Hong Kong Film Piracy on YouTube Amounts to $308 Million Loss

Copyright-infringing videos of over 200 films found on world's largest video-sharing website

HONG KONG – Severe copyright infringement of Hong Kong films is rife on YouTube, with pirated footage of over 200 Hong Kong films found on the world’s largest video-sharing website, amounting to an estimated loss of over HK$2.4 billion ($308 million) to the local film industry, according to the Hong Kong Motion Pictures Industry Association (MPIA). MPIA members urged YouTube and other video-sharing websites to enforce the German court ruling last Friday (April 20) to implement measures to restrict content that infringe copyright.

The recent local box office hit Love in the Buff was found to be uploaded in its entirety, directly affecting the theatrical gross of the film, a situation that the association called “extremely severe” in a statement.
The videos were taken down after a formal complaint made to YouTube by Media Asia, the copyright holder of Love in the Buff.
But YouTube did not act promptly when contacted by Media Asia to remove the illegally obtained uploaded Buff film, taking days for the removal. John Chong, producer of the film, commented in the statement that YouTube showed “an extreme lack of efficiency in the removal of the pirated videos, but was not responsible for any loss incurred due to the delay in the removal.” Previously, the website operator had immediately taken down pirated film material when contacted by the copyright holder.
“YouTube repeatedly requested the copyright holder to prove that they are the holder in order to remove the pirated videos of Love in the Buff, while they allow anyone to claim to be the copyright holder when uploading the videos. It’s very unreasonable,” MPIA CEO Brian Chung told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview. “The pirated videos on YouTube greatly hurt the theatrical performance of the film.”
Chong believed the German court ruling on Friday for YouTube to restrict videos that might violate copyright should be enforced for YouTube and other video-sharing websites at the earliest possibility.
In view of the pirated video of Buff on YouTube, MPIA members, which are made up of representatives from most of Hong Kong's film studios, have searched and found in three days over 200 films illegally uploaded on to YouTube, including past and recent Hong Kong Film Awards winners: A Simple Life, The Flying Swords of Dragon Gate, Echoes of the Rainbow, and Shaolin Soccer. Blockbuster Ip Man and its sequel were split into 107 videos, while the pirated YouTube videos of clubbing drama Lan Kwai Fong and Jet Li’s Fearless received 1.8 million and 1.4 million hits, respectively. A fight scene from Bruce Lee’s Way of the Dragon was viewed 4.8 million times.
With accumulated views of over 40 million, MPIA estimated a loss of over HK$2.4 billion to the Hong Kong film industry, based on an average cinema ticket price of HK$60.
“For a video-sharing website of this size and scope, YouTube must have censorship mechanisms to prohibit the uploading of illegal material, such as child pornography or content of extreme violence,” Chung added. “It makes no sense for the copyright owner of a current film release to upload the entire film on to YouTube, so how can YouTube allow just anyone to claim to be the copyright owner and show the whole film on their website?”
Chung said the association is not trying to single out YouTube, but the company’s international visibility and accessibility has made the severity of the situation impossible for Hong Kong filmmakers to ignore. “YouTube, or any other video-sharing websites, should have a set of ethics in dealing with copyrighted material. It’s unfair to the copyright owner,” Chung said.  “The U.S. has always set great store by the protection of intellectual property. As a company headquartered in the U.S., owned by Google, the world’s largest internet search company, it turns out that it allows pirated content on its website. How would the U.S. view this situation?”
YouTube and its parent company Google have not yet replied to The Hollywood Reporter’s request for comment.
MPIA members are now in discussion to determine a strategy to combat piracy online, but meanwhile, “due to the urgency and severity of the situation, we’d hope to raise awareness on it as soon as possible,” Chung said.
While online piracy is an extension of the larger film piracy issue present since the 1990s, remarked Ip Man director Wilson Yip in the statement, he hoped for effective law enforcement to combat the issue. Free viewing of pirated films would pose an even more serious problem for the film industry, noted Lan Kwai Fong executive producer Patrick Tong, as it is nearly impossible to find the culprit responsible. “It’s a harsh blow to the producers and investors, giving rise to a vicious circle of fewer and fewer investors, and a further weakening of the Hong Kong film industry.”

Other movie releases

Romancing in Thin Air (高海拔之戀II)
After last year’s Don’t Go Breaking My Heart (單身男女), a blockbuster aimed at China, Hong Kong director Johnnie To (杜琪?) returns to the big screen with yet another romance. This time, Louis Koo (古天樂) and Sammi Cheng (鄭秀文), who makes a handsome comeback to the silver screen with this finely executed flick after a three-year hiatus, head the cast. Set in the Himalayas in China’s Yunnan Province, where Shangri-la is supposedly located, the film begins with Hong Kong superstar Michael (Koo) escaping to the mythical place to heal his wounded heart after his bride runs away on their wedding day. There he meets hotel proprietor Sue (Cheng), who has been in mourning since her husband disappeared into the nearby forest seven years previously. Friendship and then love bud between the two heartbroken souls. Though the film has its fair share of overwrought plot devices and contrived characters, director To and writer Wai Ka-fai (韋家輝) show their ingenuity by creating a film within a film that blurs the boundary between art and life.
The Lucky One
Based on a work by best-selling author Nicholas Sparks, the tone and direction of The Lucky One will be familiar to people who have enjoyed other adaptations from his books, such as Nights in Rodanthe, The Notebook, and Message in a Bottle. If those films did it for you, The Lucky One, directed by Scott Hicks, who made Shine, and starring Zac Efron, is likely to prove just as effective. Efron is an appealing screen presence, and if the predictability of the story and the sweetness of the romance don’t make you feel ill, then you are likely to slip into the warm, cozy and bitter-sweet world of romantic love that Sparks is such an expert at conjuring up.
The Raid
Action movie fans are in for a treat with The Raid, a no-holds-barred slugfest featuring extensive use of the Indonesian martial arts technique called pencak silat. The story is simple: a SWAT team is tasked with taking out a ruthless mobster who is ensconced at the top of a tower block. They fight their way up floor by floor, and once the violence begins, it is unremitting. There is some suggestion that relations within the SWAT team are not as simple as they might seem at first, but this is really a relatively insignificant digression from the action. Directed by Welsh filmmaker Gareth Evans with a mostly Indonesian cast. Although the film is spoken in Indonesian, the dialogue is limited and mostly self-explanatory.
Goodbye First Love (Un amour de jeunesse)
Romantic drama by Mia Hansen-Love, whose Father of My Children was released here last year. That film dealt with a family trying to come to terms with a suicide. In Goodbye First Love, Hansen-Love turns her lens on the development of young love, telling the story of Camille (Lola Creton), who falls head over heels in lust for Sullivan (Sebastian Urzendowsky), a slightly older boy. When Sullivan drops her to travel the world, Camille discovers another kind of relationship with a much older man, which promises intellectual fulfillment and material stability. Of course, when Sullivan returns, the old fire is once again ignited.
The Kick
South Korean/Thai coproduction about a family of taekwondo experts who relocate to Thailand to set up a gym. They only become an accepted part of the martial arts community in their new home after they help foil a bunch of bank robbers. Needless to say, this scenario provides plenty of opportunities for martial arts action. The fact that one member of the family has ambitions to be a pop star provides an opening for a nice soundtrack as well.

