How Mr. Kong Helped Turn China Into a Film Power
Producer Weds Low-Cost,
High-Quality Projects
With U.S. Distribution
A 9-Square-Mile Studio Lot
SHANGHAI -- Movie producer Bill Kong was cutting a distribution deal in the back seat of a car speeding to the set of his fourth film in five years. He's a Hollywood hit maker, with movies grossing $500 million to his name. But he's never produced a picture in Los Angeles, or in English.
Mr. Kong was shuttling a vice president from Universal Pictures to the outskirts of Shanghai, where he had constructed a replica of an ancient port town and makeshift soundstage on a barren field. "I thought they took the wrong turn when they went on this back road," said Michael J. Joe, the visiting Universal executive, who has since signed up to distribute the new film in Europe and the U.S. The film, titled "Fearless," comes out early next year.
When Mr. Kong, 52 years old, produced his first film "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," he spent a year wooing Hollywood to front half of the $15 million budget. It became America's best-selling foreign-language film ever, until topped by Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" in Aramaic.
Today, Hollywood comes to Mr. Kong. Mr. Joe is one of five Los Angeles executives who made the pilgrimage this year. Mr. Kong whisked him around the set, showing off detailed lattice windows and wine jugs smashed during a fight scene. "If this film was shot in an American back lot five days a week, it would cost $60 to $70 million," said Mr. Kong. "Here we can shoot six days a week, and we've done it in four months for $30 million."
The economics that made China a global production and consumption powerhouse in autos, textiles and consumer products have now hit Hollywood. In just five years, China has become what Hollywood considers the world's most important producer of foreign-language blockbusters, catapulting beyond France, Spain or India in global box-office receipts. Low costs help. But the main reason is bigger: Chinese filmmakers have found a formula of movie-making -- with high-quality productions, exotic settings, gorgeously choreographed action and universal themes -- that sell equally well in Boston and Beijing.
In response, financiers and filmmakers from Hollywood, Hong Kong and China have teamed up and even have brought on board some unlikely allies -- China's cantankerous regulators and intrepid DVD pirates. The new paradigm has allowed the Chinese film industry to duplicate Hollywood's long-successful formula: Earn enough money domestically to cover the costs of making a film and then generate big profits through distribution abroad.
Frequently, the low-profile Mr. Kong is the matchmaker. "Bill is the first guy to bring together creative filmmakers in China, Hong Kong and Hollywood," says Mr. Joe of Universal, a unit of General Electric Co.'s NBC Universal.
After releasing "Crouching Tiger" in 2000, Mr. Kong went on to produce "Hero," a thought-provoking action flick that topped the U.S. box office for its first two weeks. "Hero" also trumped Hollywood fare at Chinese cinemas, which had been dominated by imports for a decade. He followed with "House of Flying Daggers" last year, which, along with Columbia Pictures' "Kung Fu Hustle," also became an international hit.
"What other country has produced four films in the same number of years that have reached $100 million?" Mr. Kong asks.
This year, there are more than 200 films in production on the mainland, up from 140 in 2003. When Mr. Kong made "Crouching Tiger" in 1999, China didn't even have trailers to house stars on set. Today, there's a huge studio lot here, dubbed "Chinawood," that has become a money-making tourist attraction in its own right. Hengdian World Studios, a 9-square-mile complex owned by a manufacturing giant, features a full-scale replica of the massive Forbidden City. Last year, Hengdian inked a joint venture to make Chinese-language pictures with Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros. and has plans for a public stock offering.
Tourists line up to collect celebrity autographs at Hengdian World Studios' weekly 'meet the stars' events.
Miramax founder Harvey Weinstein is setting up a Chinese film fund. Action director John Woo, who left Hong Kong in 1993 to direct Hollywood blockbusters like "Face/Off," is now set to direct a big-budget Chinese-language "Battle of the Red Cliffs."
To be sure, even the total box-office take of the biggest Chinese hits can't compete with a single weekend of receipts from an American blockbuster like "Shrek." And the Chinese movie audience, while potentially the world's largest and growing, is still limited by the masses of people who can't afford a $3 movie ticket.
