of individuals expressing doubts cannot be eliminated. As a result, cinema chains and cinemas (especially managerial and those working at the foundation level) must be honest, and take notice:

1) When cinemas promote “Double Features” and “Group Tickets”, refrain from using the phrases ‘combined selling’, ’sell one get one free’, ‘buy XXX and get XXX for free’, ‘mixed sale’, or other phrases that may cause conflicts or be too promotional in nature. Instead, use neutral phrases like ‘discounted ticket price’, ’steps to benefit the people’, ’sincere recommendation’.

2) When facing provocative ‘questions’ and ‘doubts’, hold to the principle of avoiding direct confrontation. Try hard to not respond directly, emphasizing instead the cinemas’ efforts to promote a variety of choices to consumers with different sale tactics, and that this is a way to explore new ways of promotion for the cinema”

The memo even suggests ways for the cinemas to defend their action, such as saying that cinemas have a responsibility to show “excellent Chinese films”, that such tactics is to make sure both local and imported films both make profits, and my favorite, mental support to help create a “socialist and harmonized society”.

Later, a reporter for Sina Entertainment news wrote a story about the memo and captured a photo uploaded on weibo by a netizen:

The photo shows that this audience member bought a ticket to TRANSFORMERS 3 and received two tickets - one for TRANSFORMERS and one for YANG SHAN ZHOU. The employee even told the netizen that he doesn’t need to watch the second film. The ticket prices for the two tickets: 60 yuan for YANG SHAN ZHOU, and 20 yuan for TRANSFORMERS.

This means that 60 yuan will go to YANG SHAN ZHOU’s box office (to be split by distributors, cinemas, and production companies), while 20 yuan will be split by the same parties for TRANSFORMERS. Yes, that’s another form of box office gouging.

Of course, there’s no official confirmation that the memo or the ticket photo are actually true. The memo doesn’t have any official seals on it, which means it’s not an officially approved memo. The cinema chain’s name is also in the content, with no letterhead on them. With a specific Shanghai-based cinema chain named, this memo may only be applied to one of the many cinema chains in China. The Sina reporter’s inquiry to Paramount AND China Film Group have gone unanswered.  So these are all points of doubt, but if this is true, this is going to be VERY BAD for China Film Group, August 1st Studio, and these so-called “mainstream films” in the future.

For the record: TRANFORMERS just broke the record for the best opening day in China ever with 91.2 million yuan. GUO MING YI made only 200,000 yuan in its first three days from only 441 shows, and WEN TIAN has only made 1.75 million yuan after 17 days.

Back to normal news in the next entry.

Sources:

Sina
Weibo

Today’s focus will be this week’s Chinese box office:

- As expected, WU XIA tops another week at the Chinese box office, adding an extra 52 million yuan to its take. After 14 days, Peter Chan’s action flick has taken in 152 million yuan. Yes, topping the box office for two weeks is good news, but its box office pattern is almost exactly the same as THE LOST BLADESMAN, which topped out at 160 million yuan. For a film that cost a reported 120 million yuan to produce, having only 27.2 admissions per show in its second week is not good news. Normally, the film would make about 200 million yuan at its current rate, but with TRANSFORMERS pretty much swallowing up all the screens this weekend, WU XIA will definitely not be hitting that number. Now, We Pictures will have to look to overseas sale and box office in the rest of Asia (it opens this weekend in Singapore, Malaysia, and Taiwan - all major Chinese-speaking territories) for success.

Meanwhile, MYSTERIOUS ISLAND continues its surprisingly successful run, making 41.3 million yuan over its first full week at the box office with 29.09 admissions per show. After 10 days, it has already made 65.6 million yuan, which is amazing for a film that reportedly cost only 5 million yuan to produce.  It’s likely to top out at around 75-80 million yuan, again due to TRANSFORMERS killing all competition this weekend.

