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China Is NearThe game-changing power of the Chinese box office

By Michael Berry

On September 22, 2013, the Dalian Wanda Group announced that it was embarking on a multibillion-dollar enterprise to build what is expected to be the largest film studio in the world. With cost estimates ranging from $4.9 billion to $8.17 billion and a scheduled completion date of 2017, the Wanda Qingdao Oriental Movie Metropolis project was unveiled in Shandong at a star-studded event featuring Hollywood studio heavyweights like Harvey Weinstein, A-list celebrities including Leonardo DiCaprio and Nicole Kidman, and a veritable who’s who from the Chinese film industry. The announcement comes on the heels of other bold Wanda moves, such as its 2012 purchase of the AMC Theatres chain and a 2013 donation of $20 million to the Academy of Motion Pictures’ new film museum, all of which bespeak Dalian Wanda and its chairman Wang Jianlin’s increasingly large footprint in Hollywood. But the Wanda factor is but one aspect of the increasingly complex transnational courtship that has been taking place between Hollywood and the Chinese film industry over the past decade.

House of Flying Daggers

The new millennium began with a new model for the transnational Chinese blockbuster in the form of Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, which remains the single highest-grossing foreign-language film in U.S. box-office history. It was followed by a series of high-budget martial-arts spectacles that tried to cash in on the success of Lee’s juggernaut. One after another, films like Hero, House of Flying Daggers, Curse of the Golden Flower, The Promise, Curse of the Black Scorpion, and others tried to emulate and tweak the Crouching Tiger formula: pan-Asian superstar casts, cutting-edge martial arts choreography harnessing state-of-the- art CGI, epic story arcs set in a fantasy version of ancient China, and complex international financing and distribution deals. Though they sought to break U.S. and international box-office records, for the most part these films met with success only in the Chinese market. After more recent forays with a new breed of Chinese blockbuster predicated on kung-fu stories of the late imperial and Republican era (best represented by films like Bodyguards and Assassins and the Yip Man series), by decade’s end Chinese studios had modified their blockbuster formula yet again. The new model seems to favor the modern historical epic and bold pairings of leading Chinese actors with Hollywood A-listers. The Dark Knight’s Christian Bale removed his cowl and took up the collar to play a priest in The Flowers of War, Zhang Yimou’s epic portrayal of the Nanjing Massacre; Adrian Brody and Tim Robbins signed on to Feng Xiaogang’s wrenching cinematic exposé of mass famine, Back to 1942. Similar tactics were adopted by lower-budget collaborations like Dayyan Eng’s Inseparable, which paired Chinese stars Daniel Wu and Gong Beibei with Kevin Spacey. As Chinese studios started experimenting with these new transnational pairings, Hollywood recognized the increasing importance of the Chinese market by way of its miraculously expanding box-office figures. According to Variety, “From 2007-12, China’s box office has improved at a compound annual growth rate of 47%, to $2.7 billion.” Tinseltown began to aggressively court Chinese stars to appear in some of its most lucrative franchises. The growing list of action and comic-book franchises in which Chinese talent has appeared includesResident Evil: Retribution (Li Bingbing), The Expendables 2 (Yu Nan), Iron Man 3 (Wang Xueqi, Fan Bingbing), and two forthcoming blockbusters, X-Men: Days of Future Past (Fan Bingbing) and Transformers: Age of Extinction (Han Geng, Li Bingbing). Running parallel to these onscreen alliances are the even higher-stakes ones behind the scenes between the Hollywood studios and their Chinese counterparts. Since 2011 there have been partnerships between production companies like Relativity Media and Huaxia Film Distribution, as well as the formation of a new series of Hollywood studio ventures in China, such as Oriental DreamWorks. And while these new collaborations have yet to bear fruit, the emergence of more dynamic coproduction attempts is already apparent:Skiptrace, starring Jackie Chan, Fan Bingbing, and Seann William Scott, takes clear aim at global markets with English-language dialogue and Chan’s signature action-comedy formula.

