Beijing Screenings Turn Spotlight on Local Films
The spotlight will be firmly on the local film industry next week, when international film buyers, critics and film festival programmers converge on the capital for the Beijing Screenings, four days of films, seminars and screenings starting September 23.
China’s film industry has come a long way since the China Film Group invited a group of international film industry professionals to the very first Beijing Screenings in 1996. Film production and box office takings have consistently grown over the last five years. The local film industry produced a record 402 films last year, while box office takings soared to a new high of RMB3.3 billion (US$452 million).
The domestic film industry has got off to a positive start in 2008, according to the Sichuan Film Company's review of the first half (see story under Film). The domestic film industry produced 42 local films in the first six months of the year, generating RMB910 million (US$132.85 million) at the mainland box office, or 55% of the total takings.
Despite the rosy government figures, Chinese films face a number of problems in domestic and international markets. Only 80 of the films produced last year were shown in theatres in China and even less made it overseas. While Chinese films have long been welcome on the international film festival circuit, commercial success has proved elusive. Most of the handful of films that have done well overseas have been Sino-foreign co-productions.
Thirty-two Chinese films were sold to 40 countries and regions in the first six months of this year, generating RMB1.2 billion (US$0.18 billion) in box office receipts overseas, according to China Film Promotion International (CFPI) (see Feature Interview). Twenty-two of these productions were co-productions, including the top three international hits. Lust, Caution ranked first with RMB193 million (US$28.18 million) at the international box office, Forbidden Kingdom came second with RMB5.53 million (US$0.81 million) and CJ7 was third with RMB1.44 million (US$0.21 million). Pan-Asian co-production Red Cliff did well in Asia but has yet to be released in the US.
The problem is one of orientation, according to Beijing Screenings organizer China Film Promotion International President Zhou Tiedong (see Feature Interview). He says Chinese films do not do well overseas because they are not produced for an international audience. To help rectify this problem, the Beijing Screenings will host two seminars on how to appeal to a universal audience.
That's all very nice and well, but many would argue the seminars are missing the point. Many Chinese films that do well overseas face considerable problems with the censors in China. Like Lust, Caution, which was heavily censored before it was allowed to show in China, igniting a public debate over whether the country should introduce a censorship system.
Even then, industry rumors say Lust, Caution so incensed a high-up government official, the State Administration of Radio, Film and TV (SARFT) stopped approving all Sino-foreign co-productions in the politically sensitive lead-up to the Olympics. All ads featuring Lust, Caution lead actress Tang Wei were banned from television and the Weinstein Company was denied a license to shoot Shanghai after spending millions of dollars building sets in China.
SARFT followed up with a notice restating its policy on banned content, which includes graphic sex scenes, distortions of Chinese history, horror and suspense, and nihilism (see China Media Monitor March 29, 2008). High profile Chinese director Wang Xiaoshuai found the mainland release of his new film In Love We Trust was delayed due to censorship problems in China, a few months after winning the Silver Berlin Bear for Best Screenplay at the 2008 Berlinale.
Can the local film industry produce international hits in such a restrictive environment? The organizers of the Beijing Screenings certainly hope so. They have lined up a series of films with 100% local production and investment, ranging from the Huayi Brother's new commercial film The Equation of Love and Death to The Urtiin Duu from the Lashan Government of Inner Mongolia and Beijing Classic Culture and Media. International buyers will pass their own judgment on the films when they arrive in Beijing next week.