Elsewhere, A LEGEND OF A RABBIT managed to make 12.1 million yuan over 7 days from 20,000 showings and 3D prices. With just 16.45 admissions per showing, it seems like Chinese animation still has a long way to go (more in a future entry). Milkyway’s PUNISHED (shown in edited form in China) makes just 6 million yuan over 6 days, and Simon Yam’s heist comedy COMING BACK makes just 4.75 million yuan over 3 days. Wong Jing’s TREASURE INN was at 96 million yuan by the end of this past weekend, which means it should end with just over 100 million yuan to become one of the highest-grossing Chinese films of the year so far.

For those that still care, BEGINNING OF THE GREAT REVIVAL is at 362 million yuan after 33 days. It still has a strong per-show admission of 29.5, but let’s face it, how many of those admissions are voluntary, and how many of those people that bought tickets actually showed up? Still way below FOUNDING OF A REPUBLIC, so while it’s the highest-grossing Chinese film of the year, I think we can chalk it up as a disappointment now.

And for those that actually cared in the first place, HARRY POTTER will be opening in China on August 4th.

- Since we’re on box office, Studio Ghibli’s latest KOKURIKOZAKA KARA, by Goro Miyazaki, only mustered a third place opening behind HARRY POTTER and the latest POKEMON film. Ghibli films have a history of having staying power at the box office, but I think Goro might not be feeling so good right now.

- It’s pretty much TRANSFORMERS day over there in China, as the film officially premiered at midnight July 21st. Expectations are high, as multiplexes are taking down as many as 10 films to clear the way for the robot fightin’ blockbuster. Those films include REVIVAL, KUNG FU PANDA 2,  FAST FIVE, TO LOVE OR NOT, and ANIMALS UNITED. The films that remain - WU XIA, LEGEND OF A RABBIT, PIANO IN A FACTOR - are all only getting two to three showings per day.

According to a post of weibo, Beijing has the film in 68 cinemas for a total of 1380 shows on July 21 alone. How’s that for a foreign invasion?

Speaking of Weibo, people are literally live weibo-ing from their showings. Now, that’s how you trend.

Demand is so high that cinemas are reporting packed midnight showings and IMAX prices jumping up to 150-180 yuan per ticket. Some cinemas said they will even add 3 am IMAX showings if the demand calls for it.

However, on the eve of its opening, some digital projection-equipped cinemas are reporting that they still haven’t gotten the encryption key to download their digital prints, even though the film has been available for exhibitors to download since Monday. Netizens began screaming conspiracy right away, wondering if higher powers are meddling. However, insiders have pointed out that this is actually not the first time theaters didn’t get their encryption key in time, and that this is simply getting so much attention because the film happens to be TRANSFORMERS. Those insiders say that this actually points out that the Chinese film industry is developing so rapidly that cinemas are not prepared in terms of handling the technology. From my experiences in Urumqi cinemas, I can say that’s probably true.

- Zhou Dongyu update: See UNDER THE HAWTHORN TREE’s Zhou Dongyu and Aarif Lee on the set of the Barbara Wong tearjerker in Shanghai. Yes, I’m only posting this because I’m a fan of Zhou Dongyu.

- Full-length trailer for THE LIFE OF DAVID, starring Huang Bo as a fried rice-loving mentally challenged man. The film’s poster is already promoting this as the Chinese version of FORREST GUMP, and it certainly looks like it. The film opens in China on July 28th. Whether there’ll be screens playing it is a different story.

If you’re in Hong Kong, the Summer International Film Festival website is now open. Taiwan’s YOU ARE THE APPLE OF MY EYE is opening film, while Woody Allen’s MIDNIGHT IN PARIS will close. Tickets go on sale July 22nd.

And if you’re in China, go celebrate the return of foreign films with some robot fightin’

Sources:

Entgroup
Mtime 
Nikkan Sports
Sina 1
Sina 2

- It happens every quarter - Chinese box office rises to new heights, making big money, blah blah blah. However, an Mtime article looks deeper into the numbers and looks at certain problems that still exist in the Chinese film industry.