Finding Mr. Right

But even as Hollywood takes these and other increasingly bold steps to capture a larger piece of the expanding Chinese market, preliminary figures released in October 2013 suggest that while overall Chinese box-office receipts continue to expand with record growth, Hollywood’s take is down, even though the quota for foreign films was increased. While a complex set of factors explain this unexpected shift—from Chinese control and manipulation of screening times and release dates to film piracy—one of the biggest threats for Hollywood is the Chinese film industry’s adoption of Hollywood forms, genres, styles, and even settings. Among the big winners at the Chinese box office in 2013 were a series of comedies and dramas that liberally borrow from Hollywood models to produce Mandarin-language films that are more accessible to local audiences. These include the action comedy My Lucky Star, for which producer/star Ziyi Zhang recruited American TV director Dennie Gordon. Veteran Hong Kong filmmaker Peter Chan’s American Dreams in China not only borrowed heavily from The Social Network for its plot and structure—three entrepreneurial-minded college friends start what becomes a multimillion- dollar enterprise, tearing their friendship apart in the process, with story developments framed by a litigation hearing— but also featured major scenes shot in New York and highlighted a fascination with all things American, with the mastering of English as a key plot line. And then there is Xue Xiaolu’s Finding Mr. Right, a romantic comedy that was not only aggressively marketed as “The Chinese Sleepless in Seattle” and drew heavily on Hollywood rom-com conventions, but was actually filmed in Seattle. Collectively, these and other like-minded Chinese films are hijacking popular Hollywood formulas, stories, and even settings to such a degree that domestic audiences now have homegrown alternatives to give them their Hollywood fix. Big-budget action spectacles like Avatarand Pacific Rim tend to do business in China, while romantic comedies and smaller scale films struggle to find a footing. The axiom that comedy doesn’t travel well across cultural borders holds true in China as elsewhere. The aforementioned trio of romances and comedies—along with other recent local hits like Tiny Times and Lost in Thailand—demonstrates that American romance and comedy formulas are much more appealing to Chinese audiences when they have been internalized and reconfigured for homegrown tastes. Even those “foreign elements” that have attracted audiences to Hollywood fare can now be provided through the casting of foreign actors and the exploitation of foreign locales in Chinese productions. Furthermore, what does not bode well for Hollywood is the simple fact that these domestic romantic comedies (even those shot partially overseas) are produced for just a fraction of what the American studios spend on the kind of action fare that brings out the Chinese public. So while both genres have been performing well at the Chinese box office, the recent wave of romantic dramas and comedies has a clear advantage over their budget-bloated Hollywood competitors when it comes to profit margins. (For example, Finding Mr. Right grossed $83 million in China with a budget of only $5 million, whereas Pacific Rim grossed over $111 million there with a hefty $190 million budget.)

Iron Man 3

It remains to be seen just how much of an impact Wanda’s new super-studio will have on the situation, but even the most conservative industry observers see big changes afoot. According to early media statements made by Wanda, approximately 70 percent of their new studio facilities will be reserved for local productions. Of course, as more “foreign films” are shot in China with Chinese studio facilities, the definitions of “Chinese film” or “foreign film” may start to break down. At the same time, the Chinese-Hollywood co-production, a term that describes titles ranging from The Forbidden Kingdom to Iron Man 3, has been gaining traction thanks in part to their exemption from China’s strict quota system regarding international releases. While it’s likely that the Wanda Qingdao Oriental Movie Metropolis will increase the number of such collaborative ventures, the rules of the game will undoubtedly change if Wang Jianlin gets his way. In a recent television interview Wang seemed to take issue with the model adopted by Iron Man 3 (in which Chinese stars Wang Xueqi and Fan Bingbing appeared in a short scene that was omitted from the film’s U.S. theatrical version), expressing dissatisfaction with Hollywood’s sometimes perfunctory approach to co-productions: “Hollywood wants to make money by throwing in a few famous Chinese actors, giving them a couple of scenes and a handful a lines, and then cutting them out for the North American market. But if American film companies approach China like a money tree and do not respect the Chinese market and Chinese consumers, then these types of companies are destined to fail in the Chinese market.” As Wanda’s new enterprise unfolds, while Chinese and U.S. studios vie for one another’s markets, and the two countries’ film industries become increasingly intertwined and mutually dependent, we can expect even more radical changes as both sides navigate the treacherous waters of transnational filmmaking in the 21st century.

