We are not alone. Our life is the input of everyone. We are all part of one another. This applies to our art activities especially film art.
It has been proven time and time again that audiences love a movie that allows them to connect with the characters and situations. The traditional Hollywood movies of ‘white supremacy’ telling us how the white people live, to the exclusion of other racial groups, are getting out. Whether for the sake of cultural diversity or integration, we can see more and more Hollywood movies relating to African-American culture and with more African-American actors and directors for the past 10 years. One good example is Black Panther (黑豹).
In the creative world, we all dream. We may become popular and famous. Every dog has its day. It seems that the dream of equal opportunity of showing Asians’ talent and stories is now within reach.
A record 22 million Asian Americans now trace their roots to more than 20 countries in East and Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent, each with unique histories, cultures, languages and other characteristics. The U.S. Asian population is projected to reach 46 million by 2060. In terms of a film market, the population means a huge supply as well as a handsome demand.
For making a cross-cultural film, it is said that a ‘crossover’ is where the different races meet interactively but they remain essentially independent. But a ‘fusion’ is the new result of integrating different races and generating a new cultural form with its unique presentation, philosophy and charm.
In the past, Hollywood had only ‘crossover’ films with Hong Kong but they failed to impress because one could feel the lack of cultural cohesion or strength. The Hong Kong director or actor was simply ‘in’ but not ‘into’ the film. Examples are such as John Woo (吳宇森)’s Face Off (奪面雙雄) in 1997, Peter Chan (陳可辛)’s The Love Letter (情書) in 1999 and Chow Yun-fat(周潤發)’s The Corruptor (再戰邊緣) in 1999.
Better late than never and only time will tell. Recently, some Hollywood ‘fusion’ films finally took place. In 2018, Joh M. Chu directed an American romantic comedy-drama film Crazy Rich Asians(我的超豪男友) from a screenplay of Peter Chiarelli and Adele Lim. Actors were Asian but they spoke English in the film as characters were almost American. The story is about a Chinese-American who travelled to meet her boyfriend’s family and was shocked to discover they were the richest in Singapore. It is a risky project by a major Hollywood studio to feature a majority cast of Chinese descent in a modern setting. It is an incredible commercial success. The film grossed over US $238 million on a budget of $30 million, making it the most profitable romantic comedy of the 2010s! The next Asian-American film success is Everything Everywhere All at Once (奇異女俠玩救宇宙) in 2022! It is a film written and directed by Daniel Kwan with Daniel Scheinert. Michelle Yeoh (楊紫瓊) stars as a Chinese-American immigrant who got connected with the parallel ‘multiverse versions’ of herself and everything became out of control. The stars and supporting actors are mostly Asians. The film grossed over US$141 million worldwide. It won awards all over the world and obtained 7 awards out of 11 nominations at the 95th Academy Awards.
In 2023, the stronger prevalence and power of a film vision is shown, by what the evidence can prove. There are 2 more shiny ‘fusion’, rather than ‘crossover’, Hollywood films.
One is Joy Ride(尋根女團). It quickly became a word-of-month sensation. Having received positive criticisms which praised the lead performance and humour, its successful equation of an all-Asian cast and laugh-out-loud cultural script is re-affirmed. The story is about the love adventures of 4 American Chinese girls in China with behaviour ranging from sexual promiscuity to sex as the act of true love.
The other great one is Past Lives (之前的我們). By a Korean director Celine Song, the film is autobiographical. It tells the sad story of Nora, a character who moves from Korea to Canada as a child, and later gets married in the United States. She, for many years, cannot get rid of the infatuation with her puppy lover in Korea and will this never-ending crush damage her marriage with a Caucasian husband? It has been praised as a culturally moving film the romance of which will linger on your mind in the most naturalistic style. It is basically a ‘Korean’ film in the English language.
A trend is the type of things that are changing over time. Some trends are nonsense. Some trends may have long-term implications. When current trends continue and continue, they will become the ‘new normal’ and can be turned into the norm in the future. Whether these cross-cultural ‘fusion’ films are just a trend or will be a norm is beyond our prediction. I hope they will last. The power for creating a better future by change is always contained in the present moment of what these films are doing.
Many people are still less likely to be mentally simulated by the films of the ‘non-white’, although the characters speak English. They simply lack the empathy necessary to identify with any ‘black’ or ‘yellow’ characters. This problem is called a ‘Racial Empathy Gap’.
Hong Kong is home to an exciting eclectic mix of individuals and cultures from all parts of the world, and different races communicate in English. The densely populated metropolis has cultivated a global mindset of ‘We are the Melting Pot’!
Hong Kong was once the Hollywood of the East. Can the trend of culturally ‘fusion films’ be the new hope and effort here to revive the declining film industry in Hong Kong?
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