Here are the statistics: In the first six months of 2011, 103 films were released in China - 74 Chinese films (14 of them co-productions) and 29 imports (*gasp* I thought they allow only 20 all year! No, 3D films are exempt). 18 of those films passed the RMB 100 million mark (the psychological barrier of success in Chinese box office). Total box office was RMB 5.698 billion, with the 74 Chinese films grossing a total of RMB 2.932 billion for an average of RMB 39.62 million per film.

The 29 imported films, meanwhile, grossed a total RMB 2.766 billion for an average of RMB 95.37 million per film. While no Chinese films broke any box office records this year (no, not even BEGINNING OF THE GREAT REVIVAL), KUNG FU PANDA 2 shattered the highest-grossing animated film record with RMB 600 million at the box office.

However, there were still a few surprises on the Chinese side, as BUDDHA MOUNTAIN managed to gross RMB 70 million - not bad for a small-scale drama. MY OWN SWORDSMAN, based on the successful 100-episode sitcom, grossed more than RMB 189.6 million during Lunar New Year, and TV-based romance ETERNAL MOMENT made RMB 196.3 million on a budget of only RMB 30 million. Even DON’T GO BREAKING MY HEART, Johnnie To’s first foray into the Mainland film market, surprised many with RMB 96.2 million at the box office.

On the other hand, big-budget period films seem to be hitting fatigue. LOST BLADESMAN opened RMB 102 million, but topped out at just RMB 159.7 million. WARRING STATES cost a reported RMB 150 million, but made only RMB 77 million. WIlson Yip’s A CHINESE GHOST STORY opened with RMB 73 million, but stopped at RMB 140 million. Even SHAOLIN, which is the second-highest grossing Chinese film of the year at RMB 216 million, can be considered a disappointment because it cost a reported RMB 200 million to make.

Here’s the big lesson that China can learn here:

Audiences want new topics/new genres, and they don’t always cost money:

Traditionally successful genres like the period epic is beginning to lose its appeal. 4 years ago, when THE WARLORDS made RMB 200 million, it was impressive because there were no AFTERSHOCK’s and LET THE BULLET FLY’s. BODYGUARDS AND ASSASSINS stood apart because the story structure and production values mirrored Hollywood’s.

Now, people aren’t impressed by Donnie Yen action and big battle scenes anymore. If they want special effects spectacle, they can turn to Hollywood. When it comes to local films, they want spectacle, but with a human side. They want smarter films that really use their stars to their full extent. They want stories that they can relate to. MY OWN SWORDSMAN not only had its TV audience, it was also full of modern, local humor. ETERNAL MOMENT brought in adult audiences who watched the drama when they were young. BUDDHA MOUNTAIN was a prestige arthouse flick with issues and characters they recognize. GO LALA GO brought in audiences who read the book and related to the office politics issues (though the film didn’t deliver) And all of these films didn’t even cost as much as SHAOLIN combined.

Be careful, bank slowly:

When GO LALA GO and SOPHIE’S REVENGE were successful, investors started piling up on urban romance films. WHAT WOMEN WANT, COLOR ME LOVE, YOU DESERVE TO BE SINGLE, LOVE IN COSMO all appeared and flopped. There are so many production companies these days that when one trend begins to get popular, all these new companies jump in to make their own copycat, and then the genre quickly fizzles. TO LOVE OR NOT is already lining up to flop.

Remember, Hollywood films make money because they’re big, but Chinese films can make money if they’re good:

LET THE BULLETS FLY sold Jiang Wen, fast-talking punch lines, and a smart, twisty story. Audiences like to feel smart, which means Chinese filmmakers can’t assume that a low-brow comedy like CHASE OUR LOVE is going to bring the audience just because there’s stars. As much as I didn’t like AFTERSHOCK, I can see how people can be touched by the melodrama. Even AVATAR didn’t just bring people in because of the spectacle (those are for front-loaded films). People were involved in the story and the thematic issues it raised. I wouldn’t be surprised if those netizen talk about the parallel of the human’s actions in AVATAR and the forced removal of residents in redeveloping areas actually helped drove the film’s box office.

