The US blockbuster
Troy recently made its way to cinemas
in Beijing and other cities and has proved a box office hit.
Moviegoers are showing increasing enthusiasm for epic films, but
many say that now is not the right time for the domestic film
industry to develop this genre.
Experts say that China has four major problems that prevent
studios here from producing a good epic film: lack of good
screenplays, shortage of funds, lagging technological support and
few qualified directors.
Boring plots. Hollywood blockbuster epics
depict people from all over the world. The story of King Arthur and
his Knights of the Round Table, for example, is set in medieval
Europe -- a far cry from modern southern California. In making
their epics, the Americans appropriate legends from Europe and
elsewhere and instill the characters with the personality of Uncle
Sam.
There is no doubt that it makes a great combination. In China,
oddly enough -- where filmmakers have nearly 5,000 years of history
from which to pick plots -- the focus is always upon a few
personages from a couple of historical periods. Time and time
again, the indomitable Emperor Qinshihuang -- the nation's first
emperor -- goes to his doom on the screen and only to be revived
and dusted off for the next film. Add to those a few tales from the
Qing Dynasty (1644–1911), and you have moviegoers that are no
longer going to movies.
The fact is China has a brilliant history and fascinating
culture that offer a multitude of plots, if only filmmakers would
use them. The legend of Tang Dynasty (618–907) Xuanzang's
pilgrimage to the west and the amazing life experiences of the
wandering poet Li Bai (701–762) remain virtually untouched treasure
troves.
Insufficient funds. The average investment in
this summer's American epic films topped
US$100 million, an enormous figure to the Chinese. Back in 2001,
director Feng Xiaogang won the favor of Columbia Pictures
Entertainment, which gave him US$3 million to shoot his
Big
Shot's Funeral. Many Chinese envied Feng's good fortune, but
the sum was the smallest that Columbia placed in Asia that year.
The standard joke is that Chinese filmmakers are so used to being
poor that even if they acquired US$200 million, they wouldn't know
how to use it.
But that really isn't an issue, since no one is inclined to dump
that amount of money into a stagnant film industry tortured by
pirated products. American filmmakers need to have confidence in
recovering their costs, and that confidence is based on a sound
distribution system, strict industry rules and the support of a
large and loyal movie-going audience.
Backstage low-tech. An essential element of a
successful epic movie is special effects, which are as numberless
as grains of sand on the beach. For example, the computer-generated
effects used in The Lord of the Rings and the Matrix trilogy
compelled admiration. The makers of Troy created a great war using
only 500 people, with the remainder consisting of figures produced
on a computer.
These technologies and techniques are vulnerable spots in
China's already-ailing film industry. What's more, before the
effects can be generated, the concepts are needed. For many
Chinese, animation and cartoons are simple images for children, so
we lack a group of talented and creative animators. Specialists in
3D modeling and motion capturing are needed to help the animators
finish their work. These kinds of professionals are rare in China
but can be found easily in the United States, in such companies as
George Lucas' Industrial Light and Magic and Steven Spielberg's
DreamWorks.
A drought in creative juices. One Chinese
director insisted that he could top Schindler's List with
a film about the Nanjing Massacre. "The Japanese intruders are by
no means inferior to the Nazis in violence," he said. He geared up
and prepared to trounce Spielberg at the box office with his
masterpiece. But it came as no surprise to onlookers that his film
quickly disappeared into the dim mists of flophood.
Many a filmmaker has sought to cash in on Ang Lee's critical and
popular hit with own kung fu epics. For some time, numerous
forgettable crouching tigers and hidden dragons duked it out on
China's silver screens, but most of them would have done better to
stay hidden.
Critic Gao Jun says that to shoot a wonderful epic film, the
director should accumulate a wealth of experience in life and have
a deep understanding of history as well as literature and art. Only
a few domestic filmmakers -- Zhang Yimou, Chen Kaige, Jiang Wen and
a handful of others -- can meet that exacting demand.
(China.org.cn by Li Xiao, July 13, 2004)
