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The year 2002 has come
and gone. What has the past year did to the Hong Kong film industry
as a whole? Were there many gems to have come out of the industry,
or is it true that the industry is slowly dying a slow breath?
The year started off with a few duds including
the very poor Beauty and the Breast, which tried to cash in on the
2001 box office smash La Brassiere. It failed in every departments,
and blighted Francis Ng and Daniel Wu's resume.
The Chinese New Year hit us during February and
is usually a time for silly comedy films to be released. Marry A
Rich Man was a disappointment for Sammi fans but it was still better
than other comedies around. Tony Leung Chiu-wai teamed up with Faye
Wong in A Chinese Odyssey. It was their first film together since
Chungking Express in 1995. After appearing in a handful of arthouse
films, Leung has decided to make some comedies for a change. Some
might tell him not to bother.
March began very promising with the release of
July Rhapsody with Jacky Cheung in sublime form. It won a few gongs
at the HK film awards and established Karena Lam as a new force
to be reckoned with. But after a couple of good hits (Tiramisu and
Inner Senses), Karena Lam had gone off radar for the rest of the
year. Maybe stardom has its drawbacks after all.
March also saw Wesley's Mysterious File which
I recommend you to avoid like the black plague. I still feel a bit
bitter for losing a couple of hours of my time with that piece of
turd. Do yourself a favour and watch another film instead. One I
do recommend is Inner Senses, which was released in the same month.
Actually, March featured three films with Karena Lam in the lead.
Talk about overkill.
March was also the start of the Miriam Yeung campaign
to overthrow Sammi Cheng as the queen of film. Love Undercover was
a nice comedy film, and she followed this with Dry Wood Fierce Fire,
with Louis Koo, and Frugal Game with Eric Tsang. Polls revealed
that Yeung has become the more popular of the two, and Yeung went
on to win the Best Female Artist award ahead of Cheng.
Summer was a disappointment for Hong Kong films
with the exception of The Eye, one of the best horror films of 2002.
It was released throughout the world and I was glad to see it do
well in England and the US. Summer is also the time for big Hollywood
blockbusters, and unsurprisingly, Star Wars: Attack of the Clones
and Spiderman ruled the cinemas. The local scene put up a fight
with the likes of My Left Eye Sees Ghosts (Sammi Cheng and Lau Ching
Wan), The Touch (Michelle Yeoh), and Mighty Baby (Louis Koo, Lau
Ching Wan), but unfortunately, these bombed at the box office due
to poor scripting and lousy plotting.
Autumn arrived with a host of average films that
catered mainly for the teen demographic. Ekin Cheng did his career
no help with the very average My Wife Is 18 with half of Twins Charlene
Choi. Speaking of the Twins, they have also started to make their
presence known with Summer Breeze of Love, Just One Look and If
U Care. It seems that 2002 was very lucky for the Twins, as not
only their films did well, they also held a concert, released several
albums and appeared in countless of television commercials and advertisments.
In 2002 alone, it is reported they have made more than HK$10 million
each. Not bad for a couple of teenagers.
Unfortunately, the end of the year was no better
than the rest with more average films. Only exceptions are Golden
Chicken, Infernal Affairs and Hero, but the last one technically
isn't really a Hong Kong film.
Like stars blinking throughout space, which star
shone the brightest and which star went supernova? Looking at the
whole picture, it seems 2002 favoured the Twins. Sammi Cheng lost
the plot and her position as box office queen while Miriam Yeung
did her best to outplace her. 2002 was also a big year for Louis
Koo, who is trying hard to lose his macho image and become the new
Stephen Chow (not very likely). But with other major male stars
either stuffing turkeys or going AWOL, Koo has become the biggest
male star in 2002. Can he sustain his position in 2003 or will others
catch up?
No film featured Aaron Kwok, who was busy touring
South East Asia with his concerts. Jacky Cheung came out of retirement
to make July Rhapsody - his last film was with Jet Li in 1995's
High Risk. Leon Lai made an arthouse film called Three while Andy
Lau made three films (comedy Fat Choy Spirit, Wesley's bloody awful
file and Infernal Affairs).
Ekin Cheng's film career is hanging off a cliff
at the moment with some very bad choices. 2002 is definitely not
his year, and it may take a minor miracle if he is to revive his
flagging careers in both film and pop industries. Maybe personal
problems are to blame?
Promising youngster Nicholas Tse made headline
news with his on-off relationships with Faye Wong and third-party
Cecilia Cheung. He made bigger news when he crashed his Ferrari
and did not own up to it. In Court, he was found guilty of perverting
the course of justice but was given a lenient ruling of doing 240
hours of community service. He has decided to leave the entertainment
business for a while to get his bearings. No doubt a change in attitute
will help wonders.
Sadly, 2002 was the year that pop singer Roman
Tam succumbed in his battle against cancer. He died in October aged
52. The older generation will miss him more.
Carina Lau made the headlines when a photograph
of her, taken 12 years ago when she was kidnapped and raped, was
published on the front cover of the now defunct Eastweek magazine.
It had caused an uproar and hundreds of actors came out to protest
against the media for their unethical morals. Its publisher, Albert
Yeung, had no choice but to close the magazine. Yeung, who is the
head of the Emperor Entertainment Group, is noted by the media for
his lust for young girls. Allegedly, he had slept with most of the
young female starlets signed to his record company, including Joey
Yung, Twins and Yumiko, amongst others. The power to make these
ordinary girls so successful in so short a time ultimately comes
with price.
Piracy isn't helping the industry one bit, but
instead of being stamped upon by the authorities, it seems the piracy
business is getting larger by the day. Unless this issue is tackled
head-on, the industry will lose more money until it comes to a point
that filmmaking in Hong Kong becomes unprofitable. I, for one hope
this will not happen, but for the forseeable future, piracy is here
to stay.
By and large, 2002 has not been that good a year
for the industry. With the exceptions of a few good films, the rest
have been complete duds. Compare that with the flow of decent Korean
and Japanese films, and it is not hard to see that Hong Kong has
fallen behind in making quality films. What film studios need are
not better CGI or exotic locations, but the importance of a good
script. Without this basic commodity, films will always suffer as
a result, and they must also understand that they will could never
compete head to head with the might of Hollywood.
People who love Hong Kong films know this and
they do not expect big budget CGI'd flicks. What they want is what
made Hong Kong films so special in the first place. But unfortunately,
for the local populace, those films or genres are no longer in vogue,
filmmakers will not risk making films that will alienate Joe Public.
Even Jackie Chan has altered his style more in tune with Hollywood
formulaic affairs. Fans just have to wait until we are given what
we truly want, but I am afraid it may be a long wait.
Roll on 2003.
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