Further reforms are urgently needed to activate China's immature, lacklustre film industry. This was the hottest topic at a recent academic seminar on the future development of the Chinese film industry in the 21st century, held late November in Nanning, capital of South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
Organized by the Chinese Filmmakers Association, the seminar attracted more than 60 film directors, researchers, critics, producers, distributors and investors from Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong, Zhejiang, Sichuan, Jiangsu and Guangxi.
Reviewing the past 50 years of Chinese film and predicting the industry's direction in the near future, people from movie circles debated a wide range of topics such as how China's entry into the WTO will affect Chinese film making, what further reforms to the management system of the industry should be carried out, how advanced technology could reshape film making in China and what role the industry should play in the country's new drive to develop its western regions.
Ticket price cuts was supposed to be a minor topic at the seminar, but developed into a hot issue.
Weeks before the seminar, two competing groups of cinemas in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, took the lead by charging five-yuan (US$0.6) ticket, even for premieres. The standard film tickets range from 20 to 30 yuan (US$2.4 to US$3.6). For premieres, viewers pay 50 yuan (US$6.00) for one ticket.
The move was soon followed by cinemas in several other cities, which angered their sole upstream distributor/contractor, China Film Corporation.
Most film directors and critics at the seminar agreed that any effective means to lure audiences should be tried, including the price-cutting strategy.
"The most exciting experience for a Chinese film director is to see audiences swamping into cinemas for his new film. But high ticket prices have kept people from watching," said Sun Zhou, who directed "Breaking the Silence," a prize-winning film starring Gong Li as the caring mother of a deaf boy.
"Most consumers like goods with both high quality and a fair price. So do movie-goers," Sun said.
"Pricing is not a simple matter in the film distribution and marketing process. Price cuts as low as five yuan are not suitable for all cinemas across the country because the state of cinema equipment, local economic conditions and levels of living expenses differ considerably in different parts of China," pointed out Zhou Yu, a distributor from Beijing.
Leaders from the China Film Corporation at first called the act a serious violation of its agreements with provincial film distributors.
But their voices softened in December as the price-cut was warmly welcomed by audiences and hailed by the general public and the media. The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television announced recently that it also welcomed the price-cuts.
The conflict over the issue of ticket price is "just a tip of a huge iceberg," a minor question compared with other big problems hidden in the current film industry, which is still under the shadow of the planned economy, commented a Beijing-based film researcher, on condition of anonymity.
"On one hand, China's WTO entry is pending. On the other hand, Chinese filmmakers are still bound by backward management systems. How can they get the cutting edge in competing with foreign film giants, who are backed by strong international investment, advanced technology and top-level corporate management?" said Xie Fei, a prestigious film director and professor with the Beijing Film Academy.
The Chinese film industry should be given a freer reign to adapt itself to market mechanisms, Xie said.
In the face of the WTO accession and globalization, involvement in the investment and management of film companies by domestic companies should be encouraged, Yang Yubing, general manager of the Shanghai Yongle Film and Television Group said.
"To survive in the global market and in international competition, Chinese film companies should undergo revolutionary reshuffles and be restructured to enable them to run as any other high-tech, high profit-making companies," said Li Ping, a film official and researcher with the Cultural Administration of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
The companies must be armed with a whole set of scientific management systems and operational strategies, covering human resources, research and development, market analysis, corporate culture and brand building, Li said.
Preferential policies should be worked out to woo Chinese talents who have studied abroad to work in the Chinese film industry.
"In the forthcoming decade, the Chinese film industry and related industries will absorb a huge number of Chinese graduates qualified in management, financing, international trade, law, and of course film making," she predicted.
Li also pointed out that new government regulatory procedures in relation to the film and entertainment industry are needed today to help create a better marketplace for equal and fair investment and competition.
All this would contribute to making a healthier, stronger and more aggressive Chinese film industry, she explained.
"Nowadays, domestic films haven't achieved a good reputation among a large number of Chinese movie-goers," pointed out Pan Jian, a film researcher with Zhejiang University, who has seen potential audiences simply turning down offers of watching new Chinese films for free.
"The Chinese film industry should pay attention to brand-building strategies. In this way we have much to learn from high-quality Hollywood films, which are not only entertaining and relaxing, but soul-touching and thought-provoking," Pan said.
"Since audiences can get what they want from these movies, they will gradually develop a brand loyalty toward 'Hollywood' brand movies."
Film distributors should take measures to occupy the potential market in the country's vast rural areas, said Gu Shiyang, general manager with the Shanghai Zhonglu Film Company.
"The rural population accounts for more than 80 percent of the whole nation. But most of the Chinese film industry's meagre box office yields each year are from urban areas and from eastern regions," Gu pointed out.
A small distribution company in Hai'an County of Jiangsu Province has made a step in this direction, offering simple promotional measures such as generous discounts for a "yearly ticket," and a film festival for farmers.
The company has managed to sell more than 12 features and a dozen documentaries on popular science and practical agricultural techniques among the 540 villages of the county, said Gu.
He suggested that the "Hai'an Model" can be applied to many more rural counties in China.
In this era of information and multi-media, people have a great of many choices of entertainment. They also expect to have a diverse choice of films to watch, he said.
"Chinese films, as cultural products, like any other commodity, can hardly secure a niche in both domestic and international markets if only one particular kind of Chinese brand is firmly rooted in audience' minds,” he said.
With the advent of the information era and birth of the Internet, the film's status as a dominant entertainment tool was lost at the end of the 20th century and has been replaced by multi-media, said Chen Xihe, a professor with Shanghai University.
"That does not mean the death of film. But the art of film will take on a new look in the 21st century with all these new technology," he said.
Digital technology, virtual reality and digital platforms have been tremendously changing the way films are made, distributed, screened and viewed.
"Chinese film makers should not cling to traditional ways of shooting films. Instead, they should take the initiative and use new techniques in film production," said Wang Qun, a film researcher with the China Film Archive.
During the seminar, film directors also expressed their increasingly weariness with the current prolonged and complicated review procedures for new films.
The members of the review boards may not always see eye to eye with directors and the audiences, Xie said.
Xie cited his film "Yixi Zhroma" as an example. The film won lead actress Danzeng Zhuoga a special Golden Rooster Award for her outstanding performance at the Ninth Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Film Festival, held last month in Nanning.
When it first came out, some people on the review board questioned some scenes, saying that they were unconvincing and too bold. But in a trial screening in the Tibet Autonomous Region, the film was warmly received by local Tibetans, and the crew were given thanks for their vivid portrayal of a romantic Tibetan love story, Xie recalled.
(China Daily 12/07/2000)
