Selling Chinese Films Abroad

　　The story of Wudang swordsman Li Mubai is onethat resonated with moviegoers across the globe. Thethrilling martial arts sequences， sumptuous costumes andsweeping musical score of Ang Lee’s four-time AcademyAward-winning Crouching Tiger， Hidden Dragon (2000)ensured its position as one of the greatest non-Hollywoodfilms of the new millennium and the highest-grossingforeign language film in Hollywood history.

　　Yet the giddy heights reached by Lee’s masterpiece，and the brief golden era that it sparked， has become littlemore than a distant memory. In the decade and a halffollowing Crouching Tiger， Hidden Dragon， the Chinese filmindustry has spluttered and faltered on the internationalmarket， with 2012 marking one of its lowest internationalgrosses in recent history.

　　In 2013， the year where Chinese films overtook Hollywoodblockbusters in China’s domestic box office andboomed to a record of more than $3 billion in domesticreceipts， this success could tragically not be mirrored inthe all-important North American market.

　　According to a report issued by the Film Bureau of theState Administration of Press， Publication， Radio， Film andTelevision of China， overseas box office in 2013 amountedto just 1.41 billion yuan ($231 million)， a drop of 30 percentfrom the 2 billion yuan ($330 million) earned in 2011. Theindustry’s lowest box-office earnings since 2005 was 1.1billion yuan ($180 million) registered in 2012.

　　Foreign film drought

　　This downward spiral is not exclusively a Chinese trend，however. Foreign language films have always struggled tobreak into the North American market.

　　Stanley Rosen， political science professor at theUniversity of Southern California， told Beijing Review thatsubtitled films make up “perhaps only 1 percent” of thefilms shown in America. With such a tiny proportion of theU.S. market dedicated to foreign films， even the most successfulcan only expect to make a relatively modest profit.

　　Rosen cites the example of 2013’s Chinese HongKong-mainland production The Grandmaster， grossing$6.5 million stateside compared to its domestic gross of$50 million， as the “upper limit for Chinese films thesedays.” Rosen believes that with the film’s huge promotionaland advertising costs， which helped the film pick up twoAcademy Award nominations.

　　“[In America] Chinese films tend to only play in thebiggest cities， in communities where Chinese people live，”he said.

　　Experts suggest that the cultural barriers betweenChina and the United States are often too much for Americanaudiences to overcome.

　　“Telling Chinese stories in a way that is easy for foreignaudiences to understand is still an unsolved problem forChinese directors，” Chinese-American film producer JanetYang told the Global Times.

　　Rosen suggests that many Americans view films setin pre-1949 China with a great deal of skepticism， oftenbelieving them to be “propaganda films.”

　　“When Zhang Yimou or Feng Xiaogang hire well-knownAmerican actors， but make films about pre-1949 Chinesehistory， Americans will not respond. It’s a waste of moneyhiring American actors if you expect that it will help you atthe U.S. box office，” Rosen said.

　　Mats Karlsson， professor of Japanese studies at theUniversity of Sydney， told Beijing Review that Asian filmsdealing with World War II often lack commercial viabilityas their “messages become politically incorrect” whenviewed by Westerners.

　　Karlsson believes that while Western audiences arefascinated by Asian culture， they are not interested in aJapanese or Chinese view of history. They are looking forfilms that confirm what Karlsson calls the “Western Orien-talistic gaze.”

　　This may explain America’slong-standing fascination withkungfu films. The raw spectacleof martial arts films combinedwith Chinese characters， settingsand costumes satisfies theaudiences’ “Orientalistic interest”without challenging theirunderlying perceptions aboutChina. Kungfu films also have theadded advantage of bypassingAmericans’ infamous aversion tosubtitles.

　　“For foreign audiences，kungfu is magical， but above all，they don’t need to read subtitlesto understand the film， which isa very important factor given thecurrent quality of translations，”Huang Huilin， Director of theAcademy for International Communicationof Chinese Culture

　　(AICCC) at Beijing Normal University， told the GlobalTimes.