The market is also one of the world's most tightly regulated. For years, the Motion Picture Association of America has lobbied against China's decision to distribute only 20 imported films per year, with state-owned companies claiming most of the box-office revenue. What's more, all films shot in China must have their scripts and final edits approved before they can be released. Forbidden themes include Tibetan independence, corrupt police, ghosts and other things deemed bad for "socialist advanced culture."
But now, with the U.S. box-office take shrinking each year, China offers Hollywood studios a growing audience. China's domestic box office grew 50% in 2004, to nearly $190 million. While China didn't completely open its film industry when it joined the World Trade Organization in 2001, it did open a loophole. Hollywood heavyweights can now gain access to the mainland market by co-producing local Chinese-language films along with Chinese partners.
That's a big shift for Hollywood, which has only rarely sought entree to foreign markets by going local. "Most studios don't care what is going on outside of the 310 area code," says Barbara Robinson, the managing director of Sony Corp.'s Columbia Pictures Film Production Asia. But late last year and this year, "Kung Fu Hustle," a martial-arts comedy she co-produced with Chinese partners, brought in $20 million in China and $100 million globally. It cost a total of only $15 million to make. "This works so much better," Ms. Robinson says.
Chinese cinema has come full circle. In the roaring '20s and '30s, Shanghai took on Hollywood with starlets like Butterfly Wu and Ruan Lingyu, the "Garbo of China," whose tragic death and funeral made the cover of Life Magazine. The Shanghai studios invented a genre all their own -- kung fu -- and at their height churned out 200 movies a year. Warner Bros. owned a Shanghai cinema, and the film department of British American Tobacco shot films in the city.
But when the Communist Party took over in 1949, it turned cinema into propaganda. By the time of the Cultural Revolution in the late 1960s, films were under the control of Mao Zedong's wife, Jiang Qing, who filmed revolution-themed operas such as "Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy." That dreary era ended as art-house directors turned experimental in the 1980s, but their state funding placed strict limits on content and eventually audiences dried up. In the 1990s, China's film industry nearly collapsed as soap operas and pirated foreign DVDs kept audiences at home.
What kept Chinese cinema alive was a group of directors including Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige who were wowing the festival circuit with art-house films such as "Raise the Red Lantern" and "Farewell My Concubine."
In the past decade, America and Europe have become enamored both with China's economic development and its ancient culture -- picking up chinoiserie in everything from fashion to movies. But meanwhile, the domestic Chinese film-going market withered. Until three years ago, only a handful of heavily censored American hits drew audiences to China's dilapidated theaters. Even those imported pictures did little for Hollywood's bottom line, because China's protectionist laws returned only about 13% of the box-office take to foreign companies.
Marrying his contacts in Los Angeles with Chinese producers and talents, Mr. Kong was the first person to turn a co-production into a commercial success. With "Crouching Tiger," Mr. Kong had intended to be only a passive investor. But when a close friend who was set to produce had a stroke, Mr. Kong took the reins.
Mr. Kong, who lives in Hong Kong, had long straddled the worlds of Chinese cinema and Hollywood. His father, a film distributor, took him on business trips to pick up movies for export, even taking him into a Danish movie theater to see an erotic movie when he was just 13 years old. His company, Edko Films Ltd., eventually found a niche carrying both Hollywood blockbusters and art-house fare to audiences in Hong Kong and China, where he had set up the country's first multiplex in 1986. He adopted his dad's thrifty habits for life: Unlike his Hollywood partners, Mr. Kong always flies economy class, and he schedules overnight flights to save the cost of a hotel room. "I sleep well on planes," he says.
"Crouching Tiger" took in $3.7 million in China -- a small but respectable return at the time. But the film's spectacular success in the U.S., including four Oscars, 10 Oscar nominations and $128 million in ticket sales, proved that American audiences would pay to see Chinese films, if they are good enough.
His next film, "Hero," another big hit in the U.S., proved that Chinese audiences also would turn out in high numbers for a locally produced film they liked. The film surprised even Mr. Kong when it brought in more than eight times the Chinese box office of "Crouching Tiger," taking in $30 million in ticket sales and $2 million on DVD. That showed that the Chinese market could return enough to cover the cost of a film. "I'm now more excited about making films for the Chinese market than anywhere else," he says.