And God help you if your movie sucks:

The producers of LOST BLADESMAN and WARRING STATES believed that their movies were so good that they were convinced their low Douban scores (5.1 and 4.1, respectively) must’ve been the work of saboteurs. So they offered a reward for netizens who find the culprits that intentionally dragged the scores down. Problem is that people really did think their movies sucked, and the front-loaded box office performances reflected that. The companies were dragged through the mud by netizens who joked about turning themselves in for the reward, and now they’re the butt of jokes within the film industry.

Douban and Mtime are a few of the rare places in China where people’s opinions are actually reflected. You can see it in the star breakdowns and the average score (they don’t always add up, so look at both). Yes, there’s always ringers sent by film companies (they’re easy to find - they write a long review for a particular movie, but hasn’t actually rated much films before), but it still reflects the people’s opinions. This isn’t some niche film geek internet film community we’re talking about here, either, and crossing them will not do your movie any good.

Don’t gamble. Remember how much you really need to make money on a movie

As I wrote in the last post, investors have to be careful when they think about how much money they really have to make at the box office to break even. REST ON YOUR SHOULDERS cost RMB 70 million to make, but with advertising, prints, and giving cinema owners taking away revenue, the production company said they’d need to make RMB 200 million just to break even. It applies to Hollywood, and it certainly applies to China.

Oversea sale prices are based on how much money the foreign distributor can make on a film they buy, and let’s face it, Chinese films do not make bank overseas unless your name is John Woo, or you have a leading man named Donnie Yen or Jackie Chan (double the chances if you have both, but your movie will cost twice as much!).

The problem is that right now, investors are gambling on how much they predict overall box office will be when the film is released without looking far ahead enough on box ofice trends. When SHAOLIN went into production, the trend at the time probably suggested they will rise the wave of rising box office and do BODYGUARDS AND ASSASSINS numbers. That didn’t happen.Does that mean the period epic genre is completely dead in the water now? Not exactly:

Tentpoles. Make them events.

People got tired of martial arts epics because there’s a big one every other month. People are getting tired of comic book movies in America because there’s one every big release slot (in 3D, no less). The less you make, the more special they are. Then again, the big production companies are not going to sit together and hammer out release plans together, because then, what fun would a free market be?

Of course, then there’s the issue of ticket prices, who really goes to the movies (hint: not many people, but they go to movies a lot), and what China can do to break the international market, but that’s another story for another time.

And now, more news:

- Speaking of box office, TRANSFORMERS 3 will be opening in China in 4 days, and presales for midnight showings are reportedly packed already. Ironically, insiders are predicting the film may have a chance at hitting RMB 800 million at the box office. Haw, haw.

- The 2011 Summer Edition of the Youku Film and Television Awards were held this past weekend, and Gu Changwei’s LOVE FOR LIFE picked up six awards, including Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, and Best Film. The Youku index is apparently based on view counts and search queries in Youku to determine which films are the most popular.

Honestly, the awards don’t mean much to me. The news here is Gu Changwei, who said that he would like to restore the missing 50 minutes of his first cut and release a director’s cut in the future. He said that they will have to be properly mixed and that he would likely change the Chinese title back to his original title if he ever gets it done. He’s not promising anything yet, but I, for one, would watch that cut.

- Chinese film media are buzzing about Wong Kar Wai showing up at the hip Sanlitun District in Beijing recently. Reporters followed him into a cinema, and Wong went into a closely guarded auditorium. The media talked to audiences, who revealed that they saw a one-minute teaser for THE GRANDMASTER, starring Tony Leung.