The Golden Rock - April 20, 2012 Edition

According to Entgroup figures, TITANIC 3D made RMB 467 million in its first six days in Mainland Chinese cinemas (another chart puts it at 468, but let’s not nitpick, alright?).  If the other box office chart I’ve read is accurate, that means it’ll overtake MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - GHOST PROTOCOL’s RMB 678.9 million take to become the highest-grossing film of 2012. Considering that it also beat the 438 million record set by TRANSFORMERS 3 (which ended up making RMB 1.11 billion), we’d looking at it breaking AVATAR’s RMB 1.39 billion record if Fox didn’t already announce that they’re pulling the film by May 20th.

And Hollywood’s not done yet. BATTLESHIP and the second GHOST RIDER movie are opening this weekend, and THE AVENGERS will replace those screens on May 5th. With the May Golden Week holiday, it’s guaranteed that these three films (plus TITANIC) will be rolling in the dough.

Considering that last year’s Golden Week brought THE LOST BLADESMAN and CHINESE GHOST STORY - both of which made over RMB 100 million - The Chinese film industry must have something powerful to counter the Hollywood invasion, right?

Not really.

   

This year, China is offering three male-dominated films for the holidays: Ning Hao’s GUNS AND ROSES, the bandit-World War II action film AN INACCURATE MEMOIR, and Guan Hu’s dark comedy DESIGN OF DEATH. Though film buffs will appreciate the eclectic holiday choices this year, all three films are from young, less commercially-proven filmmakers who have never made a film that’s grossed more than RMB110 million (though MEMOIR star Huang Xiaoming is one of China’s best-known actors).  Even if two of the three films have commercial elements (Japanese villains!), none of the three can be considered typical commercial material.

Which means none of them is going to beat THE AVENGERS.

However, they have even tougher problems to deal with, like booking screens and getting enough people to watch them to make profit.  With three Hollywood giants around, there’s no guarantee that any of these films can even secure enough showings, let alone to sway audiences to choose them.

It’s not all hopeless though, as domestic films do have some advantage over Hollywood in terms of marketing. Some are already being used, and some can be utilized better.

Regional Advantage

It’s not likely that James Cameron or Robert Downey Jr. will be able to hit China to promote their films, let alone travel to first and second-tier cities. This is where Chinese stars and actors come in. With an actor like Huang Xiaoming leading AN INACCURATE MEMOIR (he’s also producing), he can be front and center of the publicity tour. The same can also apply to Ning Hao, who is being put front and center of the GUNS AND ROSES campaign. Considering that Huang Bo is in both GUNS and DESIGN OF DEATH, I don’t know what he’ll do.

However, the problem with this approach is that China is a BIG country, and an intense promotional tour through all the major markets can stretch the limits of both actors and the marketing team. Considering that they only make appearance with a limited number of audiences in each city, stars need to be exposed on a national level, and that problem with that is aside from CCTV, there are no national networks in China. Each province has their own network that are carried nationwide, but only several networks truly have a nationwide audience.

And even then, nationwide campaigns cost far too much, due to the skyrocketing cost of advertisements in China. Two weeks ago, Pang Ho-Cheung revealed that his China distributor for LOVE IN THE BUFF wouldn’t make any billboards for the film, and that the entire advertising campaign for his film involved an intense nationwide meet-and-greet tour and internet buzz. In their defense, Mei Ah China revealed that 100 billboards already cost RMB 1 million, and their share of the box office didn’t justify them having to spend the money.

Make sure your audience knows what your movie is about

With only a RMB 9 million budget, LOVE IS NOT BLIND couldn’t afford to take its stars on a nationwide tour. Even if they did (and they might have), it wasn’t the key to its RMB300 million-plus gross.

If you read the blog often, you’d know that I’d already written about the key to the film’s success. Since the film is about how a young woman gets over her traumatic break-up, the director not only intended on releasing the film in time for “singles day” (November 11th), its marketing team also went around the country and interviewed young people to recount their own experiences. The strategy worked so well for the film in China that distributor Edko made their own version of the video for the Hong Kong release (though the video wasn’t as good).

The lesson to learn here is that that team built a marketing campaign entirely around the subject of the film rather than a particular star or director. They knew which demographic to appeal to, and they knew how to appeal to them. With such a crowded market, knowing your target is especially important.

Right now, none of the three films have clearly stated what they’re about - GUNS is selling Ning Hao, MEMOIR is selling dirt and grit, while DESIGN OF DEATH is selling genre mash-ups. No on really knows what they’re in for when they pay up that extravagantly priced tickets, and that’s very dangerous for three not-so-typical blockbusters opening in a competitive period.

Still, it’s not like I know how to market any of these three films, because if I did, I’d be working for them, not writing a blog entry telling them what to do.

When all else fails….get the hell outta dodge

As I’d written above, none of the three films really have the pedigree of a holiday tentpole (possibly with the exception of GUNS AND ROSES). As my favorite anonymous Weibo film industry informant suggested, these films should really get out of the way or set a more suitable release date to begin with. Instead of a long holiday period, MEMOIR and GUNS might’ve stood a better chance during the summer or mid-May, where the fight is in long term rather than one specific period.

Then again, summer might even be tougher, as big guns like PAINTED SKIN 2, LAST SUPPER, many Hollywood blockbusters, and possible TAI CHI star invading the multiplexes.

The official box office battle stars when GUNS opens on the night of the 23rd. Stick with my Twitter to find out which films win, and which films will be crying their way out of the cinemas.


Let’s all go to the movies!