Lately, the buzz on Chinese film has sparked a gold rush among investors. The biggest speculator to enter the market is China's Hengdian Group, a closely held manufacturing and pharmaceutical company. Since 1996, Hengdian has built a massive film studio complete with 13 dynastic palaces, and now is considered the Chinese equivalent of Universal Studios -- both the movie lot and the theme park. Unlike Hollywood studios, Hengdian's lots are made available to production crews free, with revenue coming instead from the three million tourists who pay to watch filming each year. Producers who use the lots must also make their stars available to sign autographs Sunday mornings.
Hengdian's film operations account for just a few percent of the company's $1.7 billion in annual revenue. But President Xu Yong'An, 40, who inherited the reins from his father, says he spends half his time devoted to movies. He has traveled to Hollywood more than a dozen times, has cut a film co-production deal with Warner Bros. and has plans to spin out the entertainment division for a coming $100 million stock market listing. The company hasn't decided whether it will list in Hong Kong or New York.
Such enthusiasm worries Mr. Kong, who sees many challenges for the industry. " 'Crouching Tiger' made $200 million, but a lot didn't reach my pocket," he says.
Still, he has made a habit of overcoming obstacles. Piracy siphons some $2.8 billion from the Chinese box office and video business, according to MPAA estimates. But for "Hero," Mr. Kong corralled the biggest pirates to his side, putting them in charge of keeping illegal copies off the street while the movie was still showing in the theater. A consortium from mainland China bought the exclusive video distribution rights for $2 million at an open auction. "They were tired of being pirates -- they wanted to go legit," he says, though his premieres still feature metal detectors to keep out video cameras, according to some reports.
He has even benefited from the government's dominant role in the industry. One key to the box-office success of "Hero" and Columbia's recent "Kung Fu Hustle" was the sort of protectionism that still rankles the MPAA. The Chinese government treated those foreign-local co-productions as domestic products -- freeing them from the foreign import quotas, and keeping out pure Hollywood fare when the films are in theaters. "It works," says Columbia's Ms. Robinson, "because you get rid of the competition."
But the government has continued to keep a tight lid on content and has recently clamped down on foreign-TV broadcasts, saying it won't allow any new overseas channels to be broadcast in the country. Directors who don't play by the rules often see their films banned in China. The China Film Group, the country's largest state-owned film company, also recently delayed its expected stock-market listing, but private producers say film co-productions with Hollywood haven't been curtailed, at least so far.
Mr. Kong, struggling to remain apolitical, has reached as far back as 2,000 years to the Qin dynasty to find fodder for his stories. "Hero" sparked intense debate because some people interpreted its theme of tyranny and unity as an endorsement of the Communist government. In numerous press reports, its depiction of the need for centralized power to maintain order even drew comparisons to the 1989 crackdown on student protesters in Beijing's Tiananmen Square.
Mr. Kong insists "Hero" wasn't trying to win special government favor, saying: "Why risk money to get a political message across?"