　　According to Rosen， however， market saturation hasmeant that the box office success of martial arts films haspetered out since Jet Li’s 2006 film Fearless.

　　A balancing act

　　Therefore， Chinese filmmakers seem to be walking on aknife’s edge. In order to appeal to American audiences，they must ensure that their films are neither too foreignnor too familiar. Too foreign， and the film will alienateAmerican viewers. Too familiar， however， and Americanswill write the film off as a poor Hollywood substitute.

　　Grace O’neill， a former employee of the independentfilm distributor Hopscotch， said that Chinese filmmakerstherefore face a hugely difficult balancing act of being“both uniquely Chinese and internationally accessible.” Iffilmmakers can pull off this tightrope act， however， thenreports suggest that international audiences are likely torespond.

　　A study conducted by the Los Angeles Times foundthat while the U.S. box office receipts of summer 2013were up by 14 percent from the year prior， this improvementwas largely driven by the success of smaller-scalefilms like Despicable Me 2 rather than the so-called “tentpoleblockbusters” that Hollywood has come to rely upon.

　　O’neill believes that with more and more Hollywoodstudios relying on the “out-of-the-box， cookie-cutter”blockbusters that are assembled “with the same narratives，the same actors，” producers are starting to see abacklash， with audiences craving a bit more diversity intheir cinematic diet.

　　Chinese filmmakers， therefore， may have a unique opportunityto step up and be counted in the American boxoffice. And while Rosen notes that Chinese films cannothope to compete with the likes of Despicable Me 2， the3-billion-dollar question still remains： How do Chinesefilmmakers break into the North American market？ Andcan another Crouching Tiger， Hidden Dragon ever beuncovered？

　　Hollywood’s rather uninspired answer has been tocut and trim foreign pictures to make them more palatablefor American audiences. While Rosen believes thatthese truncations are sometimes a necessary evil， suchcuts often detract from the artistic integrity of the filmsthemselves.

　　Author and critic Peter Biskind describes this processas “boning foreign films into easily digestible fillets，”depriving them of the essential feature that attractsAmericans to foreign films： They are a “window ontounfamiliar worlds.” Hollywood， it seems， does not have allthe answers.

　　Accordingly， the need for Chinese producers andfilmmakers to find fresh ideas will certainly be an uphillbattle. A report published by the AICCC at Beijing NormalUniversity in mid-2013， however， provides some muchneededfood for thought.

　　A recurring theme of the report is that filmmakerswilling to challenge the traditional channels of productionand distribution could find success on the internationalmarket. Non-government distributors were the mostpromising success story of 2012， with the Huayi Brothers，for instance， accounting for almost 25 percent of China’soverseas revenue.

　　Many of these independent distributors were able tofind success by appealing to audiences in their modusoperandi： the Internet. With 58 percent of surveyedparticipants finding and viewing Chinese films online，the Internet offers fertile， albeit challenging， ground forChinese filmmakers to exploit.

　　Filmmakers have also attempted to overcome themajor obstacles of poor translations and unclear stories，identified by the AICCC report， by forming partnershipswith Hollywood production companies.

　　While genuine co-productions are notoriously hit-andmissaffairs， they provide a host of benefits for Chinesefilmmakers. These include Hollywood screenwriters， postproductiontechniques， big-budget special effects and， ofcourse， that all-important foot in the door.

　　As Yin Hong， Vice President of the School of Journalismand Communication at Tsinghua University， told theGlobal Times， “genuine” co-productions is what Chinesecinema needs， and not simply Chinese input into Hollywoodfilms， as was the case with Iron Man 3 and Looper.

　　“Many of them [co-productions] fail because theymerely mix money， stars and marketing，” he said.

　　By combining the professionalism of Hollywood withthe cultural flair of Chinese cinema， perhaps the magicthat made Crouching Tiger， Hidden Dragon so irresistiblefor American audiences could be re-discovered.

　　Yet even if the days of mega-blockbusters like CrouchingTiger， Hidden Dragon are， as Rosen fears， behind us，it seems clear that the story of Li Mubai won’t be the lastthat Hollywood hears from the Chinese film industry.