THOMAS PODVIN’S FREELANCE WORK
Freelance writer - translator - Editor

When the first Academy Award® ceremony was held in 1929 in Hollywood there was no suspense; winners had been announced three months earlier. Nowadays, the Oscars® election campaign in Hollywood is said to rival the craze and excesses of the quadrennial race for the US presidency. The tremendous suspense that surrounds the Oscars is nerve-wracking for US and international film professionals alike and is the object of the wildest speculations. That’s because in seven decades the Academy Awards – presented annually by a Beverly Hills non-profit professional organization, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) – have become the most influential film awards in the world. Just being nominated for one of the major awards (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, etc.), never mind winning, means a huge amount to filmmakers – and their bankers.

Non-US films have been allowed to take part in the frenzy since 1956; the AMPAS has invited each country to submit one film in the Best Foreign Language Film category. This is a chance for foreign films to enhance worldwide awareness and boost international sales. Chinese filmmakers have strived to submit their films and chalk up nominations since the early 1990s. “For China, it’s largely about foreign profile; gaining face internationally by being ‘recognized’ by the world’s most powerful industry,” explains Derek Elley, a senior film critic from the US entertainment industry magazine Variety. This year, four Chinese contenders made the headlines, as they campaigned to represent the country. There were two period dramas: Zhang Yimou’s Curse of the Golden Flower, an expensive martial arts epic starring Gong Li and Chow Yun-fat; and Feng Xiaogang’s The Banquet, a mainland-Hong Kong historical drama inspired by Hamlet and starring Zhang Ziyi and Ge You. Two contemporary-set films were also competing: Zhang Yibai’s independent thriller set in Chongqing, Curiosity Kills the Cat, starring Hu Jun and Carina Lau; and Zhang Jiarui’s The Road, a modest production shot in Yunnan and starring Zhang Jingchu. In October 2006, it was finally decided that Curse would represent the Chinese mainland while The Banquet would be the Hong Kong SAR official submission.

So why is it so important for Chinese filmmakers to be nominated or to win an Oscar? “Getting an Oscar nomination can improve the status of the producers and directors,” answers John Chong, Media Asia CEO and producer of The Banquet. It certainly helps the career of both new and seasoned filmmakers. “Being a film director in China is quite hard,” says Zhang Jiarui, a director anxious to get international accolades and whose third film, The Road, was released in China in early 2006. New Chinese directors have to take the responsibility of financing and distributing their own movies. Says Zhang: “When a director has established his own brand (such as Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige) money will start to look for them.” Oscar nominations look good on a résumé, and because everyone wants to read about the Oscars, they can be a tool for domestic promotions. In the case of Curiosity Kills the Cat, independent producer Jimmy Wu smartly used the opportunity to gain publicity for the film’s Chinese release and also to make some points about the whole selection process. “To send Kung Fu/Emperor type of films to the Oscars for six consecutive years made China film administrators [look like] morons,” laments Wu, whose strategy was to play with the “silly Oscars obsession in China” to promote his film, set in modern times. It worked. “It helped the promotion and awareness of the film,” said Curiosity director Zhang Yibai. The public release jumped from an original exhibition in five cities with 66 prints to a nationwide release with 200 prints.

If modest directors can expect to score a few more points at the local box office with the Oscar buzz, acclaimed filmmakers helming big-budget flicks also need the extra publicity. “The capacity of the Chinese market is limited,” explains Zhang Yimou. “A big movie which cost RMB 300 million needs to make RMB 700 or 800 million to cover the cost.” The only way to recoup such costs is to attract the international market – with an Oscar nomination or win, for instance. In 2001, Ang Lee’s Couching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (CTHD) was nominated for 10 Oscars and won four of them (Foreign Language Film, Music, Cinematography and Art Direction), a unique historical feat for a foreign language film.

After the Oscars ceremony on March 2001, CTHD’s cumulative US box-office takings were in the neighborhood of USD 100 million. That’s a pretty decent neighborhood. The film ended up being a USD 130 million blowout stateside. No wonder that even before they started shooting Curse of the Golden Flower, Zhang Yimou and his producer, Zhang Weiping, had already planned to vie for the Oscars. Curse was simultaneously distributed this December in China and in the US by Sony Pictures Classics (the CTHD distributor) and expectations for Oscar success run high.

