Hong Kong directors (including screenwriters) have only two options to break through their survival situation and development bottlenecks:

Embrace, learn, master and understand the operational thinking of the big market.

Or break, shape, and adhere to localized cultural creative atmosphere.

Author｜Wang Chongyang lp

Edit｜Xiaobai

Typesetting | Banya

The pictures in this article are from the Internet

During this period, several things about "Hong Kong Film" and "Hong Kong Filmmaker" are:

The 43rd Hong Kong Film Awards came to an end.

"The Siege of Kowloon City" won nine grand prizes.

"Broken Hell" won four major awards.

Liu Qingyun was awarded the title of Best Actor for the fourth time.

Wei Shiya became the best actress.

Tsui Hark and Shi Nansheng won the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Some people say that this is the "success of localization" of Hong Kong movies, while others say that Hong Kong filmmakers have begun to envelop themselves.

In any case, the award-winning "The Siege of Kowloon City" and "Break Hell" did achieve good market reputation and box office results in the mainland last year.

At the same time, the May Day holiday released two mainland-Hong Kong cooperative movies "Dun Queen" and "Gold Hunting Game", which are basically the top three in the single-day box office results during the schedule.

Regardless of the quality and objective evaluation of these two films, a sense of separation appears in comparison with the just-occurring Hong Kong Film Awards:

On the one hand, the "local" content of this Hong Kong Film Awards is relatively purity compared to previous years, and basically the winning and shortlisted films are localized narratives.

On the other hand, Hong Kong directors who can also win box office with a strong lineup and production in the mainland must accept mainland elements, including actors, investors and creative teams.

Therefore, in terms of creative direction and genre selection, the problems faced by Hong Kong filmmakers in 2025 are the same as before and after the return in 1997:

Go north to the Nuggets and embrace the mainland? Still "telling the stories of Hong Kong people themselves".

The above is all in the thoughts of Hong Kong filmmakers, especially Hong Kong directors.

01

"Can Hong Kong movies work?"

This problem has existed in the market for at least twenty years.

The answer is obvious-

Whether Hong Kong movies are good depends on the main creators, especially the topic directions of directors and screenwriters.

Due to some objective factors, such as marketing docking with the mainland, publicity and release schedule, communication costs, type restrictions, etc., some textured Hong Kong movies are not well-known in the mainland. The aforementioned film "Dad", which made Liu Qingyun the fourth time he was awarded the title of the Academy Awards, was only released in Hong Kong (2024), and almost no one in the mainland knew about it.

Going forward, the "Youth Diary" (directed by Zhuo Yiqian in 2023) and "Under the Day" (directed by Jian Junjin in 2023) that reflect the issue of education are also spread to the mainland in a small scale due to the release area and theme issues. Going forward, the scale of "Traveling on Blood to Find Plum Blossoms" (directed by Weng Ziguang in 2015) made it missed the mainland.

However, these films are excellent in the in-depth portrayal of social realities and actors' performances.

However, for Hong Kong, which has a population of only a few million and a few more than a dozen theaters, it is obviously a pity whether in terms of box office or word-of-mouth communication.

Therefore, the question of "whether it is possible" needs to be viewed from multiple dimensions.

At least in terms of emotional identity and film quality, Hong Kong movies are not useless now. Some better films need broader channels to be introduced into the mainland.

However, for the mainland market that has been overcommercialized, upset videos like "Broken Hell" last year are extreme individual cases. There are many accidental factors that cannot be used as a demonstration of successful cases. There are many factors such as emotional blessings and the influence of the audience's aesthetic fatigue + word-of-mouth dissemination of some types of films in a certain stage.

Even Louis Koo, who invested in "Under the Day", admitted that no one invested in some films even if they starred in and gave up their pay, because most investors rely on "big data" as the norm, and what supports big data is nothing more than the cast, film type and audience portraits.

This leads to a widespread phenomenon in films with a bleak reputation in Hong Kong movies:

Including the main creators and actors, I didn’t expect to “become the circle”.

However, it deeply reflects the audience's preferences:

For them who are already deeply tired in various dazzling short video editing, they really want to see some stories related to them.

In fact, this kind of appeal was not difficult for Hong Kong directors in the past (1990s-2010s).

Even after going north, some Hong Kong directors can still accurately grasp the demands of mainland audiences.

The more representative of them is Chen Kexin.