This entry was posted on Friday, April 20th, 2012 at 1:37 pm and is filed under editorial, China, box office. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

HK kung fu star Dennie Yen embroiled in porn film scandal

An online post has caused a stir alleging that Donnie Yen had acted in porn movies.

 

The article, titled "Donnie Yen acted in porn film, surrounded by 10 naked women", became the hottest topic of discussion in Chinese forums.

 

It was posted after Shu Qi's withdrawal from weibo, following humiliating posts on her past mistakes.

 

The writer alleged that the Ip Man star had appeared in several porn films including 1991's The Holy Virgin Versus The Evil Dead.

 

 

"You think only Shu Qi acted in porn? Donnie didn't? You are wrong!

"See you all complained that Shu Qi acted in this and that everyday, you think Donnie only innocently shot kungfu movies?" the writer alleged.

 

"I have seen three porn films of Donnie. He has four all together, three of which were horror movies," the writer alleged in his post.

The writer also posted clips allegedly from the film to support his article.

 

In response, Donnie posted two lines of lyrics from Sam Hui and the late Leslie Cheung's Silence is Golden.

 

"Let people laugh and scold as they like, be a carefree person," he wrote.

'A Simple Life': A True Domestic Partnership

The Washington Post News Service with Bloomberg News

Special to The Washington Post.

A tender tale of role reversal, "A Simple Life" is based on Hong Kong movie producer Roger Lee's final months with the woman who had been a family servant for 60 years. As co-scripted by Lee, the movie is often poignant but leavened with humor.

At first, Roger (Hong Kong superstar Andy Lau) seems to have little interest in Ah Tao (Deanie Ip, who won the Venice Film Festival's best actress award for this performance). Roger travels often for his work, usually to other parts of China. He returns to a small apartment that he expects to be tidy and meals he expects to be tasty. Ah Tao meets both requirements.

Roger inherited Ah Tao, who began working for his family before he was born, after the rest of the clan relocated to San Francisco. But there's more to their connection than that. When Roger asks for food that's too fatty or salty, Ah Tao reminds him about his heart attack. She nursed Roger through his recovery from angioplasty.

Then Ah Tao has a stroke and insists on moving to an assisted-care facility. The humble woman doesn't want to be a bother, so Roger agrees. But the busy producer becomes an attentive visitor, bringing gifts and frequently taking Ah Tao out for meals. The other residents assume that Roger is not Ah Tao's former employer but her godson; he faithfully assumes the part.

"A Simple Life" was directed by Ann Hui, Hong Kong's best-known woman director and one of its few filmmakers who doesn't do a lot of kung fu and gangster flicks. She takes a low-key approach, letting scenes develop at a natural pace. Her principal visual flourish is to frame Ah Tao often through narrow openings, suggesting not only the limited confines of nursing-home life but also the tightening grip of death.

Fans of Hong Kong action movies might be surprised by this gentle drama, but they're also most likely to get some of the humor. Hui counters the tale's solemnity with movie-biz in-jokes and cameos; director Tsui Hark, tough-guy actor Anthony Wong and Jackie Chan fight choreographer Sammo Hung all appear.

There are other gags that don't require insider knowledge, including the way the casually dressed Roger is regularly mistaken for a man with a less glamorous profession. Such moments draw smiles rather than guffaws, but that's appropriate for a film that aspires to evoke simple-hearted feelings of love, loss and duty.

Jenkins is a freelance reviewer.

Unrated. Contains mild sexual references and one feigned threat. In Cantonese, Mandarin and English with English subtitles. 118 minutes.

Taiwanese singer wins Best New Performer award in Hong Kong

Taipei, April 15 (CNA) Taiwanese singer Jam Hsiao won Sunday the Best New Performer award for his outstanding performance in the Taiwanese film "The Killer Who Never Kills" at the 31st Hong Kong Film Awards for Chinese-language films held in Tsim Sha Tsui.

Hsiao said it was unbelievable as he was not expecting to win such an honor.

Hsiao plays Ouyang Penzai, which translates into "potted plant," the understudy of a retired contract killer, who has taken over his master's work for the mafia.

In a reference to the film "Leon," the well-trained underling has a hobby of cultivating potted plants, but experiences some difficulties in taking a life.

The movie, a genre flick that packs action, romance and comedy, was adapted from a short story by best-selling writer Jiubadao or "Nine Knives," real name Giddens Ko.

Hsiao, who found musical fame on One Million Star -- Taiwan's e

A Simple Life wins HK Film Awards

Hong Kong has held its 31st Annual Film Awards. The big winner was "A Simple Life", a Hong Kong drama film. "A Simple Life" has been sweeping many international festivals since late last summer.

A Simple Life wins HK Film Awards.

It took home 4 awards including Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Screenplay. Best actor went to Andy Lau, his third time to win the award. Best Actress Deanie Yip has been undefeated in the category that she’s nominated for. Other winners include Best New Performer Jam Hsiao, Best Supporting Actor Lo Hoi Pang and Best Supporting Actress Ho Hang Shuen.

HK cinema has "renewal" issues, says HK film awards chairman Gordon Chan

HONG KONG: Veteran Hong Kong director Gordon Chan, the chairman of the Hong Kong Film Awards Association, which organises the prestigious Hong Kong Film Awards, said Sunday that Hong Kong cinema's greatest challenge is "renewal", reported Hong Kong media.

Speaking to the media hours before the 31st Hong Kong Film Awards on Sunday which is widely regarded as the Hong Kong film industry's Oscars, Chan, who has served as chairman for five years now, said there is "a gap between old talents and the new" in the industry today.

Chan pointed out that this year's Best Director nominees were all familiar faces at the awards, and so were the Best Actor nominees like Hong Kong actors Andy Lau, Lau Ching Wan as well as China's Jiang Wen, with few fresh faces to be seen.

He attributed this to film investors' aversion to risk and the lack of perseverance among younger filmmakers and artistes.

"This gap in the Hong Kong film industry is very obvious both in front of [the camera] and behind the scenes.

"The reason for this is that our generation of talents is very enduring. Older talents have market value. The bosses don't want to change their talents and grooming new ones is both risky and costly," said Chan, who had been directing films since the late 80s, and was responsible for hits like "Fight Back to School 2" along with "Painted Skin".

He added that today's talents "aren't as willing to put up with hardship like the previous generation", which serves to compound the problem.

Chan went on to caution that even as the Hong Kong film industry celebrates its achievements in the past year, there is a need to examine its problems.