在限制中率性而為──專訪邱禮濤

生活

週一 2014-06-16 陳芊憓

訪問︰陳芊憓、譚以諾
整理︰陳芊憓

（獨媒特約報導）邱禮濤導演是香港極為多產的電影人，從攝影指導到導演，他的作品多不勝數，而且作品類型豐富，除了血腥恐怖片以外、還有性工作者系列、黑幫江湖片、驚慄片等等，共超過七十部。正如他所說，因為愛拍電影，所以一年三百六十五日都願待在片場。而他的新戲《重生3D》剛在香港上正場，邱禮濤就已在跟進下部新戲《雛妓》的後期製作，如此酷愛電影的他，對於電影工業總是有自己一套說法。

隨意中的心思

邱禮濤的新作《重生3D》由新加坡、台灣等地出錢資助，而編劇則是位在新加坡長大的香港醫生，他拿著已完成的劇本找上邱導，但我們現時所看到的版本卻是經過導演多翻修改：「電影的框架仍是他的，但有我的參與以外我改了很多東西。這部電影是講述因墮胎而引發的鬼故事，最初的劇本裡墮胎是主要原素，我覺得原來的故事發展有些問題，所以修改了不少。先旨聲明我本人不反對墮胎，而現在關於墮胎的故事仍然存在，只不過墮胎不是主要原素，可以說是模糊化了，變了好像一個平行時空，電影創造了一個鬼世界，不在我們的空間。不過我做事也有一個底線，始終不可令本來的故事完全改變了。」

修改後的劇本讓邱禮濤的風格更加突出，電影中有不少細節像是充滿喻意，如女主角吸食她母親的血時，背景有一幅蘇聯左派的畫；又如故事中不斷強調15年前後的變化，似是在隱喻香港回歸中國多年是一個惡夢；令人想起邱導的另一部作品《頭七》中，林家棟住在的士三十年呼應著改革開放三十年，觀者看來是刻意安排的細節，邱禮濤卻說這是隨意中的刻意：「背景那幅畫不是太刻意的，這是隨意之中的選擇，美術指導給十幅你選，我就選了這一幅，與電影內容其實沒有關係，有些是有意圖的，但這是隨意的，當然，隨意也是一種選擇。」

《重生3D》中的畫雖隨意，但《頭七》的三十年聽他說來似乎另有心思︰「《頭七》中的三十年就是有意思的，用來表現社會的新狀態，任讀者怎樣看，不同的人拍就會有不同聯想，你會這樣解讀，但有些人怎樣也不會聯想得到與改革開放有關，這是我自己的理解。我漸漸相信，你是怎樣的人就會拍怎樣的戲。」他舉例說，有些人刻意想拍社會議題的電影，對他來說，這是本末倒置。「你不應該是刻意去找東西拍，雖然這也是一種方法，但就偏離拍電影的原意了。又如《黑白道》中張家輝做了八年卧底，八年這長度也是隨意的，性格決定命運，在隨意中其實也有原因，為何一個角色叫小明，一定有點原因，可以是絕頂的一般性，或者我小時候有個朋友就叫小明。」

邱導雖然強調隨意，但卻隱約感到他的隨意並非完全隨意。當被問到為何把《頭七》的場境設定在廣州時，他回應說雖然電影中有不少與中國有關的原素，但卻認為電影並不需要因為在中國發生而去說中國，「若是這樣，那不過是篇紀錄式或報告式的文學作品。所以在《頭七》，我刻意迴避有地方性的場景，那輛的士也是超現實的；電影的確可以有很多詮釋的方向，正如共產黨說的中國歷史有他們一套，我們說的又是另一套。就像葉璇這角色，你可以說她代表共產黨的黨史，但不一定要在這方面看，歷史裡的一個人，一塊地磚如果放在博物館，你也可以給他們一個意義。任何故事都可以有很多版本，歷史其實需由你去詮釋。」

