At a China Daily-hosted forum held Wednesday, industry insiders discussed why Asian cinema will claim the world's focus in the not-too-distant future. Chitralekha Basu reports.

The mood was upbeat at the China Daily-hosted roundtable forum, titled "The New Silk Road of Asia's Film Industry", which was held Wednesday. The general sense of optimism on behalf of films from Asia was not unfounded. The distinguished panel, chaired by China Daily Asia Pacific Publisher and Editor-in-Chief Zhou Li, was in broad agreement, that sharing and collaborating with neighboring film industries was the way forward for filmmakers in Asia.

These cross-cultural collaborations are already taking place, and made evident by the presence of three key personalities already deeply engaged.

Wilfred Wong Ying-wai, chair of the Hong Kong International Film Festival Society, Lee Yong-kwan, director of the Busan International Film Festival and Yasushi Shiina, director of the Tokyo International Film Festival were instrumental in setting up the Asian Film Awards Academy with a view to promoting excellence in Asian cinema around the world. The trio shared the stage discussing the best means of moving films from Asia onto the global center stage.

There is much happening in Asian films that deserves a place in the world's screen room, declared Wong. "There are the Hong Kong new-wave directors, Taiwan new-wave directors, the fifth-generation directors from the Chinese mainland," he pointed out. All are happy to be able to showcase these diverse, and newer, trends across the region. "We are also selecting better films from emerging markets, such as Indonesia, the Philippines and Myanmar. Hopefully, the Asian Film Awards will be recognized as the Oscars of Asia."

The roundtable forum takes its cue from Chinese President Xi Jinping's ambitious endeavor to construct a "New Silk Road" to expand China's commercial and diplomatic ties across Central and Southeast Asia. This is the time to explore how far China's co-production aspirations might take her - not ruling out getting acclimatized to partnering with hitherto uncharted territory such as the Middle East.

The Hong Kong government too is doing its bit to give the local film industry a shot in the arm, as moderator Alexander Wan, senior advisor of China Daily Asia Pacific, mentioned at the outset. Finance Secretary John Tsang Chun-wah allocated an extra HK$200 million stimulus to the Film Development Fund to encourage local film production at the annual budget announced in February. But then, as Wong contended, "it's not possible to create a New Silk Road simply by investing."

"In Asia we're lucky to work with a rather young demographic," he added. "Part of our job is to groom the new generation of filmmakers as well as audiences." It's a crucial first step towards making Asian themes appeal to the world's imagination, he offered.

The task would be that much easier in a more film-literate world. "It's time for us to return what we learnt from the Busan experience," said Lee Yong-kwan, referring to the emphasis on film appreciation at the Busan festival, which he helped put together. The Asian Film Awards Academy will support sending 250 students to international film festivals to sharpen their perspective, Lee informed listeners.

Sharing is the key

Doubtless, co-production is the way to go for Asian film industries if they want to show their art outside of the domestic market. It could in fact help ease the tensions between countries that do not exactly see eye to eye on other matters.

"Political relations could indeed affect the film industry," said Shiina, fielding a somewhat uncomfortable question about the restrictions on bringing Japanese films to China. "It is hard to screen Japanese films in China and there is less co-production projects between the two countries," he said. "But we still have the film festivals where we can see each other's movies and co-productions make a film truly 'borderless'."

Extending the idea of co-production, Lee advocated setting up a common funding agency - a bit like the European Commission that supports Europe's cultural and creative arts. Ma Runsheng, president of China Radio, Film and Television Program Exchange Center, couldn't see why not, since nine out of 11 documentaries produced by the China Central Television (CCTV, a leading television broadcaster on the Chinese mainland) last year were co-productions. In an emotional speech, narrating his experience of collaborating with agencies from outside China, he said it wasn't an easy process, "but in the end our differences were ironed out and we had reason to be happy".

Pantham Thongsang, deputy secretary for academic affairs at Thailand's National Federation of Motion Pictures and Contents Associations, talked about the curious case of Thai films "being popular across Southeast Asian cultures but declining in their own culture". But co-productions - be it in terms of borrowing a story from South Korea and making the film in Thailand, or hiring Cambodian and South Korean stars - seems to have worked better. "Through co-production Thailand could be China's gateway to other Asian countries where Thai films are very popular," said Thongsang.

Ann An, however, cautioned that entering into co-productions may not be a great idea, unless both sides have made sound research-based projections on what to expect from the other. "Else there is a risk of getting trapped by substandard filmmakers," says the president of the well-reputed production and distribution company, Desen International Media in the Chinese mainland, who has experience working with Japanese themes and professionals.

Whatever works

The ultimate goal, however, is, as Wong put it, "to show the world that Asia's got talent". William Pfeiffer, CEO of Hong Kong-based Dragongate Entertainment, would like to get a tad more ambitious. "The ultimate holy grail is to be able to make co-production films that work outside of China and the world over."

While co-production agreements keep getting signed (a big deal was sealed between China and India last week, Pfeiffer noted), the last such film to have seen major international commercial success was the Ang Lee-directed Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in 2000.

Echoing his sentiment, Clifford Coonan, Asia bureau chief of The Hollywood Reporter, said "if the Silk Road is still largely a one-way route (Hollywood films finding a market in China, and not vice versa), the challenge is to make the traffic go the other way."

Coonan offered a gloss on the prevailing trend. "The domestic market in China is growing - there are adaptations based on genre films, adaptations from reality TV- China is looking at many directions within itself, perhaps the reason why it's not always keen to attract a global audience."

Will Zhang Yimou's next venture, The Great Wall, estimated to cost $135 million and starring Hollywood heavyweights such as Matt Damon, reverse the trend? "It's certainly going to be a test case for co-productions," said Clifford.

While a film of that scale is made primarily for a global audience, what about the Asian film's appeal on its home turf?

Although filmmakers are yet to zero in on the pan-Asian model, Raymond Zhou, noted film critic on the staff of China Daily, said he believed the goal might not be that far distant. "I think we're approaching an era when Asian films will work across Asia," said Zhou. "There are two ways of doing this: show the uniqueness of your culture, or focus on universal appeal of the culture."

"Romance is probably a genre that transcends cultural barriers," he says, citing the Thai film Teacher's Diary as a case in point. "It's not difficult to follow even if you turn off the soundtrack."

It's time Chinese filmmakers started brushing up their act though, declared Zhou. "While we have very solid storytelling skills, that's considered an art and hence is more intuitive. We need to study the craft of filmmaking before we can think of competing with Hollywood," he concluded.

basu@chinadailyhk.com

The distinguished panel of film industry insiders, experts and film writers with China Daily Asia Pacific Publisher and Editor-in-Chief Zhou Li at the China Daily Asia Leadership Roundtable titled The New Silk Road of Asia's Film Industry held on March 25 as part of Hong Kong International Film & TV Market. Photos By Parker Zheng / China Daily

. Pantham Thongsang (second from left), deputy secretary for academic affairs at Thailand's National Federation of Motion Pictures and Contents Associations, talked about Thai films being popular across Southeast Asian cultures but declining in their own culture.

Asian Film Awards Academy Chair Wilfred Wong (center) stresses on grooming new filmmakers as well as audiences at the China Daily Asia Leadership Roundtable session.

Visitors check out the fare on offer at the business kiosks put up by production houses and distributors at FILMART.

Ann An, president of Desen International Media, cautioned against getting into co-production without researching the background of one's prospective partner, to avoid a drop in quality.

A section of the panelists listen on as the first half of the session gets underway.

(HK Edition 03/27/2015 page8)