The reporter called Sil-Metropole, who confirmed that the teaser for GRANDMASTER will be attached to TRANSFORMERS prints in China this coming week, and that WKW went to the cinema himself to see how the teaser plays on the big screen. It still won’t get me to go watch TRANSFORMERS again, though.

Does that mean THE GRANDMASTER is done? None of the reports say, though they speculate that it’s possible since WKW looked “relaxed”. I wouldn’t assume that it is, though. It’s just a teaser.

- Last, but not least, Emperor Films CEO Albert Lee announced on his weibo that action director/actor Ailen Sit passed away today. Sit has worked on films with Stanley Tong, Jackie Chan, and Jingle Ma on films like TOKYO RAIDERS, CHINA STRIKE FORCE, and SUPERCOP. His final film is LET THE BULLETS FLY. As Boss Kozo tweeted earlier, you can find his HKMDB page here.

Sources:

Mtime 1 
Mtime 2
Sina 1
Sina 2
Sina 3

Pushing the cheap Hong Kong summer focus story to the next entry so we can cover more detail about Chinese box office this past weekend:

- According to numbers from Entgroup, Peter Chan’s WUXIA made RMB 101 million in its first 7 days. On paper, this seems like a nice number, but it’s actually not a very good gross if you look at the details. In the first seven days, the film had 82013 shows for a total of 2.97 million admissions for the first seven days. In comparison, THE LOST BLADESMAN had 2.98 million admissions from 78966 shows in the first six days. In terms of admissions per show, WU XIA is doing worse than LOST BLADESMAN, and with word of mouth in China reportedly split down the middle, WU XIA may end up grossing under RMB 200 million. This would be considered a major disappointment, considering WARLORDS did this kind of number four years ago, when RMB 200 million was still impressive. As mentioned in the previous entry, the CEO of Stellar Megamedia is disappointed with the gross, but emphasized that the film will eventually find its way to profitability thanks to strong rights sales overseas. As reported in the last entry, Stellar’s CEO also believes that the current “box office gouging” scandal is not believed to be a major factor for WU XIA’s gross, stating that the week’s total box office was weak in general.

The other big surprise on the box office chart is MYSTERIOUS ISLAND, the horror film directed by Chung Kai-Cheung and starring Jordan Chan.  The film made a shocking RMB 24.3 million in its first three days, with 771859 admissions from just 18576 showings for a per-show average of 41.55 admissions (yes, that even beat WU XIA). With this and the success of MIDNIGHT BEATING, this is sparking off a new appreciation in the film industry for low-budget horror flicks, which is surprisingly in line with the way horror films are perceived in Hollywood as well.

Elsewhere on the chart, BEGINNING OF GREAT REVIVAL is taking is sharp dive, now with a total gross of RMB 348 million. With a 32.9 admissions-per-show average, it seems like there is still an audience for the film. However, it’s definitely under performing when China Film Group projections and comparison to FOUNDING OF A REPUBLIC’s gross are factored in.

REST ON YOUR SHOULDER, the fantasy film from Jacob Cheung starring Aloys Chen, Gigi Leung, and Guey Lun Mei, was dead on arrival over the weekend. It only made RMB 6.8 million in its first three days, with 204178 admissions from 12744 shows. That’s a per-show average of just 16 admissions. The distributor said before release that the RMB 60 million film will need to make RMB 200 million to recuperate cost, and that’s definitely not happening now.

Wong Jing’s TREASURE INN now takes a steady dive with a total of RMB 81 million in the bank, but it’ll likely hit the RMB 100 million mark by the end of its run. With LEGEND OF A RABBIT opening this week, KUNG FU PANDA 2 has probably just spent its final week in the top 10. It has made an amazing RMB 608 million in 44 days.