《重生3D》劇照

關懷社會政治

正如邱導所說，怎樣的人就拍怎樣的電影，他的臉書中不乏對社會的關懷，中央下達白皮書，他說自己連劇本和論文都放下，就先讀畢全份白皮書，六四時也分享了許多燭光晚會的圖片，亦拍過幾部以社會題材為主的電影，像《等候董建華發落》和《給他們一個機會》等，因此不少電影評論人都嘗試從社會政治角度解讀他的電影。雖然他笑說不是刻意的，但他總是把香港的政治、社會事件放在心上，就以《葉問──終極一戰》為例，他明言是抱著創作香港本土作品的心態拍攝的，正因如此，他刻意選了葉問在港的那段歷史，希望以電影感受父母當時過著的日子：「我籍貫是潮州，我爸爸是潮州人，我是香港人。《葉問－終極一戰》是鄉情電影，是本土卻不是現在的本土，電影是想說香港是如何從戰後走到今天的，但片長有限，不能細說我自己的想法，但大概也是想感受父母那時過著的日子。」而《黑白道》中張家輝的角色更是明顯地象徵著香港：「故事就像是講一個貧窮的家庭被欺負，所以把小孩送給別人，小孩有什麼好東西就拿回來當幫忙，很多年後貧窮家庭想要回自己的兒子，要回了又不信任，大概是這樣，香港就是這樣。」

《葉問－終極一戰》一景

敬重文人與文藝電影

邱禮濤對香港政治社會的關懷，不單表現在電影中，他更在工餘時間修讀文化研究的哲學博士，研究中國對電影的審查制度，來來去去都是與電影相關，足見他對電影情有獨鍾：「修讀博士大部份是為了興趣。我在香港電影界比上不足，比下有餘。我有想過到外國遊學，但香港人這麼善忘，離開兩年後回來已沒人再記得我。七十年代以前的電影前輩大多數是知識份子，現在很多都是紅褲子出身。我覺得吳宇森的戲很膚淺，再過五十年後就沒人會提起，劉偉強、吳宇森、葉偉信、鄭寶瑞等數得出來的同年代的人也不是高學歷的，這也是香港電影界其中一個問題，總是讀書太少。王晶是大學生，反而就做了別的事情，沒學歷的人拍出來的電影就有可能會很膚淺。」

或許是怕電影欠缺內容，邱禮濤也愛閱讀，嘗試從不同的文學作品中取靈感。如《陰陽路之升棺發財》的故事則或多或少受了西西的〈像我這樣的一個女子〉影響：「那是我小時候讀過的小說，拍電影之時我刻意不重看，我不希望改編它，所以我連它的改編電影也沒有看。」一談起西西，他就雀躍起來：「那時西西的讀者比現在多，讀書的時候西西是很有名氣的作家，過去十幾年淡忘了，到了天星和皇后碼頭事件，大家才提起西西，以往西西的作品是每一個人都會讀的，可惜現在只有很喜歡文學的一小撮人才會翻她的書。」

整整一個小時的訪問裡，除了西西，邱導也多次提到七十年代以前的電影圈前輩：「戰後年代大學生很少，那時中國有超過一半人是文盲，能夠讀大學的人非常了不起。不過當時電影工業裡有不少都是大學畢業的，包括幕後的李祖永，導演如卜萬蒼和易文等是知識份子，幕前的盧敦、吳楚帆和白燕等人又是話劇出身，胸懷文藝救國，所以他們無論拍商業片，抑或有話要說的電影也好，都與文藝世界接近。」想不到拍這麼多類型片的邱導，原來這麼喜歡文藝電影和前輩影人。「但現在不同了，現在大多是取巧、急功近利。以前社會對人的評價有很多把尺，現在只得一把尺，賺到大錢的就叫成功，其實成功並不單是從錢來衡量的。」

《陰陽路之升棺發財》一幕

與客觀環境周旋

邱禮濤在電影圈打滾多年，拍過許多港人熟悉的鬼片，《陰陽路》系列更是燴炙人口。近年來已少拍鬼片的邱導，新作竟又回歸鬼片之途，而且攝影技巧一如既往的充滿藝術美感，戲中不少鏡頭是從屋外的窗拍進屋內，形成畫中又有畫：「有這種構圖主要是因為電影中的房子不大，以一般視覺電影來說，跳出景外拍攝感覺令空間大一點。鬼片大多是這樣，以客觀鏡頭拍攝，像有人看著你，以營造氣氛。」常言道導演的拍攝風格是從資源限制中琢磨出來的，而邱導總能以有限的資源拍出他的特色。

