Despite Hong Kong's small size, it is still one of the world's biggest film producers. Because of its mix of eastern and western cultures, the region's film industry has always been driven by commercial factors.

Last year the film Infernal Affairs was the savior of Hong Kong's film market, preventing it from a great loss. Because of its success, film-makers are ready to make another two sequels this year while similar films such as the Color of the Truth and Heroic Duo have also gone into pre-production.

Imitation has long been a tradition of the Hong Kong film industry, after a movie is successful, many films of the same type will be mass produced until the audience are completely fed up with the genre. Let's take a look at the four main streams of Hong Kong movies.

Stage One: Age of the Gunbattle

Leading Directors: John Woo and Hark Tsui

1987 might be the year that most gun-battle movie goers will never forget, because it saw the release of the film A Better Tomorrow. Encouraged by its great success, almost all Hong Kong filmmakers started to add violent gun battles into their movies. But the low quality of the imitations spoiled the gun battle genre, its heyday ending with the separation of John Woo and Hark Tsui.

Representative Work: A Better Tomorrow & The Killer

Stage Two: Age of New Martial Art

Leading Director: Hark Tsui

In the early 1990's, a "New Martial Art Style" appeared to satisfy audiences who had grown tired of gunbattle movies. Among the many Kung-fu films, stands out the Huang Feihong series directed by Hark Tsui. It brought the style into the main stream of the Hong Kong film market, but once again this style still couldn't avoid being eliminated because of imitation and repetition.

Representative Work: Huang Feihong & Fang Shiyu

Stage Three: Age of the Gambler

Leading Director: Wang Jing

The birth of the "Gambler Film" was comparable to the "New Martial Art" of the same time. Beginning from the God of Gambler's return starring by Chou Yunfat, films of this style swept the Chinese film market. Because of its popularity, the style was also duplicated, so much so that even big names like Andy Lau and Stephen Chow also starred in gambler movies. When the audience had enough, gambler films found out their luck had run out.

Representative Work: The Conman & God of Gambler's Return

Stage Four: Age of Love Comedies

Leading Director: Johnny Du

After growing tired of violent scenes, HK movie goers became keener on comedies. In the late 1990's, Johnny Du's Needing you came along just at the right time. Since then, humorous love stories found a rich market in Hong Kong. But once again many imitators surfaced and this romantic affair was bound for a tragic end and it wasn't long before audiences could no longer bear the taste of saccharine coated love stories.

Representative Work: Fly Me to Polaris & Love on A Diet

"The audience do not know what they really want. So the filmmakers should tell them what to enjoy. In my view, we should admire those pioneers of new styles instead of the followers," said Zhao Baogang, mainland director

"This phenomenon has lasted for 30 years in Hong Kong. Fads usually surface every five or 10 years. The production companies have dominated the film market over the years. They spent money buying films and then employed producers to control the market's development. They want the producers to make those films a great success in a short time. This is why many filmmakers are interested in the most popular style of a certain time," said Eric Tsang, Hong Kong actor.

So there you have it, we should praise innovation and slam imitation. It doesn't matter whether you admire or dislike them, duplication has long been a part of the Hong Kong's boom and bust film industry.

(CCTV.com August 12, 2003)