Hong Kong: Celebrating Our Home: Volume 4, Autumn 2007 p3

Fantastic movie studio: Hong Kong

by Human Chan Hiu Man

Introduction

Hong Kong is famous for its freedom of speech,

political stability, and favorable financial and

commercial environment. Moreover, Hong Kong

has played an important role in Asian movie

industries in recent years. Hong Kong movies

have become more attractive to some movie

companies, producers, directors, performers and

audiences all over the world as Hong Kong’s

movie industry made outstanding achievements.

This potential should be maintained and

enhanced in order to develop Hong Kong into a

diversified city.

Earnest actors in Hong Kong movies

Hong Kong actors Jackie Chan and Chow Yun-Fat are well known not only in Asian countries, but also

in overseas movie markets. Since they are zealous and diligent in acting in the movies, they have

succeeded in developing their careers in Hollywood, a movie production center in the United States

that has a dominant status in the movie industry of the world.

Jackie Chan mainly acted in action movies and performed Chinese Kung-fu and dangerous actions in

the movies. However, he has never employed any stunt man. He persisted in performing every shot

even though the operations may cause injuries or even death. Owing to his conscientiousness and

braveness, he was praised by the audience and has become a celebrated action movie star in the

world.

Chow Yun-Fat was very famous in Asian countries in the 1980’s. In order to develop his career

overseas, he spent several years learning English before his first movie in Hollywood [1]. He has

made great efforts to perform well in every movie and become a leading role in the Hollywood movies.

Like Jackie Chan and Chow Yun-Fat, other performers in Hong Kong also have positive attitudes and

remarkable successes. They help promote Hong Kong movies. In addition, with the fantastic

performance of the actors and actresses in Hong Kong, Hong Kong movies are awarded prizes from

movie festivals and competitions in different countries and are given praises worldwide.

Hong Kong: Celebrating Our Home: Volume 4, Autumn 2007 p4

Strong production crew and creative directors

Filmmaking requires capable production crew, including editors, cinematographers, visual effects

producers and production designers. In Hong Kong, there are numerous outstanding staff behind the

scenes. In 2000, Tim Yip received the Best Art Direction [2] and Peter Pau was awarded the Best

Cinematography in the Annual Academy Awards (Oscar Awards) [3]. This shows that the members of

production crew have abundant experience of producing films and they help to produce wonderful

movies in Hong Kong.

Apart from the production crew, Hong Kong directors also contribute to the making of movies and the

promotion of Hong Kong’s movie industry because of their creativity. The varied themes of movies

arouse the interest of the movie-going public in the world. For example, the Pang Brothers

concentrated on producing horror films in Hong Kong [4]. These special series of movies suited the

audiences in different countries and the Pang Brothers have succeeded in getting the chances to

produce films in Hollywood [4]. In addition, Yuen Wo-Ping is a very talented choreographer, actor and

director [5]. He contributed in many Hong Kong and Hollywood movies such as “The Matrix

Revolutions”, “Kill Bill” and “Ye Yan” [6].

Remarkable achievements

In the 19th Tokyo International Film Festival (2006),

the movie “After This Our Exile”, in which the

director was Patrick Tam from Hong Kong and

Hong Kong famous actor Aaron Kwok played the

leading role in the film, was nominated for the Best

Asian Film Award [7]. Moreover, in the 79th Annual

Academy Awards (Oscar Awards) held on 25th

February 2007, the movie “The Departed”, which

was adapted from the Hong Kong movie “Internal

Affairs”, won the best-adapted screenplay and the

best picture [8]. These achievements attracted

international attention and people overseas have

started to keep an eye on the films produced in

Hong Kong.

Celebration of Hong Kong’s movie industry

To celebrate the success of the movie industry in Hong Kong, the government and the public should

put much effort into supporting the industry. On the one hand, the government should provide

subsidies to the new and outstanding directors in order to finance their production of movies. This will

raise their incentives to think of more special topics and produce fantastic films in the future. On the

other hand, as the citizens living in Hong Kong, we should avoid illegally downloading the movies from

Hong Kong: Celebrating Our Home: Volume 4, Autumn 2007 p5

the Internet, which reduces the revenue of the movie companies. In addition, we should participate in

the movie festivals in Hong Kong and enjoy every movie!

References

1. Yahoo! Movies. 2007. Chow Yun-Fat Biography.

<http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/contributor/1800019656/bio> Retrieved on 24 April 2007

2. Yahoo! Movies. 2007. Tim Yip Awards and Nominations.

<http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/contributor/1804359123/awards> Retrieved on 24 April 2007.

3. Yahoo! Movies. 2007. Peter Pau Awards and Nominations.

<http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/contributor/1800278156/awards> Retrieved on 24 April 2007.

4. YesAsia.com. 2007. Feature Article: The Pang Brothers: Twin Talents.

<http://global.yesasia.com/en/Emagazine/ArticlePage.aspx/section-videos/code-c/articleId-14/>

Retrieved on 24 April 2007.

5. Yahoo! Movies. 2007. Yuen Wo-Ping Biography.

<http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/contributor/1800059725/bio> Retrieved on 24 April 2007.

6. Yahoo! Movies. 2007. Yuen Wo-Ping Filmography.

<http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/contributor/1800059725/filmography> Retrieved on 24 April 2007.

7. 19th Tokyo International Film Festival. 2006. Prizewinners announcement. <http://www.tiff-

jp.net/en/information/updates/sakura_awards.html> Retrieved on 24 April 2007.

8. 79th Annual Academy Awards. 2007. Nominees and winners.

<http://www.oscars.org/79academyawards/nomswins.html> Retrieved on 24 April 2007.