In addition to A LEGEND OF A RABBIT, this week also sees the release of PUNISHED (in edited for China form), Taiwan’s NIGHT MARKET HERO, the heist comedy COMING BACK (with Simon Yam), the adult romance TO LOVE OR NOT, animated film THE TIBETAN DOG, and film festival favorite PIANO IN A FACTORY. In other words, films taking screens away from WU XIA, REST ON YOUR SHOULDER, and BEGINNING OF A GREAT REVIVAL, so next week should be interesting.

- Speaking of Chinese box office, total box office gross in the second quarter of 2011 has gone up 47%. Four Hollywood blockbusters - THOR, FAST GIVE, KUNG FU PANDA 2, and PIRATES 4 - took up 50% of the RMB 2.8 billion total. Meanwhile, China had LOST BLADESMAN, A CHINESE GHOST STORY, BEGINNING OF THE GREAT REVIVAL, and even DON’T GO BREAKING MY HEART helping to boost local films as well.

According to SARFT, this brings the half-year’s total box office to RMB 5.7 billion. Impressive.

- In more WU XIA news, Hong Kong censorship body TELA has rated WU XIA, and here’s what they wrote:

	WUXIA
Classification:	Category IIB
Director:	Peter Ho-Sun Chan
Language of dialogue:	Putonghua
Language of subtitle:	Chinese & English
Duration:	116 min
Remarks:	Contains strong violence and shocking scenes

According to Australian cinema websites. the version playing there now also runs 116 minutes, one minute shorter than the length reported in China. So this may be the “international cut” being referred to on the internet.

Production news:

Facebook pages have been opened for two films currently in production:

- The Raymond Wong-produced, Wilson Yip-directed comedy is now called MAGIC TO WIN. According to the Hong Kong Film blog, this is Raymond Wong’s remake of his successful HAPPY GHOST series. Due to SARFT rules, Wong was forced to change the ghost part to magic/wizardry. The film stars Louis Koo, Wu Chun, Raymond Wong, and Jing Boran. The film will open in China on December 1.

- The other film just starting production is NIGHTFALL, the latest film from the Roy Chow-Christine To duo. The two last brought you MURDERER (whoo-freakin’-hoo). The film is a crime thriller starring Nick Cheung, Simon Yam, Michael Wong, Janice Man, Kay Tse, and UNDER THE HAWTHORN TREE’s Sean Dou. Cheung reportedly buffed up for his role of a criminal, and Simon Yam earlier referred to this film as MURDERER 2.

- No Facebook page, but it’s been confirmed that Pang Ho-Cheung’s first Mainland-produced feature film will be released in August. LACUNA is part of Pang’s “4+1″ project, with the four being the four short films produced by Samsung China and Sina that were released on the web (which included NAIL CLIPPER MONSTER, starring Zhou Xun). LACUNA was directed by Derek Tsang and Jimmy Wan, and it stars Shawn Yue and Zhang Jingchu as two people who woke up after a night of heavy drinking. Together, they trace back to their wild night together and find love in the process. Yes, I know it sounds like THE HANGOVER in China.

- According to Oriental Daily (no link!) , director/screenwriter team Mabel Cheung and Alex Law (AN AUTUMN’S TALE, THE SOONG SISTERS) are planning to make TRACES OF DRAGON, a love story that takes place in the 40s and 50s, and they have asked Nicholas Tse to star. However, no decision on the production will be made until they get a response from Tse’s side.

And now, I read Weibo so you don’t have to:

- Anthony Wong writes on his Weibo: “Hong Kong films must be seen in Hong Kong. It’s like going to Broadway to see a musical. The genuine thing”. On that note, PUNISHED opens in China tomorrow in edited form.

-  According to an unidentified source, Zhang Yimou’s NANJING HEROES may be ready for Venice at its current pace, and that it may get a week-long release in Mainland China in September (assuming to get qualified for the Academy Awards). This is just rumor on Weibo from what may not be a reliable source, so take it with a grain of salt.