Before going north, Chen Kexin was very good at "capturing" stories that reflect the humanistic emotions of the times, such as "Sweet Honey". The changes in the times and personal emotional experiences of the two young men and women who went to Hong Kong to work resonate with a generation of audiences, especially those who went south to seek survival. Even in the seemingly weird "Three Updates" series "Going Home", he cleverly demonstrates the true state of mainlanders in Hong Kong through the protagonist's oral narrative and the details of the characters' behavior.

After heading north, Chen Kexin successively filmed works such as "If Love", "The Letter of the Fame", "Chinese Partner", "Dear", "Win the Championship", and "Martial Arts". It should be said that the mainlandization of these films is very good, especially "Dear" and "Chinese Partners", which have both hot current affairs and biography. Director Chen Kexin is very good at telling a good story while adding some songs with strong symbols to the cake.

Note that the integration of this symbolic element can please some viewers who have experienced the times, but it must be based on the hard core of the story itself, rather than overshadowing the main point, thinking that having these means "full score".

Also performing well were director Zeng Guoxiang. After going north, he filmed "July and Ansheng" and "Youth of You", which was able to deeply understand the mainland culture and the emotional state of young people (at that time).

Relatively speaking, after Tsui Hark went north, he also had works such as "Die Renjie: The Empire of Heaven" and "Taking Tiger Mountain with Strategy", especially the latter. The three-hour film perfectly reproduces the red classics and integrates commercial elements into it.

Tsui Hark has a strong creative level and field control ability. Strictly speaking, he himself has exceeded his "regional attributes" and uses an objective attitude to show a narrative perspective, such as the representative work of "Ce" in his early years, "Green Snake" and "Liang Zhu" spread on the Internet by a "Defense between China and the "Britain".

Including "The Legend of the Condor Heroes: The Greatest Man" released during the Spring Festival in 2025, even though the people have mixed praises and criticisms of the work, if they look at it from the assumption, this martial arts work directed by Tsui Hark is still remarkable.

In fact, directors who tell stories well, both in mainland China and Hong Kong, have one thing in common:

The shooting is dimensionally, the speaking is strong, the vision is broad, and the characters are profound.

Instead of just catering to it, or simply imitating it, and simply assuming that "the audience loves to watch" to make movies.

02

To put it bluntly, some Hong Kong filmmakers who went north, especially directors, lack objective observations on the development and changes of mainland society and the cognition of young people, and only choose topics from the aspects of superficial hot topics and box office trends.

Even after going north, his social circle and creative team were limited to Hong Kong filmmakers who were "drifting in Beijing", which led to his works being similar in shape but not in spirit.

After all, due to historical reasons, Hong Kong and the Mainland have been in a relatively long cultural isolation state, but it has been more than 20 years since the return of 1997. During this period, the social livelihood and economic development of both the mainland and Hong Kong have undergone tremendous changes.

For the generation born in the 1995-00s, their impression of "Hong Kong movies" is no longer the emotional state of the generation born in the 1960s and 1980s. Due to the serious backwardness of the mainland's culture and economic level compared to Hong Kong at that time, Hong Kong movies, which reflect the culture of Hong Kong citizens as the main body, can gain a large number of fans in the mainland, including in the minds of the "old generation" audiences, it is still regarded as a myth.

But at this moment, it is no longer the same moment.

Including some phenomena that are worth studying in depth:

Hong Kong films that were regarded as classics from the 1980s to the 1990s were not filmed for mainland audiences. The "original" flavor of its Hong Kong elements has captured a large number of audiences.

This impression can be compared to the first appearance of "Korean Wave" at that time-

In the objective sense of distance, the audience can find some common points of emotional support, thus creating a sense of intimacy that "the world is like a neighbor".

Just like films like "Broken Hell", "Youth Diary" and "Under the Sun", its director's popularity may not be comparable to other Hong Kong directors who were well-known in the mainland. The cast does not fit the "popular" in their impressions, but the social resonance and value recognition expressed by the story can still be recognized by mainland audiences, which is very evident.

That is, putting aside regional factors, human emotions are common, including recognition of the major events of life and death, class strata and the anxiety of having no support for old age.

Returning to the topic of Hong Kong directors going north, if they want to gain recognition from the mainland market and audiences, no matter what kind of movies they are filmed, Hong Kong directors must deeply understand, study and master the cultural context and popular concepts that mainland audiences are familiar with. Simply piling up mainland elements, such as actors, story backgrounds, etc., cannot satisfy the young people who are now "sighted and ten lines".

