Chinese cinema at a crossroads

Perfect photo of Li Ying Zhi

Today everybody will get varied feel because you saw about photo of Li Ying Zhi, She look like cartoon or painting images. It really fantastic!

By Stephen Cremin

Industry News

Panellists at Shanghai International Film Festival 上海國際電影節's second industry summit, "Far East Dream Factory: Future for Chinese Film Industry Upgrading", pushed Shanghai as the new hub for film-making in China. An off-message André MORGAN spoke out on the crisis facing the film industry in China.

After a late start and a series of self-interested speeches — by Hollywood studio representative Mike ELLIS, Hong Kong film-maker Stanley TONG 唐季禮 and Shanghai-based equity manager ZHANG Tian 張天 — the actual discussion kicked off after 75 minutes.

On the first panel, Tong was joined by Shanghai Film Group Corp 上海電影集團公司's REN Zhonglun 任仲倫, Wanda Cinema Line Corporation 萬達電影院線股份有限公司's LI Yaohan 李耀漢 and Tong's former producing partners Mark ORDESKY (Rumble in the Bronx 紅番區 (1995)) and Morgan (China Strike Force 雷霆戰警 (2000)).

Tong used the platform to promote his plans for a "Hollywood of the East" in Shanghai's Pudong district. The project is headed by a company that is 40% owned by his China International Media Group Ltd 中國國際傳媒集團有限公司. Tong had previously tried to launch similar initiatives in Yunnan province in 2006 and 2008. In interviews, he blamed the setbacks on a lack of local government support.

The highlight of the panel was a thoughtful response by Morgan (pictured left). He began by stating that the the future of the Chinese film industry "has never been brighter" but that it is at "a very important crossroads". He said that the local industry is at a standstill because of its fear of Hollywood and the recent raising of the annual quota for profit-shared titles from 20 to 34 titles. While distributors and exhibitors are "excited by the money they can make", he argued that the local industry could "become [like] Hong Kong" and never reach its potential.

Morgan criticised the industry for being lazy at developing local talent, which he described as the "lifeblood" of the Chinese film industry. He called on the private sector and the government to support young directors, scriptwriters and actors. He said that, after listening to speeches at Shanghai and other forums since 2000, it was now the time to put talk into action by, for example, building cinemas in more cities, clarifying the laws regarding video-on-demand, and increasing the number of national distribution chains, none of which are currently headquartered in Shanghai.

He argued that China has nothing to fear from Hollywood which has never produced 34 good films in a single year. He suggested that SARFT should open the floodgates for 18 months so that Chinese audiences would realise that "most American films are a load of rubbish". From his own experience in Hong Kong, Morgan claimed that local films would then regain their box office share. He concluded that "there is nothing the Chinese film industry needs to fear from healthy competition."

Continuing, Morgan said that Chinese producers should not waste their time going international. This contradicted Tong and every other panellist at the forum. "Once we know how to handle China," he said, "then we conquer Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore." He added that more and more Americans are learning Chinese and joked that, by another decade, two million more Americans won't require subtitles. Once the Chinese film industry has a strong base, he argued, it can then go global and take on America on its own terms.

The second panel was moderated by the MPA Asia's William FENG 馮偉. He was joined by Raleigh Entertainment's Danielle DAJANI, Rovio Entertainment's Peter VESTERBACKA, Shanghai-based lawyer HUANG Rongnan 黃榮楠 and Technicolor's Claude Gagnon. In his questions to panellists, Feng repeatedly brought the discussion back to the potential of Shanghai as a creative hub for China's film industry, noting that both Rovio — the creator of the Angry Birds' video game franchise — and DreamWorks have chosen the city over Beijing as their China base.

The forum suffered the same problems as those in previous editions of the festival: a lack of focus, weak moderation and an excess of panellists.