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 HKCinemagic 2

Statistics :
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Conversations with Peter Chan Ho Sun
Perhaps Love 7/7 - Page 7
Info
Author(s) : Thomas Podvin
Date : 27/10/2008
Type(s) : Interview
 
 Intext Links  
People :
Jackie Chan
Maggie Cheung Man Yuk
Chow Yun Fat
Andy Lau Tak Wah
Movies :
All About Love
Everlasting Love
Hero
House Of Flying Daggers
The Myth
Perhaps Love
The Promise
Seven Swords
Wait 'Til You're Older
 
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Page 6 : More Hongkonger than Hongkongers
 
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Page 8 : In Retrospect


HKCinemagic : What advice would you get to westerners to better understand Chinese movies?
Peter Chan : You know what, all my life I’ve tried to make movies that don’t need advice to be understood! I hope Perhaps Love is one of them. Actually perhaps the biggest compliment that I got from Perhaps Love was during the Academy screening [Ed.: probably for the selection to the Academy Award nomination in the Best Foreign Language film category], one guy came up to me and said “half way through the film I forgot I was actually reading subtitles.”

In my whole life I hope I can just make a movie, and not a Chinese movie. Because it could be a Chinese movie but you don’t have to put an adjective before it. Not because I want to go international, it’s really not the case. It’s the case of when can we, Chinese filmmakers, make movies like Tom Cruise makes movies, and then the whole world takes it for granted.

First our themes need to be universal. Secondly I believe that, because I am a city folk, I cannot make ‘universal universal,’ I can only make ‘city universal.’ When I watched When Harry Meets Sally, I didn’t think the film was in New York; I was looking at Chow Yun Fat and Maggie Cheung in HK. In my mind I wasn’t looking at Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan. So if we can do the same thing with Hollywood movies why can’t we do the same think with my movies. Why can’t you just call it a movie, why do you need to say it’s a Chinese movie?


Zhou Xun in Perhaps Love
HKCinemagic : What do you think of the Westerner perception of Chinese movies? China filmmakers try to be more universal, but the movies aren’t.
Peter Chan : If we talk about the business side, and not the artistic side, I think in China the situation is: China needs international and international needs China. Right now, the situation in China is totally unhealthy. There are about six big movies [blockbusters] a year in average and that’s it. And the first of these six movies is going to do RMB 100 millions [Ed.: roughly HKD 100 millions]. The second movie is not even going to do even RMB 10 millions. So there is nothing between 10 and 100 millions. There are only two extremes, and all the money in the industry is poured for the next year’s ten or twelve movies. And you’ll have ten directors working and the rest not doing anything. Because nobody’s going to do a small movie because they cannot even do six millions. Look at some of the movies. Two Andy Lau’s movies [Ed.: Wait 'Til You're Older; All About Love] and Everlasting Regret barely made 6-8 millions together. Everlasting Regret [Ed.:released on Sept 30th, 2005] made RMB 3 millions! It’s ridiculous that in a big country like this nobody would go to the movie, because they think these movies are not big movies. The minute it’s not a big movie, nobody go to see them.

The problem is even worse if the film makes RMB 100 million like The Myth. Do you think it pays for the budget of the movie and Jackie Chan’s fee? The thing is China’s RMB 100 millions is really not enough to make big movies. But it is some sort of insurance. 100 millions after P&A ends up with a profit of 30-35 millions. And the movie that made this earnings probably cost at least RMB 100 millions. These 30-35 millions of recoupment from China will help you, it’s a kind of guarantee. That would help you to invest the rest of the 50-80 millions and then you need the international market to recoup. Which means, for any big movies, right now, you need both international and China markets. Just international is also too big a dice to roll. Because you don’t have the guarantee in China.
Yet just the China market is certainly not enough.

You have The Promise, Hero, Seven Swords, House Of Flying Daggers… The reason why they have the Chinese audience attention is that they have enough budget and the budget comes from international investments. But the reason they are going international is because they have a minimum earning guarantee from local territories. So we cannot separate one part from another.


Jackie Chan in The Myth

Are these movies healthy? I don’t think so, because all the movies are from the same genre: period movies, martial art, action, special effects. A part from that the Chinese audience will not believe in any other movies outside these genres. And I think that’s quite unhealthy. If they don’t think the movie’s big, the audience will turn toward legitimate or pirate DVD. They won’t go to the theatres, and also because the ticket price is relatively too high in China compared to the monthly average local salary. In HK, the average salary is HKD10, 000/ month and our ticket costs HKD50. Here the average salary is HKD 2,000 and the ticket price is 50-80, it’s even more than in HK! [Ed.: as of early 2006. In 2007-20008, inflation has made the matter worse].

 
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