Of course, this problem also exists in some mainland directors, but it is more obvious in Hong Kong directors:

When "Hong Kong film" has been included in the topic of "Chinese film", simply grasping hot topics or catering to a certain emotion rather than mastering the expression of ideas in a unique context means that some directors still have a "condescending" attitude, unwilling or disdaining to understand the development and changes of the mainland humanities.

At the same time, we must face an objective fact head-on:

As a generation who has experienced the era from the British Hong Kong era to the SAR era, perhaps one of the cultural carriers of Hong Kong citizens' culture - movies, for Hong Kong directors who are still fighting for their lives in the new era, their directing level can no longer keep up with the aesthetics of young audiences.

Just like when talking about Hong Kong movies today, the recent classics are still works such as "Infernal Affairs" that have been in the past ten years. The younger generation of directors have almost collectively turned to low-cost realism themes due to limited capital and market size. Hong Kong films that can enter the mainland rarely resonate with the topic. It can be regarded as "staying existing" rather than "superior".

03

Liu Qingyun said when receiving the award:

"Today was a very special day. The first movie I made at the age of 21, "Speak Can't Hear" was directed by David Kang. Today he was in the audience, and I was very happy. I saw many seniors today. If you don't come, I am seniors."

At this Hong Kong Film Awards, Brigitte Lin made a surprise appearance and was on the same stage as Tsui Hark and Schneider.

He is already 40 years old.

They should be two generations living together.

For example, the glory created by Hong Kong filmmakers of the "parent generation" generation represents the influence of a regional culture and once covered the global Chinese world. The influence of Hong Kong filmmakers of the "children generation" generation is mostly limited to Hong Kong and Cantonese-speaking regions.

Even younger Hong Kong filmmakers also face the choice of "based on the local level" or "embracing the world".

It can only be said that at present, Hong Kong movies and many directors and actors still have hope, difficulties, problems and expectations.

It cannot be denied that when we discuss Hong Kong film and director topic selection, we also need to avoid the profound impact of the social environment and many complex factors on the industry just like we discuss the mainland film industry, which is by no means an objective statement.

Including the mainland, the Hong Kong Film Awards ceremony will no longer be broadcast live.

As early as 14 years ago, Yu Yuanfang's "There is a Holy Life in Hong Kong" mentioned the desolation and helplessness of the Academy Awards.

But almost everyone is avoiding many problems in a seemingly glorious era, such as from project establishment to shooting to release, some movies have a shortest cycle of only one month or even shorter. To this day, many people are unable to make objective analysis while missing it, especially in line with the current market environment and business operation model.

On the contrary, many of the directorial concepts and levels in the past are more similar to those of the filming of micro-short dramas in mainland China in recent years. The ability to respond quickly from "thinking" to "doing" and the accuracy of catering to the audience's tastes are not acceptable to the "academic" today.

Investors who want large productions and high returns will not allow the shooting level that is almost "children's play" in the past.

Hong Kong directors (including screenwriters) have only two options to break through their survival situation and development bottlenecks:

Embrace, learn, master and understand the operational thinking of the big market.

Or break, shape, and adhere to localized cultural creative atmosphere.

From the audience's perspective, the embarrassment and breakthroughs of the "old seniors" are obvious to all, and the new generation of directors is gradually becoming clear at the intersection of "going left and going right". The difference is only due to age, professionalism and other factors.

Based on the overall environment faced by Chinese films, no matter which attitude is just a personal choice in the times.

The Four Poison Uncle

"The Four Tastes of Poison Uncle" is a vertical text and video expression platform in the film and television culture industry initiated by Tan Fei, Li Xingwen, Wang Hailin, Song Fangjin and others. Directors, producers, screenwriters, actors, agents, critics, producers, etc. with personality and opinions are welcome to come to speak out, talk shows, or talk. The opinions do not need to be consistent, but please come from the heart.

"Siwei Poison Uncle"

Producer | Editor-in-chief: Tan Fei

Executive Editor: Luo Xinzhu

"Special statement: The content of the above works (including videos, pictures or audio) is uploaded and published by users of the "Dafenghao" self-media platform under Phoenix.com. This platform only provides information storage space services.

Notice: The content above (including the videos, pictures and audios if any) is uploaded and posted by the user of Dafeng Hao, which is a social media platform and merely provide information storage space services."