Contemporary urban film Spicy Love Soup, portraying moving modern love and lifestyles in Beijing, splashed onto Chinese cinema screens in 1997. Made on a budget of just three million yuan (US$350,000) the movie grossed almost 30 million yuan (US$3.5 million) at the Chinese box office, second only to that year's blockbuster, Titanic.
Spicy Love Soup was produced by Peter Loehr (Luo Yi), founder of Imar Film Co. Ltd., the first Sino-foreign joint-venture film company in China. Although most Chinese cinema buffs consider Spicy Love Soup, with its predominantly Chinese crew, as a domestic film, its investors and producer alike are foreign. The growing number of such films has engendered a new phrase among Chinese film circles; and the "mixed blood" movie is alive and flourishing.
A whole range of factors, including a gradual relaxing of the State Administration of Radio Film and Television (SARFT's) grip on the film industry sparked off a spate of mixed blood movies. Moviemaking giants such as Columbia and Sony were encouraged to produce films in China, through joint venture companies. Producers viewed mixed blood movies as attractive money-spinners, almost guaranteed to succeed at the box office.
Advantages of "Mixed-Blood Movies"
The success of Spicy Love Soup, which cleaned up in several 1998 film award ceremonies in China, played no small role in the ascendance of mixed blood movies. In the past, few Chinese moviegoers would actually fork out cinema admission fees. Audiences were mainly composed of people who received tickets as work-related bonuses. Then, suddenly, queues appeared outside Chinese picture houses, and hard cash was being eagerly extracted from viewers' wallets. Loehr's success showed that the Chinese film industry could succeed if it broke free from rigid ideological themes and embraced creativity.
Loehr believes that creativity and vitality are essential elements of a successful film. He first gained experience with the Asian market in Japan, where he produced music and film with the Amuse Production House. Loehr also uses young crews; Spicy Love Soup was made by a tight crew of professionally qualified filmsters all less than thirty years of age. Loehr believes that an energetic and professional production team ensures artistic and technological quality, as well as a wealth of new ideas.
Since Spicy Love Soup, Imar has made other low-budget movies, such as Shower and Quitting that have earned big box-office returns and won awards at both domestic and international film festivals. Says Loehr, "Domestically-produced movies are in a depressed state. 90 percent lose money. Our movies have good box-office returns, because their stories suit the tastes of the audience."
According to an industry insider, Imar pays close attention to distribution. In 1997, China had few cinema chains, and movie houses had low expectations of domestic films. Loehr embarked on a whirlwind tour of the country, traveling from city to city and province to province, on advice to convince reluctant local distributors to taste his Spicy Love Soup.
"Distributors in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong, Chengdu, and Shenzhen know how to promote, but those in other places are less experienced," explains Loehr. "Take a 3 million yuan (US $350,000) budget movie like Spicy Love Soup, for example. We had to spend another 2 million yuan on its promotion. In the US, there are 20 national distributors who cover these costs. A producer's work in this respect is merely to prepare relevant materials and arrange times for actors to be present on the promotional schedule."
Apart from conventional promotional activities like posters, trailers and press conferences, Imar made excellent use of its strategic partnership with Taiwan's Rock Records, (the world's largest Chinese pop music conglomerate) which contributed music to the film, released the soundtrack, and shot soundtrack videos with great success. The soundtrack provided high-profile advance publicity for the movies. In return, when the movie was released, soundtrack sales shot up. Well aware of China's vast ocean of young netizens, Loehr also advertised on Yahoo.
Since 1998, Loehr has worked closely with Chinese director Zhang Yang. Their latest work is Sunflower, starring Joan Chen. A family story set against the backdrop of China's "cultural revolution," Sunflower received backing of 12 million yuan (US $1.4 million) from Holland Fortissimo Films, a figure several times higher than that of any of his previous budgets.
From Fear to Win-win
The rapid influx of foreign movies and investment brought fear to many Chinese filmmakers at the prospect of competing with Hollywood. According to Yin Hong, a professor at the Tsinghua University. "Attempting to challenge Hollywood and protect and rejuvenate the Chinese film industry are obsolete concepts. In today's global society, China's moviemakers should focus on co-production to bring the domestic film culture forward." Foreign investors, crews, management and marketing resources are actually already playing a key role in supporting, making and promoting Chinese movies with Chinese partners. Big Shot's Funeral (2001), backed by Columbia Pictures Film Productions, Huayi Brothers, and the Chinese Film Group, is a Sino-foreign co-production. Compared with the megabucks spent in Hollywood, its US $3 million budget was tiny, albeit eleven times the average spent on domestically produced films. Unlike most domestic films, Big Shot's Funeral was made according to market rules, and was a box office smash. It raked in as much as 100 million yuan (US $12 million), a feat at that time unimaginable to Chinese directors and producers. In this game, all sides emerged as winners.
These days, State-owned studios and companies no longer dominate filmmaking and distribution. As restrictions relax, more and more independent filmmakers are getting in on the act. International movie giants have come to China, making both their shareholders and Chinese cinemagoers smile.
In 2004, China further lowered the threshold for private and foreign capital to enter the Chinese movie industry. SARFT enacted policies that grant private and overseas investors easier access to the industry (including production, distribution and building cinema chains), which indicates the government's willingness to improve the industry through opening up. "Film and television producers now have access to the largest market within the Chinese cultural industry," commented Zhang Xiaoming, deputy director of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Cultural Studies Center.
Filmmakers have been quick to respond. In mid-October last year, Beijing-based China Film Group (CFG), the country's biggest film producer, Time Warner and the Hengdian Group set up the country's first joint venture film production company. On November 25, 2004, Sony Pictures Television International (SPTI) and CFG's Hua Long Film Digital Production Co formed Huasuo Film/Television Digital Production Co., the first Sino-American television and film co-production joint venture in which CFG has the 51 percent stake. After Sony announced the establishment of Huasuo on November 24, 2004, its shares rose 9 cents, or 0.3 percent, on the New York Stock Exchange. When asked about the joint venture's advantages, Huang Yaozu from the Chinese side said, "We are a mutually complementary conglomerate. Sony has strong advantages in investing, funds management, and overseas distribution, while we have advantages in the domestic production field."
According to Han Sanping, general manager of CFG, forthcoming attractions include a soon-to-be-established Sino-Canadian joint venture cartoon company, and a Sino-Korean joint venture filmmaking company. News Corporation Ltd., led by media mogul Rupert Murdoch, is discussing several cooperative projects in China, and many other famous foreign companies are making similar attempts in Beijing, Shanghai and other Chinese cities. With 1.3 billion sets of eyes and ears eager to be entertained in this rapidly developing country, who could blame them?
(China Today March 25, 2005)
