Film subsidies and cultural policy: the status of Hong Kong cinema

ABSTRACT

This article reviews the film policy undertaken by the Hong Kong SAR government since the late 1990s. This film policy has been revised and refined over the past two decades, with several earmarked subsidy schemes intended to renew the film industry in production, promotion, and overseas exhibition. We present an account of government film subsidies and examine their effectiveness in the rejuvenation of Hong Kong cinema, followed by the feedback of filmmakers on the schemes. The dynamics and tension between the top-down approaches and the bottom-up perspectives of industry and film workers are critical in gauging the impact of the subsidies. In our final analysis, we reflect on how and why Hong Kong film policy might not have fulfilled its promises. We argue that the government cultural policy leverages the film industry as constitutive of creative and cultural industries to position Hong Kong as a creative capital and cultural hub.

KEYWORDS:

• Film subsidies
• film policy
• cultural policy
• Hong Kong cinema

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Hong Kong filmmakers and film officials for sharing their views and insights on Hong Kong SAR film policy and the problems facing Hong Kong cinema over the past decades. Special thanks to Charlie Fung and Erica Poon who provided crucial research assistance at different stages of this project, and to the anonymous reviewers for their constructive and insightful comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Though statistics of 2020 and 2021 are available, they are not included here as the theatres were mostly closed and productions suspended during the COVID pandemic between early 2020 and 2021.

2. Hong Kong box office publications traditionally have not distinguished locally made films from coproductions. But starting from 2012, government sources have reported performance of local films (gangchan pian) separately from coproductions (hepai pian).

3. See Korean Film Council (https://www.kobiz.or.kr/), Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan, Inc. (Eiren) (https://www.eiren.org/), 2012 Taiwan Cinema Book (https://taiwancinema.bamid.gov.tw/EngTCBook/Index), and Box Office Mojo (https://www.boxofficemojo.com/).

4. Box office records of these films are retrieved from MPIA and Hong Kong Theatres Association (HKTA) affiliated Hong Kong Box Office Limited (HKBO).

5. Information Technology and Broadcasting 2001, Administration’s replies to Members initial written questions in examining the draft Estimates of Expenditure 2001-02: https://legco.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/delivery/852LEGCO_INST:LEGCO/1218656260006976.

6. A case in point is Better Days (2019), a recent picture nominated for Best International Feature Film at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences made by a local director, Derek Tsang Kwok-cheung. This was initiated by Goodfellas Media, a Hong Kong company, and was executive produced by Peter Chan Ho-sun, a major director who has extended his career in China. Raise the Red Lantern (dir. Zhang Yimou, 1991) was the first Hong Kong nominee for this Academy award, followed two years later by Chen Kaige’s Farewell My Concubine. These famous pictures had Hong Kong investment, and were nominated as Hong Kong pictures, though their language, stories, stars, and directors were all mainland Chinese. Better Days was similar, but its director, script, visual effects, and second assistant director came from Hong Kong; it met the criteria for a ‘Hong Kong picture’ set by Hong Kong Motion Picture Industry Association. A film set in Chongqing about high school bullying, psychological abuse and unlikely friendships, the intense film was an enormous hit in China.

7. Chinese capital now controls TVB. In the 1970s, broadcast television used to be a training ground for new writers and directors, leading to the Hong Kong New Wave. That kind of crossover symbiotic relationship is long gone since the decline of Hong Kong cinema.

8. Local audience responded to the film well, with a cumulative box office of HKD76.9 million recorded in early December, surpassing all other government funded projects to date. See Weekly Box Office, Hong Kong International Film and TV Market, Hong Kong Trade Development Council: https://event.hktdc.com/fair/hkfilmart-en/s/11082-General_Information/Hong-Kong-International-Film—TV-Market–FILMART-/Weekly-Box-Office.html.

9. This Amazon Prime series caused a furore when its star, Kidman, and her entourage were exempted from quarantine in August 2021. Ghost in the Shell (2017) is the live action film starring Scarlett Johansson, with scenes shot in Jordan and Yau Ma Tei.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Lingnan University [Faculty Research Grant 101879].

Notes on contributors

Emilie Yueh-Yu Yeh

Emilie Yueh-yu Yeh is Lam Wong Yiu Wah Chair Professor of Visual Studies and Director of Film and Creative Industries at Lingnan University.

Darrell William Davis

Darrell William Davis is Honorary Professor at the Department of Digital Arts and Creative Industries, Lingnan University.