Eyeing China’s tastes, Hong Kong films play it safer

Hong Kong movies, long known for their stylish violence, are being geared to the expanding Chinese market and stricter censorship standards there, and observers are worried that Hong Kong cinema is losing its edge.

Hong Kong-Chinese co-productions are now the norm. Top directors favor ancient Chinese epics that appeal to a broader audience and are less likely to offend Chinese censors wary of bloodshed or flesh-baring.

Stories about gang feuds and urban love stories are becoming rare, giving way to period dramas.

John Woo, who made the Hong Kong gangster classic “A Better Tomorrow” and moved on to Hollywood fame, is about to start shooting “Red Cliff,” based on a famous ancient Chinese battle.

Such movies are more often shot in the national Chinese dialect of Mandarin rather than Hong Kong’s native Cantonese.

“Now the first thing Hong Kong investors will say is, ‘You have to find a mainland Chinese partner. Can this movie be released in mainland China? If it can’t, I’ll have some concerns,’ ” said Peter Tsi, executive director of the Hong Kong International Film Festival.

The shift toward more culturally generic topics is motivated in part by a heightened sensitivity to China’s authoritarian government, which, despite free-market reforms, screens media content carefully.

Ann Hui, a respected Hong Kong director, said she was careful about portraying a Chinese policewoman in her Chinese-financed love story “Goddess of Mercy.”

“The Chinese censorship system bans quite a few topics,” including sex, violence and “the dark side of real life,” she said.

Some film industry insiders fear China’s ideological control is stifling creativity in this freewheeling former British colony that returned to Chinese rule in 1997.

“When the trend is to seek out mainland Chinese investment, topics set in mainland China and relying on the Chinese market, it’s hurting the fundamental quality that’s unique to Hong Kong movies,” director Stanley Kwan said.

Yet the ultra-violent, fast-paced gangster thrillers that hark back to Woo still remain. Director Johnnie To has continued Woo’s legacy with his gang movies “Election” and “Election 2.”

Yau Nai-hoi, who wrote those two movies, said it was still possible to make distinctive local movies as long as filmmakers budgeted according to expected returns. “It’s about the math,” Yau said.