中国渐成好莱坞大片厂
电影制片人江志强(Bill Kong)在汽车后座上签署著一份协议，这辆汽车正飞驰驶往他五年内第四部电影的拍摄地。江志强可谓是好莱坞大片的制片人，他出品的电影已经带来了高达5亿美元的收益。但是，他从未在洛杉矶制作过一部影片，也从未出品过英文影片。
江志强的车正载著环球影业公司(Universal Pictures)的副总裁前往上海郊外。那里，江志强在一片荒芜之地上复制了一座古代港口城市，还有一个因陋就简的摄影棚。“刚开上这条乡间道路时，我还以为他们走错路了，”前去参观的环球副总裁麦克尔?乔(Michael J. Joe)说。他随后就签署了协议，将一部在这里拍摄的影片《霍元甲》(Fearless)发行到欧洲和美国。这部影片定于明年初上映。
江志强今年52岁，当年监制影片《卧虎藏龙》(Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon)时，他用了整整一年时间游说好莱坞提前支付1,500万美元预算的一半。这部电影一炮而红，成为好莱坞最畅销的外语影片，直到梅尔?吉布森(Mel Gibson)的亚拉姆语《基督受难记》(The Passion of the Christ)上映。
现在，轮到好莱坞拜访江志强了。乔就是今年来访的五位洛杉矶制片公司高层经理之一。江志强带著他快步浏览这些布景，向他展示细节一丝不苟的窗棂和某打斗场景中压碎的酒壶。“如果在美国的摄影棚拍这部片子，每周工作五天，成本就是6,000万到7,000万美元，”江志强说，“在这儿我们每周拍摄六天，四个月完成，只需3,000万美元。”
中国所具备的、让它自己成为汽车和纺织品等消费品的全球生产基地及消费市场的经济优势现在也让好莱坞感到心动。就在短短五年之内，中国已经成为好莱坞眼中全球最重要的的外语大片产地，迅速超越了法国、西班牙或印度在全球电影票房排行榜上的位置。低成本功不可没，但真正的原因意义更加重大：中国电影制片商已经找到了一套电影生产模式－－配以高品质的作品、充满异国风情的布景、眼花缭乱的动作和四海皆宜的主题－－生产出在波士顿和北京一样畅销的影片。
为此，好莱坞、香港和中国大陆的投资人和制片商已经团结在一起，甚至形成了一种让人觉得有些匪夷所思的联盟－－与中国不好对付的监管机构及无所畏惧的DVD盗版团体合作。这个全新范例令中国电影行业得以复制好莱坞久经考验、行之有效的模式：在国内市场赚取足以收回成本的收入，然后通过海外发行赢得巨大利润。
很多情况下，为人低调的江志强就是这两个环节当中的撮合人。“他是将中国、香港和好莱坞创意无限的电影人吸引到一起的第一人，”环球影业公司的乔说。环球影业公司是通用电气(General Electric Co.)旗下NBC Universal的子公司。
2000年发行《卧虎藏龙》之后，江志强开始参与《英雄》(Hero)的制片工作。这是一部引人深思的动作片，在美国上映的前两周就荣登票房榜首，在国内电影院的票房收入也超过了十年来占据票房高位的进口好莱坞影片。紧接著，去年他监制了《十面埋伏》(House of Flying Daggers)。这部影片和美国哥伦比亚影片公司(Columbia Pictures)出品的《功夫》(Kung Fu Hustle)一起，同时成为畅销全球的大片。
“还有哪个国家能在同样时间里出品四部获得1亿美元票房的影片？”江志强问道。
今年，在大陆制作的电影超过了200部，而在2003年还只有140部。江志强1999年监制《卧虎藏龙》时，大陆的片场甚至还没有主要演员专用的化妆车。如今，这里已经发展成为一个巨大的影视基地，号称Chinawood，吸引著络绎不绝慕名而来的各地游客。它的正式名称是横店影视城(Hengdian World Studios)，占地9平方英里，最醒目的景点就是按原尺寸复制的规模宏大的紫禁城(Forbidden City)。去年，横店影视城与时代华纳(Time Warner Inc.)旗下的华纳兄弟(Warner Bros.)签署了合资协议，联手制作中文影片。影视城还准备公开上市。
