Clash of the Chinese film
titans By Aventurina King
NEW YORK - It's six months away from the
Oscars, but if you're an ambitious Chinese film
company, the foreign-film award is the most
immediate thing on your mind. Not only must
Chinese features clear the government censors'
examination and be released before October 1 to
qualify for the award, they must also overcome one
of the toughest hurdles of the Oscar race before
even being sent out to
compete.
In the ceremony's regulations
this hurdle is written in bold: "Only one picture
will be accepted from each country." In China,
this
translates into a governmental
committee that screens the handful of competitive
features and selects the one most likely to win.
That film will then be expedited to Los Angeles by
October 13.
Last year, this committee in
China predictably anointed Chen Kaige's The
Promise after its serious competitor, Zhang
Yimou's Walking Alone for One Thousand
Miles, graciously surrendered its place by
announcing a December release date. At the time,
The Promise benefited from the largest
budget in Chinese film history: US$35 million.
This may be insignificant when compared
with Mission Impossible 3's $150 million.
But compared with Crouching Tiger, Hidden
Dragon's $15 million and Hero's $30
million, The Promise is an oversized
production. Moreover, Chen Kaige (Farewell My
Concubine) is one of China's two most renowned
directors.
This year, the second of that
renowned pair, Zhang Yimou (Hero, House of the
Flying Daggers), has aggressively stepped into
the Oscar race with The Curse of the Golden
Flower. It is a $45 million co-production
between Zhang Yimou's private production company,
Edko Films, and Hong Kong's Elite productions
(Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon).
Highly anticipated in China and the United
States, where distribution rights have been picked
up by Sony Pictures Classics, the film was
equivocally outlined as a court drama. The costume
drawings suggest a sprinkle of martial arts.
Headlining it are China's Nicole Kidman, Gong Li;
China's Harrison Ford, Chow Yun Fat; and China's
Kanye West, Jay Chou.
Zhang Yimou's
production team completed his latest project in
record time. Filming started on February 24 and
finished in early July, almost a whole month in
advance of schedule. By September 22, the first
day of its small-scale test screening in Shenyang,
post-production will have ended in a record two
and a half months. In a phone interview last week,
an Edko Films spokesperson confirmed that the
feature will be released early to qualify for the
Oscars.
Unlike Chen Kaige, who benefited
from low-power competition in the 2005 selection's
Chinese phase, Zhang Yimou is challenged by an
unknown on the international scene: China's
box-office champion, director Feng Xiaogang. His
film is called The Banquet. Although
this feature's budget barely amounts to half of
Zhang Yimou's titan, it is loaded with the same
caliber of star talent. It features Memoirs of
a Geisha's Zhang Ziyi, the spunky contestant
to Gong Li's mantle, and Hong Kong cinema
heartthrob Daniel Wu.
Like Curse of the
Golden Flower, The Banquet's Hamlet-flavored
plot entangles itself in the web of murder and
deceit woven inside the Tang Dynasty's imperial
court. Long bouts of venomous dialogue are
punctuated by wirework somersaults amid crisp
classic scenery.
The two films' content
and talent have drawn the spotlight of the Chinese
press on their tight race for the Oscars.
Beginning in March, countless articles have pitted
the two mega-productions against each other. Some,
such as Sina's online op-ed, have concluded that
neither of them offers the break from traditional
Chinese wuxia (martial-arts drama) that
2007's Oscars thirst for.
Zhang Yimou has
already secured his sunny spot in international
film with his big-budget box-office hits. Feng
Xiaogang has yet to make an international name for
himself, or even venture into the Chinese
big-budget arena. He has, however, won the
recognition of Chinese film-goers through such
annual winter comedies as Big Shot's Funeral
and Sorry Baby. Setting out in the snow
to see a Feng Xiaogang movie has settled into
national tradition.
The late-1990s success
stories of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
and The Emperor and the Assassin spawned an
entire generation of private Chinese film
companies. In 2000, brothers Wang Zhonglei and
Wang Zhongjun established Huayi Brothers Pictures.
The company grew quickly because of such hits as
Big Shot's Funeral and Kung Fu
Hustle. The Wangs' first collaboration with
director Feng Xiaogang in 2000, Sorry Baby,
was the beginning of a long and fruitful
professional relationship culminating in this
year's co-production with Media Asia, The
Banquet.
Zhang Yimou's Edko Films
produced The Curse of the Golden Flower.
Edko Films' spokesperson confirmed that China Film
Group, the only government-owned distribution
company in China, is the Chinese distributor.
China Film Group distributes almost all of the
Chinese mega-productions and most of the 20
foreign movies that make it into the country each
year, such as The Da Vinci Code.
Which of the two production companies is
most likely to sway the committee's decision?
While Huayi Brothers Pictures is certainly not a
newcomer to the field, it does not possess the
mature international reputation of Edko Films. Its
stellar growth has raised the eyebrows of
Paramount and Miramax executives, but its name is
not yet a guarantee of success. The North American
distribution rights of The Banquet have not
yet been sold. The US distribution rights of
Curse of the Golden Flower were sold long
before production wrapped.
Perhaps the
decision-maker is even further behind the scenes,
in the Chinese distribution companies. In that
case, the situation is a face-off between Huayi
Brothers Pictures' private distribution company
and the government-owned China Film Group. Even
though Edko Films denies any relationship between
the China Film Group and the government committee,
an Academy Award could certainly boost the
reputation of the state-owned distributor. It
would cement China Film Group's position in the
Chinese film industry, strengthening it from the
threatening wave of private film-company startups.
This situation harks back to the autumn of
2005. After Zhang Yimou's Walking Alone for One
Thousand Miles had withdrawn from the Chinese
Oscar race, the competition settled down to The
Promise, distributed by China Film Group, and
mini-production Ke Ke Xi Li, distributed by
Huayi Brothers Pictures. Ke Ke Xi Li (aka
Mountain Patrol) won five awards at
international film festivals, while The
Promise was left empty-handed. China's
committee chose The Promise.
With
two productions of equal quality, the committee's
decision in 2006 will give an even clearer
indication of which films the Chinese government
supports. Will these be mega-productions of
internationally renowned directors collaborating
with the public sector or a more risky brand of
big-budget productions walking the independent
path? Either way, in a country where entertainment
bows to the government, it's best to bet in the
direction of the official nod.
Aventurina King is a freelance
writer based in New York. She can be reached
at Aventurinaking@gmail.com.
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