China Looking for Exchange in Celluloid : Agency in L.A. Acts as Both a Buyer and Seller of Cinema

When Xiaolin Chen hit the Los Angeles entertainment scene three years ago, she was in a daze. The 39-year-old president of China Film Import & Export (L.A.) Inc. was in a new country, with a new language and a new subject: selling Chinese films to American audiences.

Chen’s job is to create two-way trade in films between China and the United States. “When I came three years ago, people didn’t know China cinema. Now it’s different, but we still have a lot of work to do; we are confident,” Chen said recently sitting in a meeting room covered with Chinese film posters at China Film’s Mid-Wilshire office. Her office oversees distribution of Chinese films in the United States and Canada.

China Film, part of the Ministry of Radio, Film and Television, went to the American Film Market for the first time last month as seller of films. (In the past, China has purchased rights to show American movies.) It offered 26 features, including “Red Sorghum,” “The Last Empress,” eight Kung Fu movies, animated cartoons and documentaries.

Chen said there was interest in 80% of the films, noting that the success of Bernardo Bertolucci’s critically acclaimed “The Last Emperor” (which has been nominated for nine Academy Awards), has created avid interest in China’s film offerings, especially in “The Last Empress,” a Chinese production about the lives of the wives of Pu Yi, subject of “The Last Emperor.”

Audience Mostly Asian

Until 1985, Chinese films were only shown in predominantly ethnic Chinese communities in the United States such as Monterey Park. “We want to organize films to show to American audiences, not just Chinese audiences,” explained Chen, who studied English at Peking University.

New Yorker Films, a Manhattan film distributor, showed “A Girl from Hunan” at the Lincoln Plaza Cinema in New York during March. The audience was about 60% Asian. “We thought it would be a little different,” said Mario Ortiz, a spokesman for New Yorker Films.

“The theater is in upper West Side,” Ortiz said. “The audience we usually get didn’t attend that heavily (with “A Girl from Hunan.”) Chinese cinema doesn’t have much of a name yet, so people were not attracted . . . but the reviews we got in New York were good, and that attracted part of the public.”

The movie is moving on to San Francisco this month. New Yorker Films will release another Chinese film, “Red Sorghum,” in early fall. So far, Chinese films have found the most receptive market in Europe, according to Chen. To make its films better known, China has been entering international film competitions. The Chinese production “Red Sorghum” won the Golden Bear award at the 1988 Berlin Film Festival; “Old Well” was the winner of the grand prize at the 1987 Tokyo Film Festival and “Horse Thief” earned the best film award at the French Third World Film Festival in January.

Although China’s 1 billion population offers a vast audience potential, major U.S. studios have been reluctant to release current major films to China. The country has 3,100 movie theaters and an additional 180,000 screens at factories or in mobile units that go from village to village showing movies.

Releasing Old Films

In 1987, people in China went to the movies 21 billion times, but the Chinese pay an admission fee the equivalent of only 4 cents per person. Sometimes they don’t have to pay at all. That does not translate to the kind of box-office receipts that American studios expect. “Because of economic reasons, China can’t pay the money they want,” Chen explained.

The studios, however, have begun to release some old American films. The 1987 releases to China included, “Love Story” (1970), “Roman Holiday” (1953) and “Spartacus” (1960). Movies planned for this year include: “In the Heat of the Night” (1967), “Random Harvest” (1942), “Bathing Beauty” (1944) and “Waterloo Bridge” (1931).

All films are dubbed in Chinese.

“The Last Emperor,” an independent co-production with Beijing Film Studios, which retained distribution rights for China, will be shown in China later this year. Meanwhile, Chinese officials are considering whether to eliminate two scenes, one involving the attacks by the youthful Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution and another showing the emperor Pu Yi in bed with his two wives. Chen said a decision has not been been made yet.

Until the old studio releases became available, the only American films shown in China were those distributed by the independents. In the late 1970s, “Convoy,” “Future World” and Charlie Chaplin movies were available. In the early to mid 1980s, “Spellbound,” “Song of Norway” and “Touched by Love” were seen in China. By 1987, films included “Body and Soul,” “Breakdance” (known as “Breakin’ ” to U.S. viewers) and “Forbidden.”

‘First Blood’ Too Violent

Chen says the independents typically charge a flat fee for their movies, while studios are charging a rental fee for each print that is shown in China. The country is receptive to mysteries, dramas, action, sports and romances, according to Chen, who when she worked at the Beijing office of China Film was in charge of China Screen, the agency’s quarterly film publication.

China, however, will reject foreign films that are too violent, sexual or too political. Chen said that “First Blood” with Sylvester Stallone, for example, was cut after it was shown for only two or three months because it was too violent.