Miramax电影公司创始人哈威?温斯坦(Harvey Weinstein)正在创建一项中国影片基金。动作片导演吴宇森(John Woo)正准备投拍一部大制作中文影片《赤壁之战》(Battle of the Red Cliffs)。吴宇森1993年离开香港，到好莱坞导演了《变脸》(Face/Off)等巨作。
当然，即使几部中文大片的票房加在一起，也难以抗衡《怪物史莱克》(Shrek)等美国大片一个周末的票房收入。而中国的电影观众数量仍然很有限，虽说有望成为全球规模最大的观众群，人数也在不断增长，但大部分居民仍然难以承担每张人民币20多元的票价。
中国电影市场也是全球监管最严格的市场之一。数年来，美国电影协会(Motion Picture Association of America, 简称MPAA)一直在游说中国监管机构，放宽每年进口20部外国影片的限制。这些进口影片的多数票房收入都进到了国有企业的腰包。
此外，所有在中国摄制的影片都必须在上映之间将剧本和剪辑完成样片送交监管机构审批。禁止拍摄的包括西藏独立、警察腐败、鬼神等不利于“社会主义文化发展”的题材。
但眼下，美国的电影票房江河日下，中国就成了好莱坞制片商面前一个观众不断扩大的市场。2004年，中国国内电影票房收入激增50%，逼近1.9亿美元。虽然中国在2001年加入世界贸易组织(World Trade Organization)时没有全面开放电影行业，但也稍稍开了一条门缝。好莱坞大型电影制片厂可以与国内电影制片厂合作拍摄中文影片，由此获得进入大陆市场的一线良机。
这对好莱坞来说可是一大转变，以前它根本不用考虑如何通过本地化打入国外市场。“大多数制片商根本不考虑好莱坞以外的世界，”索尼(Sony Corp.)旗下哥伦比亚制作（亚洲）(Columbia Pictures Film Production Asia)的行政董事巴巴拉?罗宾森(Barbara Robinson)说。但去年底和今年，该公司与中国同行合作出品的影片《功夫》已经在中国斩获了2,000万美元收入，全球收入则有1亿美元，而影片的制作成本只有区区1,500万美元。“这办法好得太多了，”她说。
中国电影行业的发展走了一圈弯路。早在二、三十年代，上海滩就弥漫著一片好莱坞之风，胡蝶(Butterfly Wu)和阮玲玉是名噪一时的电影明星。阮玲玉更是被誉为“中国的嘉宝”(Garbo of China)，后来她自尽而死，无数观众自发为她举行葬礼的照片登上了当时《生活杂志》(Life Magazine)的封面。上海制片商自创了一个流派－－功夫片－－巅峰时期每年出产200部片子。华纳兄弟在上海有一家制片厂，英美烟草(British American Tobacco)的制片部门也在上海拍摄影片。
1949年新中国成立后，电影变成了宣传手段。到60年代末文化大革命(Cultural Revolution)开始之际，电影行业一直在毛泽东夫人江青的控制之下。她主持拍摄了《智取危虎山》(Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy)等革命题材的影片。万马齐喑的年代结束后，八十年代艺术电影的导演们纷纷投入试验电影的创作，但一切资金来自国家，这大大限制了电影内容的取舍，最终被观众弃之而去。到了九十年代，中国电影行业已经难以为继，电视肥皂剧和盗版外国影片DVD把观众都留在自己家里。
给中国电影重新注入活力的是张艺谋和陈凯歌这一代导演，他们拍摄的《大红灯笼高高挂》(Raise the Red Lantern)和《霸王别姬》(Farewell My Concubine)等艺术影片在国际电影节频频获奖。
最近十年来，美国和欧洲屡屡为中国飞速发展的经济而惊叹，被中国的古代文化深深吸引－－从时装到电影中国元素无处不在。但与此同时，中国国内的电影市场却在日渐萎缩。直到三年前，还只有极少数经严格审查后的美国影片才能把部分观众吸引到年久失修的电影院里。但是，即使通过了审查，这些影片给好莱坞制片商带来的利润简直可以忽略不计，因为中国执行的保护性条款只允许外国制片商拿走区区13%的票房收入。
江志强是第一位帮助中外联合制作的影片实现商业成功的人，他将自己在洛杉矶的人脉与中国的制片人和业内精英联系到一起。本来，他只想在《卧虎藏龙》中作一位低调次要的投资人，但原本担当制片人的密友突然中风，江志强才走马上任。