"Whether it is the unique 'Let the Bullets Fly', fiercely Hong Kong-styled 'Life Without Principle' or the art film 'A Simple Life', these films all have a special flavour.

"But this past year's Mandarin films, save for those few, weren't very good," Chan commented.

"There was a complicated time in Hong Kong cinema when everyone just shot the types of films that made money."

"We need to find new types of films, new directions and break away from conventions for Hong Kong cinema to have a future."

Chinese 'Titanic' Fans Balk at Cuts to Rerelease

UPDATED: Government regulators edit out nude scenes, but the film is expected to surpass the 2D version’s box-office performance.

Chinese moviegoers turned up en masse for the debut of Titanic 3D on Tuesday, netting 20th Century Fox International $11.6 million, the second-highest opening-day take ever in the country.

James Cameron on the Re-release of 'Titanic' in 3D
The original Titanic earned $44 million in China in 1998, which stood as the highest gross for 10 years, until it was surpassed by Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen in 2009, with $15.9 million.
The original romance disaster movie screened in just 180 theaters. The 3D version is currently showing on at least 2,400 3D screens and 66 IMAX screens, with correspondingly higher ticket prices. It is expected to surpass the 2D version’s former record this week.
But many Chinese James Cameron fans in the audience on opening night were dismayed to find that the Chinese release of Titanic 3D is not quite the film they remembered. The State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television has excised the film’s few, but memorable, nude scenes. Most noticeably, during the peak romantic moment when Kate Winslet as Rose poses nude for Leonardo DiCaprio to sketch her, Winslet is now cropped from the neck up.
PHOTOS: 17 'Titanic' Twofers: Different Actors in the Same Role
The same scenes were censored during the film’s original run in China in 1998, but many viewers first saw the film on pirated copies from the West, and thus are more familiar with the unedited version.
During opening night and the following day, Chinese micro-blogs were alight with simultaneous gripes about the censoring and nostalgic gushing over the film’s sweeping romantic drama.
"I've been waiting almost 15 years, and not for the 3D icebergs," said one widely cited micro blog commentator, according to Xinhua News Agency.
More worryingly SARFT’s move suggests that while Chinese cinema has been making remarkable strides in terms of infrastructure development, the industry’s regulatory regime has stood still, if not occasionally slipped backwards, in terms of freedom of expression.

PHOTOS: 15 Movies That Made The Grade: A+ CinemaScore Posse

Adding to the Titanic frenzy, many prominent Western media outlets (including THR for a brief period) were momentarily duped by a satirical joke that swept through Chinese micro-blogs, attributing the following explanation for the cuts to a SARFT official: "Considering the vivid 3D effects, we fear that viewers may reach out their hands for a touch and thus interrupt other people's viewing. To avoid potential conflicts between viewers and out of consideration of building a harmonious ethical social environment, we've decided to cut off the nudity scenes."
In fact, SARFT has not released any official comment about the censorship.
Ironically, in Hong Kong, where the film is playing uncensored, it has performed markedly worse, opening third behind local rom-com Love in the Buff and the Julia Roberts starrer Mirror Mirror, pulling in just $670,000.
Some signs suggest that Titanic fever may soon take hold in Hong Kong too though. To mark the occasion of the 100-year anniversary of the disaster, a well known luxury restaurant in the city’s colonial themed Hullet House hotel will soon be serving select diners a special recreation of the last menu dished out on the luxury cruise ship before it went down, along with original wine recovered from the wreckage, according to the South China Morning Post.
"The idea is to recreate the ambience on the ship," Michelin-starred chef Philippe Orrico, who is re-envisioning the menu in Hong Kong, told the Post. "It's for people who want to be somewhere else."
During the occasion, the hotel’s waiters will be outfitted in period-appropriate uniforms and tables will feature dressings evoking the vessel’s original dining hall, along with bone china produced by the same manufacturer who supplied the Titanic in 1912.
For HK$15,000 (US$1,930) per head, the first diners on April 14 can enjoy their ten-course dinner with a glass of Heidsieck Monopole Gout American vintage 1907, pulled from the sea in 1998 and reportedly purchased by Hullett House for $11,000.

In Old Age the Servant Bercomes the Served

In an efficient, mostly wordless sequence near the beginning of her quietly affecting film “A Simple Life,” the director Ann Hui shows the rhythms of shared routine and intimacy that bind the lead characters. Ah Tao (Deanie Ip) has fixed Roger Leung (Andy Lau) an elaborate meal that seems to be his ordinary fare. As she shuffles around serving, Roger eats with a kind of distracted concentration. There are no thank yous or compliments, just a request for ox tongue soon.

These two aren’t married or lovers, but servant and master. Ah Tao, orphaned as a child, has been with the Leung family for 60 years, since long before Roger was born. Now he is the last of his family in Hong Kong — the others have decamped to San Francisco — and Ah Tao works for him alone, sharing his compact apartment.

Just as soon as Ms. Hui establishes their relationship, she changes its terms. Ah Tao has a stroke and announces she’s retiring. What’s more, she says, she wants to live in an old people’s home. In scenes with an almost documentary flavor, Roger finds her one. We learn about this growth industry in Hong Kong, about the price of a single room versus a shared one and about the various charges for an escort outside the home. (South Asian immigrants are the cheapest.)

Once Ah Tao has moved, the old-age home becomes the film’s center. Roger visits Ah Tao there regularly. He takes her to restaurants and looks out for her as she always has for him.

That’s more or less the story of “A Simple Life,” which in its understated, slightly melancholy way considers the varieties of affection and love. Roger, who works in the film business, may seem callous and self-involved at first. But Ms. Hui lets his decency be revealed and grow. Mr. Lau, whose features increasingly look cut from stone, gives the character an implacable solemnity. People comment on Roger’s kindness or assume he must be Ah Tao’s godson or nephew, an impression he doesn’t correct.

The bond they have doesn’t keep Roger and Ah Tao from seeming alone in the busy city; neither is married or has family around. Ah Tao finds a tentative social life in the home, a place that Ms. Hui doesn’t sentimentalize or make into a cautionary tale. There too she emphasizes the distance between people. The occasional overhead shot shows a busy warren of atomized spaces, with a sense of each keeping to each.

The film’s bleached-out palette, with its muted colors — and the sometimes harsher fluorescent light of the home — heightens the atmosphere of loneliness. Ms. Hui often shoots Mr. Lau by himself in the frame, alone in his apartment or the sole person in a row of empty airport seats. A successful man, Roger runs into acquaintances everywhere. Still, he, like Ah Tao, remains essentially self-contained.