Producer Wu’s concern is, however, legitimate. It’s always historical dramas, or wuxiapian, that are selected. “Chinese producers think they stand the best chance of winning with big-budget martial arts epics,” says Elley, “as voters go for ‘exotic’ movies or ones that fit their clichéd perception of a country, like costume pictures showing Old Europe or films with Jewish themes.” Sad but true, international markets only accept a single Chinese film genre – period, costume and martial arts movies. “Taking the international market as a big dining table, Chinese movies are seen as a small plate of peanuts, an appetizer or cold dish, which cannot be served for every meal,” deplores Zhang Yimou, who has had three films nominated at the Oscars, all of them period dramas, though not all kung fu orientated (Judou; Raise the Red Lantern; Hero). In retrospect, the modern Curiosity Kills the Cat and The Road stood virtually no chance of being selected for national submission. Western audiences still prefer martial arts fantasies and historical tragedies, genres rooted uniquely in Asian culture. “It is very much like we prefer Japanese sushi or French wine,” says Easternlight Films director Ying Ye, who distributed The Road worldwide. Even so, to propose a genre ‘accepted’ by voters isn’t necessarily a guarantee for success. Last year, China’s submission was Chen Kaige’s slick and expensive wuxiapian The Promise, which got very poor press in the US and wasn’t even nominated.

The odds of correctly forecasting the five nominees out of 61 official submissions for the Best Foreign Language Film Award are quite low. But luck isn’t the only determining factor. “To stand a chance of even being selected into the final five, you need a US distributor for your film and/or a savvy Hollywood PR, plus lots of money for screenings, trade ads etc.”, explains Elley. “The Banquet doesn’t yet have a US distributor (at least at the time this article went to print), creating a huge problem for the production companies, Huayi Brothers and Media Asia, who will have to push the film themselves. At least, Curse is distributed by Sony Pictures Classics, which has a history of opening Chinese films in the US (House of Flying Daggers in 2004 on 1,500 screens; Kung Fu Hustle in 2005 on 2,500 screens). Another obstacle to overcome is the taste of voters. The bottom line is, according to Elley, that “foreign language Oscar winners have simply something which appeals to specifically American tastes [and they] have often not been hits in their home countries.” Although Zhang Yimou has never won so far, he’s received three nominations. His latest kung fu epics Hero and House of Flying Daggers, widely distributed in the US, were branded as ‘wuxiapian for foreigners’ and received the cold shoulder from Chinese audiences and critics alike. Judging by Zhang’s history, Curse of the Golden Flower, a new lavish historical drama designed for foreign eyes, stands every chance.

For more information see http://www.oscars.org/

All interviews and research by Thomas Podvin.
Special thanks to Derek Elley.

----
SIDE BAR
Oscar facts
by Thomas Podvin

• 5,800 is the current number of voting members from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). When AMPAS was founded in 1927, it consisted of 230 members.
• 16.5 in (42 cm) and 8.5 lb (3.86 kg) are the height and weight of an Oscar.
• 2,300+ statuettes have been awarded so far.
• On January 23, 2007, the nomination results will be announced.
• On February 25, 2007, the Oscars ceremony will take place at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, California.
• The Chinese mainland, Taiwan, and Hong Kong have respectively received 3, 3 and 2 Oscar nominations in the Best Foreign Language Film category. Only Taiwan province won an award.
• 61 foreign language films were submitted for this years’ 79th Academy Awards – a record.
• Rule 14 serves as the ‘Ten Commandments’ of the Oscars, a strict and rigid set of rules to be followed by filmmakers when submitting a foreign language film.
• Oct. 1, 2005 to Sep. 30, 2006 is the period during which the submitted foreign language films for the 2007 Oscars should be publicly released in their home country for seven consecutive days.
• Zhang Yimou was nominated three times as Best Foreign Language Film (Ju Dou, 1990; Raise the Red Lantern, 1991; Hero, 2002), while Chen Kaige was nominated only once (Farewell My Concubine, 1993). Ang Lee was nominated three times and won once in 2000 (The Wedding Banquet, 1993; Eat Drink Man Woman, 1994; Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, 2000).
• RMB160 was the ticket price for Zhang Yimou’s Curse of the Golden Flower during the mandatory one-week public screening held to meet the requirements for the Best Foreign Language Film application.

