There’s something in the air all right… but Beijing Olympics or not, haven’t we seen it all before?
No prizes for guessing what that is in the air. It’s the whiff of Beijing smog, carried by the frenzy of excitement over the 2008 Olympics, and before you can say ‘what human rights record?’ or ‘where’s Tibet?’ reached choking point as all things Chinese clog up every part of our culture. It’s a (mainly) welcome wave of interest, well matched by some perfectly timed touring exhibitions, such as the First Emperor: China’s Terracotta Army exhibition at the British Museum and China Design Now at the V&A, all helping to wet our appetites for the coming athletic throng. All 15 days of it.
Of course marketers and distributors, hardly known for their inspiring imagination or thorough knowledge of Chinese culture, first turn to martial arts and all things kung fu…
Not that I’m complaining by any means, but isn’t it all rather familiar? Remember when Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon became the must see at the motion pictures, getting a wide release despite the often unmitigated handicap of being in a foreign language? The underlying interest in Asian movies we’ve always had over the years, Seven Samurai/Magnificent Seven, Yojimbo/Fistful Of Dollars, etc etc, suddenly turned into overdrive. And thanks to the action director’s (Yuen woo-ping) work on another recent iconic film, The Matrix, suddenly everyone was kung fu fighting. And if Woo-ping could make most bodacious Keanu look good, then who wouldn’t want to give it a go? Charlie’s Angels, X Men, seems everyone had spent an inordinate amount of time stuck in a Shaolin Temple, waiting to get into that 36th chamber. Now it’s just part of our screen language.
What resulted in the most constant flood of Asian talent in to Hollywood, both actors – like Chow Yun-fat, Jet Li and Jackie Chan – and some directors – such as Hideo Nakata, Takeshi Shimizu (albeit both on remakes of their own films) and Ronny Yu, joining John Woo, Tsui Hark and others behind the camera – also resulted in some of the worst vehicles to date: Replacement Killers? Bulletproof Monk? Shanghai Knights? The Tuxedo? Just about any Jet Li movie made in the West except Kiss Of The Dragon. (Oh, and The One, I’ll let you have that but for all the wrong reasons.)
But there was a positive side effect. Suddenly an awful lot of Asian films were being released in their own right. Small independent distributors thrived on the scene, taking advantage of the budding DVD market. Ong-Bak re-invigorated martial arts with death-defying real stunts that literally made you hold your breath in the cinema. Infernal Affairs was even given a minor release before Scorsese had revealed his interest in remaking it as The Departed. (No one seems to have quite gotten round to the much mooted remake of Park Chan-wook’s Oldboy.) An Japanese animation even won an Oscar, all be it perhaps one of the best ever made – Spirited Away. (Though it did benefit from a Disney release!)
Then 18 months ago it all went wrong…
It wasn’t so much in Hollywood, still happy to look eastwards for inspiration. There just didn’t seem to be enough room for Asian releases anymore, and retailers were quickly losing a grip on their market. Whether that was really the effect of peer-to-peer downloading, or just a fickle loss of interest that led to a lack of promotion for what Asian release there were, is hard to tell. But there just weren’t as many films being released, not just at the cinema, but also on DVD. Truth is, if the internet is to blame for anything, it’s that we can all get much better editions of Asian films directly from the East, and long before they come out here.
Before too long companies were going out of business. First Hong Kong Legends, which had built up a strong reputation throughout the world for good quality releases. couldn’t keep up with distributors in Hong Kong that were starting to release remastered versions of the same classic movies at a quicker rate. In their last few months of trading, industry contacts said they could hardly give their releases away, being lucky to move 80 units throughout the UK.
More recently Tartan Films, based in the UK and US, has followed suit. One of the longest surviving independent distributors, Asian films were certainly just a small part of their output, and had been greatly reduced over the same period. Considering the intelligent, bizarre and outstanding films they’ve helped bring to the UK, including notable US independent and horror releases, this is a real shame for all of us.
Things did not look good. According to those in the industry, all things Asian were pretty much dead… until now…
Once again, if anything Hollywood is leading the charge. The past few months have seen some several films cash in on Olympic-mania – the surprising part being if anything they’ve done it quite well. The Forbidden Kingdom united Jet Li and Jackie Chan for the first time, but with Yuen Woo-ping on board – who worked with both actors in the past – and a largely Chinese crew, combined with scriptwriter John Fusco’s obvious love of Hong Kong movies, the result was a warm-hearted kids film with some kick-ass fight scenes. Then there was Kung Fu Panda. Again drawing on those same Yuen Woo-ping/Jackie Chan movies, Dreamworks latest turned all those animal themed martial art moves in to, well, animals.
And once again, we’re seeing distributors (or at least, those that are left) a lot more open to releasing Asian movies. In the coming months Chocolate, from Ong-Bak director Prachya Pinkaew, finally reaches our shores, and we’ve seen Mad Detective given a small scale release, soon to be followed by Triangle. Let’s hope the interest sticks – at least for a while…
Of course it’s not all good. The latest installment of The Mummy franchise has taken a neat idea to spin put another yarn and missed the mark. The Pang brothers follow their disappointingly received Hollywood debut The Messengers with a Nicholas Cage vehicle Bangkok Dangerous – a remake (of sorts) of their own first collective effort. Gorillaz creators Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett have made a musical about that irrepressible Monkey. And right now every advert under the sun is using Crouching Tiger style moves to sell their wares, from McDonalds to Frosties, and you know you’re in trouble when even Tony the Tiger is pulling some Shaolin monk moves. (Pretty soon we’ll all be sick of Chinese-themed anything!)
Ho hum, let’s see how much interest there is in a month’s time…?