Mr. Lau (“Infernal Affairs,” “House of Flying Daggers,” Ms. Hui’s “Boat People”), wears Roger’s gravity lightly, as Ms. Ip does Ah Tao’s wariness. They’re both guarded but not impenetrable. Ms. Hui, a rare successful female director in the Hong Kong film industry, drew her story from real events, and the movie retains a tonic flavor of the everyday: its drama unfolds simply, without explosive moments but not without emotion. She and her two excellent leads keep the film buoyant.

A Simple Life

Opens on Friday in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Toronto and Vancouver.

Directed by Ann Hui; written by Susan Chan and Roger Lee; director of photography, Yu Lik Wai; edited by Eric Kong Chi Leung and Manda Wai; music by Law Wing Fai; production design by Albert Poon; costumes by Boey Wong; produced by Chan Pui Wah, Mr. Lee and Ms. Hui; released by China Lion Film Distribution. In Manhattan at the AMC Empire 25, 234 West 42nd Street, at Eighth Avenue. In Cantonese, with English subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 59 minutes. This film is not rated.

WITH: Andy Lau (Roger), Deanie Ip (Ah Tao), Qin Hailu (Nurse Choi), Wang Fuli (Roger’s Mother), Eman Lam (Carmen), Anthony Wong (Elderly Home Boss), Hui Bik Kee (Aunt Kam), Chin Pei (Uncle Kin), Hui So Ying (Mui Gu), Wu Wing Chong (Mui’s Mother), Elena Kong (Aunt Kam’s Daughter) and Jason Chan (Jason).

'Buff' Tops Easter Weekend in Hong Kong

Local favorite "Buf"' draws in audience against 'Mirror, Mirror', 'Titanic 3D' and 'The Hunger Games'

HONG KONG – Local crowd pleaser Love in the Buff continues to steam ahead during Easter in Hong Kong, topping the box office chart through the four-day public holidays from April 6 through 9, besting Mirror, Mirror, distributed by Intercontinental Films, and Fox’s Titanic 3D, both released just before the break.
OUR EDITOR RECOMMENDS

'Love in the Buff' Triumphs Over 'Hunger Games' in Hong Kong
The Pang Ho-cheung directed comedy from Media Asia took HK$6.6 million during the four-day weekend, adding up to a total of HK$22.4 million since its March 29 release.
The Julia Roberts fairy tale update Mirror, Mirror came in second with HK$3.95 million, while James Cameron’s 3D version of his 1997 megahit came neck to neck with HK$3.87 million, according to the Hong Kong Motion Picture Industry Association.
U.S. March blockbuster Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax, which opened the same week as Love in the Buff, took HK$2.7 million, just a few dollars more than The Hunger Games.  The worldwide box office mammoth and cultural phenomenon, which opened on March 22, has accumulated a HK$17 million gross.
The total box office take during the four-day Easter holiday in 2012 marked a 10.6 percent rise from the same period in 2011, from HK$24.2 million to HK$26.7 million.  The 2011 Easter holiday box office was dominated by the erotica-in-stereoscopic 3D, Sex and Zen 3D, which went on to take a total of HK$41 million during its four-month run. The film’s success was partly attributed to the enthusiastic support from tourists from China, where the film was not released.

Is 3D the next step for disaster movies?

The disaster film genre was originally thought to be left behind in the dust of the 70’s with The Poseidon Adventure and Earthquake.



However, the genre has lived on, albeit in a different form, with Roland Emmerich (ID4, 2012) the current master of disaster. 

We also recently discussed an upcoming disaster flick called Skyscraper, which will star Paul Walker, and should be a throwback to The Towering Inferno.

Although Earthquake pioneered the gimmick of Sensurround, which was sort of a precursor to THX, there hasn’t really been one in 3D.

This is going to change very soon, because a 3D earthquake film is already in the work, and now the Hollywood Reporter tells us about a movie called Inferno in Hong Kong, which is being made by the country’s own "genre specialists" Oxide and Danny Pang, who are twin brothers, and who also gave us Bangkok Dangerous.

The Reporter also tells us the filmmaking duo are the first in Hong Kong who’ve worked in 3D. Danny was also the editor on Infernal Affairs, which got remade in America as The Departed.

As you can tell by the title, this is a movie about a big blaze, and the heroic firefighters trying to stop it. Even if it’s CGI flames, a fire flick in 3D could be enormous fun, and in Hong Kong they’ll be able to pull it off for a mere pittance, an $18 million dollar budget. Let’s see an American studio do that.

3D is also apparently taking off in mainland China, and it should be interesting to see what develops from here. A disaster film in 3D is a good idea, a chop socky film in 3D could also be enormous fun. 

In fact, The Reporter mentions a recent 3D martial arts film, The Flying Swords of Dragon Gate, and the title alone, which to me reminds me of Master of the Flying Guillotine or Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, is cool. Actually, both Flying Guillotine or Crouching Tiger in 3D would be pretty wild, and how about an Enter the Dragon 3D conversion too while we’re at it?

China's booming movie industry is attracting interest from Hollywood heavyweights

Films with Asian and especially Chinese themes are becoming more prominent after Hollywood hit a 16-year low in movie tickets sales last year, while some of its biggest studios are setting up shop in the country.

DreamWorks Animation is setting up a China base while Legendary, the studio behind Christopher Nolan's wildly successful Batman series as well as Clash of the Titans and The Hangover franchises, is also developing a venture.

Keanu Reeves is making his directorial debut with Man of Tai Chi which is currently filming in China and Hong Kong, while Aamir Khan's Bollywood comedy drama 3 Idiots is in talks for a Hollywood remake.

"It's a hugely interesting time now," said executive producer Tracey Trench, whose projects have included Just Married and Ever After.

"The United States is still the biggest market. Within the next 10 years, we are not going to be the biggest market place, everything is going to change," she told a forum at the Hong Kong International Film and Television Market (FILMART) in March.

China's rapidly expanding film industry continues to break new ground and set new records, collecting an estimated 13 billion yuan ($2 billion) in 2011 -- up by around 30 percent on-year.

Around 2,500 more cinema screens are expected to be unveiled across the country this year, with its market now the third largest behind Japan and the United States.

This compares with a clear slowdown in North America.