(c) that's Shanghai Magazine
Chief editor: Steven Crane
January 2007 issue

(c) that's PRD Magazine
Chief editor: Phil Boyle
February 2007 issue

Chen Kaige (The Promise) and Zhang Yimou (House of Flying Daggers), the two most successful art-film directors to bring Chinese mainland film to the world stage, have now become synonymous with empty commercial fare. Of late, Chen and Zhang have been engaged in a battle to gain the recognition of both international audiences and film festivals. Yet, ultimately, Zhang’s costly wuxiapian (chivalrous martial arts film) which employ an expensive formula of jaw- dropping visuals, high-tech special effects, an all-star cast and a wafer-thin plotline, fails to shine like his earlier art-house films.

With Curse of the Golden Flower, Zhang’s latest effort simultaneously released in China and the US this past December, the 55-year-old director has upped the ante. Even before CGF’s shooting started, Zhang proclaimed some grand ambitions: to compete for the Oscars, to break the RMB 300 million mark in China and to exceed the American box-office takings of Hero in 2004 (over USD 50 million). This was a conspicuous attempt to surpass the USD 42.5 million Chen earned for The Promise released in December 2005.

CGF, which will come in at a mere USD 45 million, is nonetheless China’s most expensive film to date, and promises more gaudy costumes and sets and breathtaking cinematography. The director has marshalled 20,000 Chinese extras to play the troops, along with a team of tailors to sew 3,000 handmade costumes at a cost of USD 1.3 million. All in all, the battle scenes account for a sizeable chunk of the budget. Zhang recalls that “several hundred thousand RMB disappeared in one cut.”

His all-star cast also did little to rein in the film’s mushrooming budget. To connect with foreign audiences and critics, Zhang gathered a cast of bankable and internationally-famous movie stars, including his former girlfriend Gong Li (Miami Vice, Memoirs of a Geisha) and Chow Yun-fat (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) supported by two local sensations, Taiwanese pop idol Jay Chou and Chinese mainland thespian Liu Ye. What’s more, the lavish cinematography of cameraman Zhao Xiaoding (House of Flying Daggers) and the bombastic score of Shigeru Umebayashi (2046) help lift the film to international standards. Zhang is only frugal when it comes to CGI (computer generated imagery) as he has sworn to ”avoid bragging technology”.

Like many wuxiapian that came before it, CGF is an exotic and at times erotic piece. The story takes place in a harem with an array of luscious Tang Dynasty babes, complete with spilling cleavage, as was the fashion of the time. The original story, Thunderstorm, written by the ‘Chinese Shakespeare’ Cao Yu, was set in the 1930s and chronicles the disintegration of an aristocratic family before the Japanese invasion.

Set in the Tang dynasty, the film version takes the court intrigues and familial feuds to an almost excessive level. The film begins with Prince Jai (Jay Chou), who returns to the palace to reunite with his mother the Empress (Gong), whom he hasn’t seen for years. The Emperor (Chow) has had a falling-out with the Empress over her affair with Crown Prince Wan (Liu Ye), her son-in-law. Wan wants to elope with his sweetheart, Chan (Li Man), the daughter of the Imperial Doctor (Ni Dahong). Seeking a neat solution to the problem, the Emperor orders the doctor to drug and incapacitate the Empress.

The tragic conspiracies are intriguing, but the unravelling plots and unlikely revelations make the story hard to digest. CGF certainly has more to it than The Promise, with a plethora of twists and turns and some truly moving scenes, but when it’s too much, it’s too much. Zhang’s fifteenth movie will, no doubt, make film history on account of its excesses. One can only imagine what Chen will do to match it in his next effort (Mei Lan Fang).

(c) that's Shanghai Magazine
Chief editor: Steven Crane
January 2007 issue