A stone is a stone, but sometimes it can be a Philosopher's
Stone as in the Harry Potter tale, with magical power to brighten
all the gloomy souls with whom it comes in contact.
Such is the case of Crazy Stone, a low-budget
made-in-China film that has made 20 million yuan (US$2.5 million)
almost seven times its production cost at the box office since it
was released in Chinese theaters on June 30.
Suddenly, newspapers around the country were filled with praise
for this witty comedy, which was apparently inspired in part by Guy
Ritchie's Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. Many in the
Chinese film industry saw it as the "saviour" in rekindling Chinese
audiences' smouldering passion for domestic films.
One of the surprises was that Crazy Stone is the first
product of director Ning Hao. Ning, a 29-year-old graduate of the
Beijing Film Academy, had shot only two DVDs and a handful of MTV
videos before venturing into movies.
Surely someone had faith in Ning to give him a chance to do
Crazy Stone, people said.
That someone turned out to be Andy Lau. Yes, that Andy Lau --
the Hong Kong singing and acting superstar. In March 2005, Lau
launched his Asian New Director program, the first private fund in
China that dedicated itself to supporting emerging screenwriters
and directors.
Asian New Director is the rough equivalent of the Sundance
Institute started by Robert Redford in the United States. Initially
organized in 1981, the Sundance Institute (named for Redford's role
in the 1969 movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
opposite Paul Newman) played a key role in the first productions of
many important people in today's Hollywood. Among them was Steven
Soderbergh, who won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival for
his 1989 movie sex, lies and videotape and also won an
Academy Award for Best Director for Traffic in 2000.
With Lau's personal funds, the program offered a total
investment of HK$25 million (US$3.2 million) to six young directors
on the Chinese mainland, the Hong Kong Special Administrative
Region, Taiwan Province as well as Singapore and Malaysia to make
their startup films. Of the six, Ning produced the biggest
commercial hit.
"I had no money when I finished my last DVD, and I was owing
people money," he said. "I was carrying the camera and shooting MTV
videos like crazy to pay both my debt and the mortgage of my small
apartment when I heard about the program through a friend.
"The greatest merit of the program is the freedom it gives the
directors. There is not much money, but you can do whatever you
want with it."
Lau clearly was surprised, as well, as these kinds of
investments are always a gamble. "It's like your parents arranged a
blind date for you," Lau said. "But when you arrive, you discover
your date is (beautiful South Korean actress) Jeon Ji Hyun"
Tastes turning Hollywood
Ning said he was motivated, in part, by the changing tastes of
Chinese movie-goers.
"Audiences have been avoiding going to the movies on the
mainland," he said. "They don't watch domestic films. They love
Hollywood productions."
The same is true in Hong Kong, where box-office revenue has
shrunk to one-third the amount at the end of the 1990s.
That, said Chen Ruibin, assistant manager of Beijing Capital
Times Square Cinema, made Crazy Stone " a dark horse in
Chinese domestic film industry."
Like other common domestically made films, few came to watch the
film the first week of its release. But things quickly changed, and
cinemas began to sell out in the second week.
"Without any further promotion, it seems like all the audience
were told by their friends to come and watch the film," Chen said.
"It's a phenomenon that hasn't been seen in the domestic film
industry for a long time."
Shi Chuan, professor in the Shanghai Film and Television
Technology College at Shanghai University, added: "Hit movies come
and go in China, but Crazy Stone is unique for a few
reasons. It's unexpected that a low-budget film with no major stars
could fill the cinemas.
"It attracts the audience by telling the true side of life. A
large number of domestically produced films are too far from real
life and, therefore, can't win the audience's hearts."
The story unfolds in the Southwest China's Chongqing, more
representative of the lives of many ordinary Chinese than, say,
Beijing or Shanghai. The backdrop is China's rapid but
unsophisticated industrialization, where a professional thief and
three clumsy rivals compete to steal a rare jade stone discovered
in a factory that is facing bankruptcy. The factory assigns the
security detail for the stone to its ordinary workers, and the
result is chaos, entertaining plot twists and - perhaps most to the
point quirky dialogue.
Most of the audience must rely on subtitles to understand the
confusing-but-realistic mixture of Chongqing, Chengdu and Shandong
dialects employed by a true-to-life variety of migrant
characters.
Whether because of the black humor or the variety of dialogues
that forced its audience to read subtitles, people who went to see
Crazy Stone didn't always like it.
"What's so funny about it? I couldn't understand," said Wu Bin,
a 30-year-old white-collar worker from Beijing. "It's a cliche
story about thieves, and I couldn't understand why the thieves
should behave in such a silly way."
Wang Lina, a 27-year-old student at the Beijing Institute of
Technology, also didn't like it because "it's confusing, too
local."
Confusing or not, the audience has made its decision at the box
office.
Things are looking up
Andy Lau has pledged to launch the second phase of Asian New
Director by the end of this year by investing in the films of
another six new, young directors. He says he believes these young
directors will instil vitality to the gloomy film industry in Hong
Kong and to the fledgling one on the mainland.
"I have known too many young, talented people who have had no
opportunity in our film industries," Lau said. "I'd like to give a
few of them a try. Otherwise they will disappear from sight within
two or three years, as they abandon the careers in which they've
shown talent and pick up a more regular job."
Lau pledged that his program would give the directors the
greatest freedom possible to display their talents. "It has only
one request of the directors: that they tell stories in their films
that are not boring," he said.
"By launching this program, we want to lure the audience back.
Directors can make either commercial or artistic films, but they
always have to bear the audience in mind. If they want only to
express themselves, they can simply find their own investment."
Lau's courage has borne other fruit, as well. The Sichuan
provincial government recently announced it would start a Sichuan
New Director program to encourage the development of its own film
industry.
What's more, Warner Brothers one of the top American filmmaking
companies, which distributed Crazy Stone has also started
to express interest in Chinese films.
"Warner Brothers is committed to China's market," Tony Vaughan,
managing director of the CAV Warner Home Entertainment Co, told
China Daily, "and this commitment is shown in its project
to produce and launch the latest popular Chinese films such as
The Crazy Stone."
Han Sanping, chairman of Warner China Film HG Corporation,
added: "The film makes me feel confident (because) it tackles the
problem of how the Chinese film industry can produce good films
that satisfy a Chinese audience."
(China Daily September 30, 2006)