The Motion Picture Association (MPA) says box office takings from 2007 to 2011 in the United States and Canada grew only 6.3 percent to $10.2 billion, while the Asia-Pacific region saw 38-percent growth to $9 billion.

Zhang Yimou's The Flowers of War was China's biggest box office smash of the past 12 months, starring Oscar-winning American actor Christian Bale.

It collected around $90 million from the Chinese box office while picking up a nomination for best foreign language film at the prestigious Golden Globes in the United States.

It comes as Hollywood looks to increasingly give a Chinese angle to its output.

"There are so many stories that you can tell and right now China is hot, so many people want to know more," said screenwriter Glenn Berger, who wrote the popular 2008 animated Hollywood comedy Kung Fu Panda and its 2011 sequel.

A box-office hit in China, the film told the story of Po, an oversize and unfit panda who dreams of becoming a martial arts hero. But Berger said the movie was never really about China or kung fu.

"We were just trying to tell a classic underdog story, not particularly a Chinese story," he said of the film.

"But it was very well received in the Chinese market because they thought it was very respectful of Chinese culture," he said.

Kung Fu Panda raked in an estimated $630 million, with $26 million from the Chinese mainland alone.

Hong Kong's FILMART exhibition is Asia's major entertainment industry market and one of the top three events of its kind in the world.

This year it attracted a record 648 exhibitors and more than 5,700 buyers, up 14 percent from last year. The US pavilion had over 40 US exhibitors, or about 25 percent more than last year.

Industry veterans say Chinese audiences are particularly drawn to movies that include Chinese references or elements of Chinese culture.

"People want to feel connected," said Chinese American writer Rita Hsiao, who wrote the screenplay for Toy Story 2 and 1998 animated musical Mulan, a story about a legendary Chinese girl-warrior.

"If you have that universal message and it's interesting, everybody everywhere can connect with it," she said.

One of the main obstacles for foreign filmmakers wanting to crack the Chinese market is a law limiting the number of international films that can be screened in the country to just 20 a year.

It forces studios to co-produce films with Chinese partners or risk having their films blocked at the border.

But all the pandas in the world won't guarantee a hit in China.

"It has to succeed on all the fundamentals of a movie, not just because it is shot in China," Berger said.

Spotlight on Hong Kong films

THE 34TH Hong Kong Film Festival (HKFF) is back with a showcase of eight movies shot in 2010 and 2011 that have yet to be released here.

The movies premiered at the GSC International Screens in GSC Mid Valley, GSC Pavilion KL and GSC 1Utama on March 15 and will be screened till March 18.

Then, for the first time, Penang moviegoers will also be able to enjoy this film festival from March 22 to March 25 at GSC Gurney Plaza.

The HKFF 2012 (www.gsc.com.my) is organised by the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office (HKETO) based in Singapore and co-organised by FM 988, with the support of Golden Screen Cinemas Sdn Bhd (GSC).

The eight Hong Kong movies featured in this film festival are A Simple Life, Big Blue Lake, Mr and Mrs Single, Quattro Hong Kong I & II, Merry-Go-Round, The Road Less Travelled, Frozen and The Drunkard.

Tickets to all movies are priced at RM5 each, except for A Simple Life, which is selling at prevailing ticket prices as this movie opened in selected cinemas on March 15.

A Simple Life, directed by Ann Hui and starring Andy Lau and Deanie Ip, is based on a true story of a heartwarming relationship between a young master of a wealthy family, Roger (Lau), and the servant who raised him, Tou Jie (Ip).

Ip took home the best actress award at the 68th Venice International Film Festival last year for her role as Tou Jie.

The film also swept three of the top awards at the 48th Taipei Golden Horse Awards, winning best director for Hui, best actor for Lau and best actress for Ip.

So far, A Simple Life has won a total of 15 awards in five international film festivals and is currently competing in the upcoming 31st Hong Kong Film Awards in eight categories, including best film, best director, best actress and best actor.

Hui and Ip were in Kuala Lumpur recently to attend the gala premiere of A Simple Life at GSC Pavilion KL. They also held a meet-and-greet session with members of the media and fans.

Hui also conducted a workshop for students interested in filmmaking and Hong Kong films.

At a press conference, when asked if she was feeling nervous about her prospects at the upcoming Hong Kong Film Awards, Hui said: “I don’t feel particularly nervous because I don’t have much confidence in winning. ... To me it’s more important to make movies for people and, hopefully, Malaysian audiences will enjoy this movie.”

When asked about her chances, 64-year-old Ip said cheekily: “Everyone and every film nominated stand a fair chance of winning. To me, it would be great if I can get hold of the statue because I think this may be my last chance at getting nominated in my category. Good roles don’t come so easily, you know? Especially at my age!”

Also present at the press conference were HKETO (Asean) director Fong Ngai, FM 988 marketing director Victor Gu and GSC senior manager of distribution Tung Yow Kong.

Fong said: “Since 2009, HKETO has been introducing Hong Kong films of different genres to Malaysians through the HKFF. Over the past three years, we have introduced 37 films.”

Fong thanked Malaysian audiences for supporting the festival, adding that the organisers decided to take the festival to Penang this year due to popular demand.

“Hopefully, the festival attracts the many local fans of Hong Kong films in Penang and we might take the HKFF there annually,” he said.

Will Sean Lau trump Andy Lau at the HK Film Awards?

A double nominee at the upcoming 31st Hong Kong Film Awards, veteran actor Sean Lau Ching Wan is glad that he has double the odds of winning the Best Actor trophy in the face of strong rivals like Andy Lau.


The 48-year-old is nominated for his roles in Johnnie To's Life Without Principle as well as Alan Mak and Felix Chong's Overheard 2. Both are critically-acclaimed crime thrillers.


Andy Lau, on the other hand, is nominated for his role in Ann Hui's heartwarming drama A Simple Life. The soon-to-be first-time father is tipped to be the most likely winner so far. But Sean said he won't be putting in extra efforts to up his chances of winning.


"At this stage, I really can't do much," said Sean, who was recently in town for Italian luxury brand Tod's with his wife Amy Kwok, a former Miss Hong Kong winner and TV actress.


"Winning a trophy requires no confidence. Acting, however, requires a lot of confidence, and I always use up my confidence after filming wraps," the unassuming actor added.


His other competitors include China-born actors Jiang Wen and Ge You, both nominated for their roles in Let the Bullets Fly.

