HONG KONG: Chinese-language film directors might as well forget about entering the global market. China still is not culturally influential enough to attract a world audience.

The brutal verdict was pronounced by mainland director Feng Xiaogang at a Hong Kong forum on prospects for Chinese-language film yesterday.

Held on the sidelines of the Hong Kong International Film and TV Market that wraps up today, the forum was also attended by prominent directors Oliver Stone and John Woo.

Dubbed the mainland's box-office king, Beijing-based Feng has surpassed Zhang Yimou and Cheng Kaige in generating more than one billion yuan ($147 million) in theatrical revenue with his typically comedic films about modern urban Chinese.

His works invariably have flopped outside the mainland. People are not interested in seeing a movie about unsophisticated and unfashionable mainlanders, Feng said.

His latest work, If You Are the One, for example, was again snubbed by Hong Kong audiences. Those who made it to the cinemas to see it in Hong Kong have spoken highly of the romantic comedy.

The apathy about the mainland film is in sharp contrast to the buzz around Taiwan's Cape No 7. The film was billed in Hong Kong after achieving the rare success of making a profit in the Taiwan market. Comparatively, If You Are the One, while setting a mainland box-office record, obviously failed to draw Hongkongers into cinemas.

The truth is people are not interested in cultural products from places on a lower economic or cultural ring. Therefore, it's more practical for Chinese-language movies to focus on their home markets rather than seeking a global audience, he said.

"If my movies can't succeed in Hong Kong, which is of Chinese culture, how would Chinese-language movies succeed in the West?" Feng asked.

"The mainland has a big enough market. There's a lot of room for growth ... Many Hong Kong directors are doing exactly that right now," Feng said.

The mainland's box office swelled 27 percent last year. In the key year-end holiday season between November 2008 and early February 2009, 40 films were released, doubling that of last year.

Looking westward

As far as global expansion is concerned, even Hollywood grandmaster Oliver Stone could give no specific advice.

Though he has seen some "iconic imagery and unique excitement" in Asian movies, Stone admitted that it's difficult to transcend cultural boundaries when basic elements such as the language are not familiar. It's a fact that foreign language movies haven't been able to do well in the benchmark American market.

Even Crouching Tiger and Hidden Dragon, with its astounding visual effect and Oscar Award recognition, "has not been seen or appreciated by a lot of people in the US", he said.

"The answer to the question (of how Chinese-language movies would achieve more prominence in the world) depends on where the Chinese nation takes itself and what Chinese people do with their future ... And I am not just speaking of films, I'm also speaking of culture, politics and morality," he said.

But John Woo, for one, doesn't agree that Chinese movie makers should just throw up their hands and give up the Western market.

The Hong Kong director behind the Hollywood blockbuster Face Off and Mission Impossible II said that Hollywood has strong interests in Chinese subjects, both because they want to tap the Chinese markets and because conventional movie material is drying up.

"As far as I know, many Hollywood companies are buying rights for historical and cultural heritage stories of China," he said, citing Disney's Mulan and Pixar's Kung Fu Panda as examples.

In Chinese kung fu sagas or mythological stories such as Pilgrimage to the West, there are materials appealing to both Chinese and Western markets, Woo said.

Pilgrimage to the West is a Ming Dynasty epic novel about Money King accompanying the monk Xuanzang to retrieve Buddhist sutras from India.

It's possible for Chinese directors to make movies attractive to Westerners, if they understand what the audience wants, Woo said.

(HK Edition 03/26/2009 page1)