Hong Kong Film at the End of the Reel?

From the hyperactive Kung Fu of Bruce Lee to the lush atmosphere of Wong Kar-Wai to the sideburns of Nicholas Tse, Hong Kong has given more than its share to world cinema. Now the territory's beleaguered film industry is asking for a little something back. Last Wednesday the Federation of Hong Kong Film Workers asked the government to underwrite loans for local movie productions and to lobby Beijing for greater access to mainland China. Without government financial backing, film veterans say, Hong Kong cinema might be on its last take. The numbers aren't encouraging: local box receipts fell 55% this summer from a year ago, and output is less than half of what is was in the 1980s, when studios cranked out nearly a film a day. The 1.3 billion-strong China market is a potential lifeline, but Beijing classifies Hong Kong movies as foreign, so only a handful of films are admitted every year. That leaves the mainland's prodigious taste for Hong Kong stars to be filled by pirated DVDS and VCDS that are cutting into profits regionwide. Andre Morgan, a Hollywood film producer with decades of experience in the Asian market, says Hong Kong also has a language barrier. When studios began making movies in Cantonese rather than Mandarin, Morgan explains, "It was one of the most critical mistakes they ever made. It limited the future." Morgan, who believes Shanghai will usurp Hong Kong in the film world, isn't optimistic: "I think Hong Kong will ultimately end up marginalized." That's no Hollywood ending.