- CHRISTMAS IN AUGUST and ONE FINE SPRING DAY director Hur Jin-Ho has joined Weibo. Funny, I’m following him, but not Emma Watson.

Next time: A low-budget Hong Kong summer, and whatever we can get our hands on.

Sources:

Entgroup 1
Entgroup 2
Entgroup 3
Mtimes
Film Business Asia

 I promise I will open up comments when I’m done cleaning out the spam comments that have built up. Trust me, there’s a lot of them.

Just returned from a trip up to Shenzhen to catch two films. That will be today’s focus:

Crossing the border: A personal guide to cross-border movie watching in Hong Kong and China

As China gets more films before Hong Kong, I found myself having the desire to cross the border to Shenzhen to take advantage of the nice, new multiplexes that have popped up thanks to the burgeoning film industry. The main reason I can do this is because a new multiplex’s online ticketing system allowed me to simply book my seats and pay when I get to the box office. I first took advantage of that with the IMAX version of KUNG FU PANDA 2, which worked wonderfully. Today, I tried it again with two new releases, and I’ll chronicle a bit of the journey here.

Today’s films were REST ON YOUR SHOULDER by Jacob Cheung (CAGEMAN, A BATTLE OF WITS) at 10:25 am and WUXIA by Peter Chan Ho-Sun at 2:55pm, which meant I had to make my way to Shenzhen bright and early at 8 am.

It was eerily coincidental (and totally appropriate) that this song would play on my Pandora Radio on the way up:

90 minutes later, I arrived at Grand Theatre Station and KKMall, where the movie is supposed to be. Just about on time to pick up my tickets, right?

Problem is, the mall didn’t open until 10. So I had to sit outside in the humid summer sun as I waited.

Lucky for me, I walked around the mall from the entrance closest from the subway station to the other side, because I found a Starbucks. No, I didn’t get a cup of coffee, I got something better: free wi-fi. Of course, the problem was that I was behind China’s Great Firewall, which means no twitter, no facebook, and not much use for the iPhone.

I have a VPN set up on my phone because I like to listen to Pandora, and I was able to access my VPN via Starbuck’s free wi-fi, which means I beat the Great Firewall. I consider that my biggest victory against China all year.

The mall opened at 10 am sharp, as people looking to get to the theater and/or out of the heat and into a shop rushed into the mall. I walked up to the theater box office, sure that my reservation had gone to waste. However, the staff nonchalantly collected my money and gave me my tickets. That’s because there were only a grand total of six people in REST ON YOUR SHOULDER. By the way, I actually got the tickets I bought, without any handwriting. Yay, me.

UA KKmall is a new-ish multiplex that opened last year. In addition to the IMAX, it has 6 regular auditoriums and one VIP auditorium. The biggest regular auditorium is only 180 seats (which is where I watched WUXIA), but the screen was nice, big, and wall to wall. Ticket prices are pretty steep if you’re not watching a morning show at RMB70 a piece (that’s about HK$84) for regular and RMB 140 for IMAX, so make sure you’re watching something you REALLY want to watch. That means I am not watching THE DEVIL BESIDE ME with Kelly Lin or TO LOVE OR NOT with Alex Fong, Li Shaoran, and a bathtub.

FYI: tickets are cheaper at the Golden Harvest Shenzhen Cinemas on the other side of the same subway station. It’s also one of the highest-grossing cinemas in China, so you’ll really have to book your tickets early there.  After their site renovation, they now have the same ticketing system as UA KKMall.

Couple of things to watch for when you watch movies in Shenzhen, though:

SUBTITLES: I’ve now watched four Chinese-language films in China, and none of them has English subtitles. Naturally, they’d be in simplified Chinese, so work on your Mandarin comprehension before you go.

GUANGDONG PROVINCE FTW: Even though the government demands films be in standard Mandarin, they have made an exception for Cantonese-speaking regions and allow Cantonese versions of films to play in cinemas there. Be sure to double-check your language version before you buy if you’re dealing with a HK-China co-production.