不單在《重生》能看出他的拍攝風格，甚至他當攝影指導電影中也可以到邱禮濤對於畫面的掌握總是帶點偏鋒。如在《奪帥》中，黑幫互相撕殺的場面中運用了許多近鏡和高空全景鏡頭，突破觀眾對黑幫類型片畫面的期待。而《洪興仔之江湖大風暴》的敘事方式也與其他古惑仔系列電影有別，「那時我正在拍《伊波拉病毒》，監制王晶和編劇來找我，看完劇本後我覺得它不應是當下的故事，所以我便想怎樣把武俠片的劇情放在時裝電影裡。如戲有病，我就用我的方法去醫，我沒有再問王晶，可能他也不想拍成這樣。如果劉偉強的《古惑仔》是寫實的，我的《洪興仔之江湖大風暴》便是不寫實的，那我就嘗試把古代的武俠放在現代裡頭拍。」

如此數來，他的電影作品中有許多都沒法在大陸上映，黑幫片固然不行，鬼片更加不能通過審查。若要讓電影取得放映權則須重新剪接，又需要改對白、以夢一場來包裝。但邱禮濤卻絲毫不介懷，更認為大陸的這種審查制度是基於政權的單薄：「如果在大陸上映的話，老闆可以賺錢我又不介意他們會剪成怎樣，其實內地人要看原來的版本，可以有十萬種方法，某程度上內地是很自由的，什麼片種都有。電影審查署的旁邊就可以買到盜版，要看電影原版的話，他們自有方法。如果他們（內地政權）行得正企得正，不會怕你說，他們就是怕你說，這反映了中國政權有問題。這是很弱的政權，表面上有錢而已。作為導演，我們只能盡力而為地應對審查，例如一部卧底片，我會跟他們說不是卧底片，我是拍徐石麟，將角度改變，給電影另一個說法，試試能不能。」不過邱導也說，並不是時常有機會向審查人員解釋，始終人家是主動，自己是被動的。「有時有機會講，有時沒有，那就唯有試試跟著他們的制度而改拍。他們給你的建議，其實是命令。」

《洪興仔之江湖大風暴》與武俠

鍾情電影的人生

接受訪問時，邱導的語速很快，說話很自信，對於拍電影有一套完整的想法，認為電影人總不能為大陸市場而選擇拍或不拍，也沒有商業電影或藝術電影之分：「商業是一個後知後覺的定義，可能你想拍商業片但最後是藝術片的票房，有人想拍藝術片最後是商業片的票房，《一代宗師》的票房證明它是『商業片』，《Delete愛人》的票房是『藝術片』的。拍了一部電影當然希望多點觀眾看，是否商業片不是重點，商業的意思是多人看多人討論，可能你機關算盡到最後都會淚流滿面，很難預料，不是你想做商業片就能做到。而且電影市場裡也不可以只有一類片種，如果現在只得文藝片也是不健康的，各式各樣的片種也應該要有，好看就看。」

對話中也深深感受到他對電影製作的熱情，即便是日常生活中也不斷讓自己想有什麼東西可以拍。從他的作品列表中也可得知他不是揀擇的人，只要有機會讓他拿起攝影機或是導演筒，便會盡量把握，在劇本中找出可以發揮的地方。被問到他最喜歡的導演時，邱禮濤毫不遲疑地答法斯賓達（Rainer Werner Fassbender）：「因為他愛電影。王家衛一定不是愛電影的，至少不是愛『拍』電影的。愛電影又怎會幾年才拍一部戲呢？你喜歡一個女子你也會想每晚抱著她，不可能三年才抱一次吧？但法斯賓達卻很愛電影，三十多歲拍四十多套電影，有沒有錢都要拍，總之有器材他就拍，但他的電影真的是很好看，我個人比較喜歡raw的風格。」而邱導的多產就好比法斯賓達，問他為何不停下，他回答說：「在電影行業裡，我相信我比很多人更愛電影。譚家明18年才拍一部，或許他是愛電影，不是愛『拍』電影。王家衛也不是愛拍電影，他可能是愛電影的，但是是另一種愛。」

如此愛電影的邱禮濤作品總是一部接一部，《重生3D》剛上映，與性工作者相關的新作《雛妓》就馬上完成後製。套用邱禮濤的話，只有愛電影的才會把生命所有的時間投入電影中。

本文亦刊於映畫手民

100多年前的中国照片，太珍贵了

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