江志强在香港居住，长年游走于中国和好莱坞的电影界。他父亲是一位电影发行商，为挑选出口影片而出差时总要带上他。甚至有一次，在他只有13岁时，带他去丹麦一家电影院看色情电影。江志强的香港安乐影片有限公司(Edko Films Ltd.)最终另僻蹊径，找到了让香港和大陆观众既能欣赏好莱坞大片也能观看艺术类电影的渠道。1986年，他兴建了中国第一家多影厅影院。他还继承了父亲节俭的生活方式：和好莱坞的合作伙伴不同，他出行总是乘坐经济舱，为节省酒店住宿费还常常乘坐夜间航班。他说，“我在飞机上睡得很香。”
《卧虎藏龙》在中国获得370万美元票房－－虽然不多但在当时已经相当可观。可是，《卧虎藏龙》更令人震惊的成功是在美国，一举赢得四项奥斯卡(Oscars)奖、10项奥斯卡奖提名和1.28亿美元票房。这说明，只要影片本身出色，美国观众就愿意掏钱观看中国影片。
江志强参与制作的第二部影片、又在美国大获成功的《英雄》则证明，中国观众如果真心喜欢也会大批前往电影院观看国产影片。《英雄》的收入比《卧虎藏龙》高出七倍有余，票房收入3,000万美元，DVD收入200万美元。这让江志强本人都大吃一惊。这一次则表明，单在中国市场就足以收回制作成本。江志强表示，现在他更热衷于为中国市场制作影片，超过了对世界任何其他地方的热情。
近来，中国电影的繁荣兴旺之势吸引了大批投资者前来淘金。最引人瞩目的当属中国横店集团(Hengdian Group)，一家私营制造商和制药公司。1996年以来，横店集团兴建了一个规模庞大的影视城，中国13个朝代的宫殿模型尽在其中，它已经发展成为人们心目中中国版的环球影城(Universal Studios)－－既是片场，也是主题公园。但与好莱坞的影城不同，摄制组可以免费使用横店影视城的设施，但必须让影片主角在周日上午接待影视城的游客并在照片上签名。影视城的收入就来自每年300万前来观看影片拍摄的游客。
从横店集团年收入人民币17亿元的情况来看，影视城的收入不过是九牛一毛。但集团创始人之子、现年40岁的总裁徐永安说，他一半的时间都用在影视城上了。他数十次前往好莱坞，与华纳兄弟签署了合作制片协议，还准备将这项娱乐业务剥离出去，进行1亿美元的公开募股，但尚未决定在香港还是纽约上市。
如火的热情让江志强感到不安。他认为中国电影行业面临诸多挑战，“《卧虎藏龙》赚了2,000万美元，但很大一部分都没有落到我的手里，”他说。
不过，他历来勇于克服困难。根据美国电影协会的数据，盗版行为令中国电影票房和影碟发行损失了大约28亿美元。但就《英雄》而言，江志强的反盗版措施相当有效，他把盗版贩子拉拢到自己这边，由他们负责让盗版碟片在《英雄》放映期间不在市面上出售。另外，中国大陆的一个财团斥资200万美元在公开拍卖会上购得独家影碟分销权。“他们对盗版已经烦不胜烦－－想采取合法途径，”他说。不过，据一些报导称，影片首映时制作方还是启用了金属探测仪，以防有人携带摄像机入场。
中国政府在电影行业当仁不让的主导地位甚至也让江志强受益匪浅。《英雄》和哥伦比亚最近发行的《功夫》之所以在票房上大获成功就是得益于仍让美国电影协会头疼的保护主义政策。中国政府将中外合资拍摄的影片看作国内影片－－不用受制于外国影片进口配额，上映时还能把那些纯好莱坞影片挤到一边。哥伦比亚的罗宾森说，“这很有效，因为它消除了竞争。”
但是，政府仍对影片内容严加管制，最近还收紧了对外国电视频道的限制，称不再允许新的海外电视频道落地。不遵守游戏规则的导演往往只能眼睁睁看著自己的作品在中国被禁。中国最大的国有电视公司中国电影集团公司(China Film Group)最近也推迟了公开上市的计划。但私营制片厂称，与好莱坞合作拍片一事尚未被禁，至少目前没有。
江志强尽量远离政治，他将2,000年前的秦朝作为影片拍摄的题材。《英雄》之所以引起极大争议，就是因为有人将它表现的独裁、暴政和统一的主题理解成对共产党政府的认可。无数的报章杂志都在讲述中央集权是维护社会秩序之所需。
江志强坚称，《英雄》并不是有意要得到政府的特别垂青，“干吗要冒著赔钱的危险去传递政治信息呢？”