AUDIENCE: Let’s face it, people in general are getting less and less courteous in the cinema. China is no different. In REST ON YOUR SHOULDER, three people had their cell phones out during the film. Two of them were trying repeatedly to take pictures of Gigi Leung on screen. The other guy answered his phone twice. People will talk to each other, talk back at the movie, and talk to other people on the phone. It can get bad in Hong Kong, but at least you can shush people. There’s no use shushing people in China, because they will talk louder than you shush. That’s the way it is, and you can only hope the government will start making propaganda videos about cinema manners.

And now, the movies. I will only touch on them briefly because they will be reviewed for LoveHKFilm sooner or later (preferably sooner).

REST ON YOUR SHOULDER (Dir: Jacob Cheung, 2011)

REST ON YOUR SHOULDER seemed like it had it all: A pretty cast, a solid director, a score by Joe Hisaishi (spelled Job Hisashi in the credits. No kidding), plenty of special effects (including talking insects), and even a distributor that succumbed to artistic integrity and gave the director his final cut. Problem is REST ON YOUR SHOULDER at its current length is too slow for kids and too whimsical for adults. At 120 minutes, it didn’t have enough magic to make its fantasy elements work, nor was the drama interesting enough to justify its length. It’s ambitious, but it was buried by its own self-importance.

I will cover more later in my review, so now we move on to the star of the show:

WU XIA (Director: Peter Chan, 2011)

It has secret societies, dangerous assassins and signature stances….yes, definitely a wuxia film. Like I tweeted, I loved Peter Chan’s latest film. It is his third China film, and it is the most simple in terms of story and character motivations, but yet the most satisfying. There is action, but over 60% of it is a period crime procedural not unlike CSI (except we know who did it). There are ultimately only three action set pieces, but they all serve the story, not the audience.

More in the review, but I want to cover some issues that I will not be covering in the review:

CANTONESE VS MANDARIN: One of the big selling points in China is Kaneshiro Takeshi’s eccentric performance as the nerdy detective, especially the fact that he is speaking in Sichuanese for the entire film. Problem with that is that anyone in Hong Kong and abroad won’t get why that’s amusing (I laughed, but I didn’t know why, either). Also, Donnie and Kara Hui were obviously speaking Cantonese on set (both are dubbed by others in Mandarin), and Kaneshiro seemed to have dubbed himself in Cantonese, if the HK trailer is any indication. So, you will have to make your choice there.

DIFFERENT CUTS: Hollywood Reporter review states that the Cannes version of the film is 110 minutes long. Variety says 116. Film Business Asia says 111. The version I saw is 117. Peter Chan said in interviews that he added more non-action (drama?) scenes in the film and took out some of the CSI computer imagery. Obviously, I’ve never seen the Cannes cut, but Maggie Lee’s criticism of the CGI anatomy stuff getting in the way of the action is all gone, as they only appeared twice in the final fight scene at pivotal moments. The current China version also lacks an explicit shot of ear slicing (shown here in the 8-minute trailer twice), and does run a little slow since Chan said the Cannes cut is paced faster to fit foreign taste. There’s also at least two scenes where Chinese folk songs are used in a humorous way, and I could imagine those playing only in the China cut as well. Apparently the cut playing in Australia now is 116 minutes. Not sure what cut we’ll get in Hong Kong.

I said I was going to keep gushing over this film in the blog, but I think I’ll wait until I get to the review to spill all. Don’t expect another WARLORDS, it’s a fun genre piece, and keeping expectations there will guarantee a good time. I can’t wait to watch it again when it comes out in Hong Kong

That’s it for this one-topic entry.  We’ll get back to our usual news stuff, with Chinese digital distribution, a follow-up on box office gouging, and whatever we can dig up.

Until then, I leave you with this wonderful ad I saw in the cinema today.  Trust me, this got as much laughs as WU XIA’s ending.