The Hong Kong Film Awards will be held on April 15, 2012. But win or not, the prolific Sean will still be seen tackling a variety of roles in a string of new films, including Derek Yee's cop thriller The Bullet Vanishes and The Pang Brothers' 3D disaster film Inferno. Catch more of the versatile actor on RazorTV.

Hong Kong International Film Festival

As the 36th Hong Kong International Film Festival rolls into town, artistic director Li Cheuk-to and curator Jacob Wong pick their favourites.


18 Years Old and Rising (Dir Frédéric Louf)
A teen romance charmer with a French touch in its juxtaposition of love with class and politics. Set in 1981 when Mitterrand’s election divided the country, it follows a provincial lad trying to win the heart of a Parisian bourgeois belle by impressing not only her but also her rich right-wing friends.

Comrades, Almost a Love Story (Dir Peter Chan)
Named one of the Ten Best Films of 1997 by Time Magazine, it swept a record breaking nine Hong Kong Film Awards as the most acclaimed work of Peter Chan, the Filmmaker in Focus of HKIFF this year. This is the first chance to see it on a big screen after its first release in 1996.

Dark Horse (Dir Todd Solondz)
The director’s warmest film so far, it is also the most accessible as a streamlined character comedy centred on a 30-something underachiever who still lives at home with his parents and obsesses over action figures. Funny, witty and plenty of black humour, Solondz style.

The Day He Arrives (Dir Hong Sang-soo)
The neurosis of the creative-male-who-can’t-live-without-women type is taken to new heights in this quirky comedy. A has-been filmmaker meets a woman who runs a bar – and she is a dead-ringer for his ‘real love’. Or is she really?

Golden Slumbers (Dir Davy Chou)
There’s actually a Golden Age of Cambodian Cinema, until the Khmer Rouge destroyed it (among other things). This is a lyrical documentary about remembrance and reconstruction, both real and psychological.

The Machine that Kills Bad People (Dir Roberto Rosselini)
A rarely-screened work shown in a beautifully restored print, it is also a rare comedy by Rossellini, the neo-realist master, before he turned to the reflexive poetics of his later films. A camera that has the power to kill those who it photographs is the magic premise of this wonderful film.

The Mirror Never Lies (Dir Kamila Andini)
An ecologically themed drama shot on a pristine isle in Indonesia – with every shot a feast for the eyes – the film tells the story of 12-year-old Pakis’ longing for her father who has vanished at sea. Through traditional magic rites, she tries to see her father in the mirror that she holds on to for dear life.

Miss Bala (Dir Gerardo Naranjo)
A highly original thriller from Mexico that depicts a drug gang war through the eyes of a beauty pageant contender, the film is also a stylish mood piece underlined with absurdist humour and breathtaking action set pieces.

Modest Reception (Dir Mani Haghighi)
A filthy rich couple, most likely among Iran’s one-percent, travel to the war-torn countryside with plastic bags of money and throw them at folks they meet on the way. For a price of course – promise not to share it with anyone or don’t bury your daughter. How is this couple going to get their just desserts?

Postcards from the Zoo (Dir Edwin)
Here’s your chance to make good for missing Edwin’s unique first feature Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly. Again, lyrical, dreamlike and magical, Zoo tells the story of Lana, a girl who grows up in the Jakarta Zoo among giraffes and hippos, until a magician leads her out of that charmed world into the real one.

Roadside Fugitive (Dir Irie Yu)
Failed in Tokyo, country boy rapper Mighty returns to his hometown and falls into petty crime. Things come to a head at the local music festival where Mighty’s old rapper buddies are fighting for a breakthrough. Great music and a heart-breaking story.

Saudade (Dir Tomita Katsuya)
Saudade is the Portuguese word for longing, yearning or a dream that won’t fulfil. Here are hip-hop and migrant workers in a Japanese town in dire straits – and a testament to free-form independent filmmaking at its most energetic and most intense.

Snowtown (Dir Justin Kurzel)
A stunning directorial debut on Australia’s worst serial killer and his protégés, the film works its magic in turning a bleak psychological horror-thriller into a devastating, poetic work of storytelling with pitch-perfect performances by a predominantly non-professional cast.

Tomboy (Dir Céline Sciamma)
Probably overshadowed by the recent Berlin Teddy Bear Award winner Keep the Lights On, last year’s Berlin Teddy Jury winner Tomboy is charming, sensitive and full of terrific performances by young non-professional actors in its portrayal of a 10-year old girl passing herself as a boy.

Trishna (Dir Michael Winterbottom)
Marking his third time in adapting Thomas Hardy’s novels, Winterbottom surpasses himself by relocating Tess of the d’Urbervilles to modern India, where the Victorian attitudes in the original novel still echo. Slumdog Millionaire star Frieda Pinto shines bright.

A Hong Kong Movie With China Appeal

When Hong Kong’s film festival opened Wednesday, it was with a rom-com that tests the fidelity of mismatched lovers in much the same way that Hong Kong questions the motives of a dissimilar mainland China.

“Love in the Buff” reunites Miriam Yeung and Shawn Yue as Cherie and Jimmy, the chain-smoking couple in 2010′s “Love in a Puff” who found romance while flicking ashes into Hong Kong’s outdoor trash cans.



 

“Buff” picks up several months later, when their relationship has ended. Jimmy takes a job in Beijing, finds a new girlfriend, and that seems to end any chance of reconciliation. But fate pushes them together for another attempt at love after cosmetics-store manager Cherie is transferred to Beijing.

For nearly a decade, Hong Kong-China co-productions have become the new standard for Hong Kong’s filmmakers. But local audiences often complain that the movie industry has ignored hometown tastes in favor of the much larger market in mainland China.

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Hong Kongers, who speak the Cantonese dialect, are fiercely protective of their local culture.

“I think it’s quite remarkable to have a Hong Kong film made in Beijing and still retain its Hong Kong flavor,” said Li Cheuk-to, the Hong Kong International Film Festival’s artistic director.

“Buff’s” Hong Kong-born director, Pang Ho-cheung, and his producer-wife Subi Liang, themselves packed up and relocated to Beijing nearly two years ago for the promise of the Chinese market. “That’s where the money is,” Mr. Pang told the Journal at the time.

“Like the city itself, films made in Hong Kong must inevitably blend in with the China market,” Mr. Pang said in a recent statement. “While I’m bent on keeping the core values, I must regularly adjust my positioning and thinking. To me, Jimmy Cheung and Cherie Yu are no longer characters in a film, but a record of the change of times.”

Whether those times have come of age will be decided by audiences on both side of the border when “Buff” opens March 29 in Hong Kong and a day later in mainland China.

Hong Kong Movie Magic, in Photos

Does your favorite movie say something about you?

That’s the question Jeremy Jangord explores in a one-night-only exhibition, starting today at 5 p.m. as part of Hong Kong ArtWalk. The show, “Hong Kong Cinema,” includes six photos of restaged scenes from films such as “A Beautiful Mind,” “Pride & Prejudice” and Wong Kar-wai’s “2046,” that the photographed subjects have chosen.

“I recreate people’s favorite movie scenes as a way of crossing the barrier of getting to know someone,” said Mr. Jangord.

Hong Kong ArtWalk is an annual charity event in which local galleries stay open till midnight for one night. “Hong Kong Cinema” will show on lightboxes suspended on a stone wall across the street from Above Second, a gallery in the city’s Sai Ying Pun district.

While each photo takes an hour or two to shoot, choosing a film — especially for cinephiles — can take weeks or months. “For people who really love movies, like me, it’s harder,” Mr. Jangord said. “If you love 100 different movies, how do you pick the one that’s incredibly important to you?”

Once decided, he and his photo subject watch the movie together in his Fotan studio, then pick the scene to reenact. As subjects explain what scene is most meaningful to them, and the two of them figure out how to stage and, when necessary, adapt it, the process draws photographer and subject closer together.


Jeremy Jangord
A scene inspired by ‘A Beautiful Mind.’
In one photo, a woman who chose to remain anonymous selected “Butterfly,” based on the Taiwanese novel about a married woman remembering a lesbian relationship she had in her teens.

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Four Portraits and One That Isn't
Mr. Jangord worked with the subject to recreate a scene where the two young girls sit at a lookout point over Macau, except in his version the subject is pictured alone, from the back, overlooking Hong Kong’s Lamma Island. “I love this picture best because she blurs into the background, the color of her shirt going into the landscape,” Mr. Jangord said. “It maintains her anonymity but captures that feeling of her losing herself in memory.”

Originally from Los Angeles, he moved to Hong Kong in 2010 and began work on “Hong Kong Cinema” later that year. After its ArtWalk show, he plans to continue work on the series, adding more photos and working toward a solo exhibition at a later date.

Previously based in Tokyo, his last photography project, called “New Tokyo Cinema,” took a documentary approach, he said, recording moments among his friends while projecting his own cinematic vision from behind the lens.

With “Hong Kong Cinema,” his aim was similar. “Even though the filmmaking process is fabricated, the goal is still to maintain a natural truth,” he said. “I wanted a way to bridge that gap [between photography and filmmaking] and take it to another level, while making the process incredibly more intimate.”

–ArtWalk starts tonight at 5 p.m. and runs to midnight. Tickets are HK$450.

Hollywood looks to China for box office growth

HONG KONG — China's booming movie industry is attracting interest from Hollywood heavyweights, as they chase bigger box-office returns to offset tighter margins at home.

Films with Asian and especially Chinese themes are becoming more prominent after Hollywood hit a 16-year low in movie tickets sales last year, while some of its biggest studios are setting up shop in the country.

DreamWorks Animation is setting up a China base while Legendary, the studio behind Christopher Nolan's wildly successful "Batman" series as well as "Clash of the Titans" and "The Hangover" franchises, is also developing a venture.

Keanu Reeves is making his directorial debut with "Man of Tai Chi" which is currently filming in China and Hong Kong, while Aamir Khan's Bollywood comedy drama "3 Idiots" is in talks for a Hollywood remake.

"It's a hugely interesting time now," said executive producer Tracey Trench, whose projects have included "Just Married" and "Ever After".

"The United States is still the biggest market. Within the next 10 years, we are not going to be the biggest market place, everything is going to change," she told a forum at the Hong Kong International Film and Television Market (FILMART) in March.

China's rapidly expanding film industry continues to break new ground and set new records, collecting an estimated 13.1 billion yuan ($2.07 billion) in 2011 -- up by around 30 percent on-year.

Around 2,500 more cinema screens are expected to be unveiled across the country this year, with its market now the third largest behind Japan and the United States.

This compares with a clear slowdown in North America.

The Motion Picture Association (MPA) says box office takings from 2007 to 2011 in the United States and Canada grew only 6.3 percent to $10.2 billion, while the Asia-Pacific region saw 38-percent growth to $9 billion.

Zhang Yimou's "The Flowers of War" was China's biggest box office smash of the past 12 months, starring Oscar-winning American actor Christian Bale.

It collected around $90 million from the Chinese box office while picking up a nomination for best foreign language film at the prestigious Golden Globes in the United States.

It comes as Hollywood looks to increasingly give a Chinese angle to its output.

"There are so many stories that you can tell and right now China is hot, so many people want to know more," said screenwriter Glenn Berger, who wrote the popular 2008 animated Hollywood comedy "Kung Fu Panda" and its 2011 sequel.

A box-office hit in China, the film told the story of Po, an oversize and unfit panda who dreams of becoming a martial arts hero. But Berger said the movie was never really about China or kung fu.

"We were just trying to tell a classic underdog story, not particularly a Chinese story," he said of the film.

"But it was very well received in the Chinese market because they thought it was very respectful of Chinese culture," he said.

Kung Fu Panda raked in an estimated $630 million, with $26 million from the Chinese mainland alone.

Hong Kong's FILMART exhibition is Asia's major entertainment industry market and one of the top three events of its kind in the world.

This year it attracted a record 648 exhibitors and more than 5,700 buyers, up 14 percent from last year. The US pavilion had over 40 US exhibitors, or about 25 percent more than last year.

Industry veterans say Chinese audiences are particularly drawn to movies that include Chinese references or elements of Chinese culture.

"People want to feel connected," said Chinese American writer Rita Hsiao, who wrote the screenplay for "Toy Story 2" and 1998 animated musical "Mulan", a story about a legendary Chinese girl-warrior.

"If you have that universal message and it's interesting, everybody everywhere can connect with it," she said.

One of the main obstacles for foreign filmmakers wanting to crack the Chinese market is a law limiting the number of international films that can be screened in the country to just 20 a year.

It forces studios to co-produce films with Chinese partners or risk having their films blocked at the border.

But all the pandas in the world won't guarantee a hit in China.

"It has to succeed on all the fundamentals of a movie, not just because it is shot in China," Berger said.