Summer, Subtitled

By Rebecca Park, Contributor

The Fourteenth Annual “Made in Hong Kong” kicks off this weekend at the Freer and Sackler Galleries with a screening of Johnnie To’s Sparrow. To get ready for eight weeks of crime sagas and comedic capers, the Diplomatic Courier sat down with Freer and Sackler film programmer Tom Vick to talk about this year’s films, the evolution of Hong Kong cinema and “Asia Trash!”

Movie poster for Johnnie To's Sparrow, playing July 10 and 12 at the Freer Gallery's Meyer Auditorium (courtesy of Tai Sens Entertainment).

Diplomatic Courier: How do you see [“Made it Hong King”] fitting in with the overall mission [of the Galleries]?

Tom Vick: Our film program is year-around. We show films from all over Asia, all year round. We have two goals with the films. One, is to show films as an art form in themselves, either as popular cinema like the Hong Kong films or as sort of personal works and things like that. So it’s sort of a balance of that. And then also, the films kind of complement the exhibitions we have here. So they sort of, might emphasize parts of the world that we don’t have a lot of artwork from or they might, sometimes we might do a film series that relates directly to an exhibition that we have. So it’s sort of a kind of balance with the artwork that we have on our walls.

…. I guess [the Hong Kong festival] began at a time when Hong Kong cinema was just starting to become known in the US, like John Woo’s films and things like that, Chow Yun-Fat. It sort of started as a fun summer festival and people were just sort of starting to see these things for the first time. And then it just grew and continued and now people have come to expect it. It’s sort of our relaxing summer program we do.

DC: I was looking at the program, and it’s a really wide range, a lot of diversity. … You have documentaries and more light-hearted films, and action. Is this something you seek out, that balance? Or does that just kind of come naturally?

TV: Yeah, we try to do a balance of things. I mean you can’t do all sword-playing movies. … One of the advantages of working at the Smithsonian is, since we don’t charge admission, we can sometimes show films that might not draw huge crowds. If we had to rely on ticket sales, we might not show a nine hour Chinese documentary like we did a couple of weeks ago. We’re kind of the perfect place of that kind of work. … And also because the audiences in Washington are very sophisticated, very smart about other parts of the world and interested in that kind of thing. It’s kind of the real, the good thing about being here.

DC: So how did you find films for this year?

TV: It’s always kind of a negotiation. We work with the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office, which is sort of the de facto embassy of Hong Kong even though they’re not a country of themselves. So they will often give me a list of films that have come out that were popular in Hong Kong. Or else I, in my own research will come across films. So we sort of, between the two of us, come up with a good list.

There are certain directors we emphasize, like Johnnie To and Wong Kar-wai, who are always very popular. … And also, a variety of films so it’s not just action movies and not just comedies or whatever. So it’s usually sort of giving an idea of the kinds of films Hong Kong is producing in any given year, along with usually one or two classic films. This year, our only classic is a kind of a redone classic Ashes of Time, which was originally 1994, but this is a newer version, but I guess it still counts.

DC: Well then, what are you most excited about this year?

TV: Well, I love Johnnie To, so I’m excited about Sparrow, I’m excited about Ashes of Time, I love both of those films. … This is just anecdotal, but a lot of people seem really interested in All About Women. Based partly on the images … it just looks like a fun movie, very visually kind of cool to look at. So I think that one’s going to bring in a lot of people.

DC: So what do you see as being Hong Kong cinema? How do you feel that’s unique? ... Why do you have this festival every year in DC?

TV: Well it’s interesting because it’s changed so much. Especially since the handover in … 1997, and even before that. Because before 1997, Hong Kong films were kind of made for a Hong Kong audience. So they were all in Cantonese, they had a certain aesthetic that was very specific to what they were, and they were sort of marketed around the world as these unique objects that were really about Hong Kong and from Hong Kong and no one else is making movies like this. Well, as the world has become more globalized, and as China’s opened up to Hong Kong, they’ve sort of shifted their focus and now they’re making movies more aimed at this giant new market on the mainland. So films are now in Cantonese and Mandarin, and they don’t just do action movies because violence is one of the things that Chinese censors get up in arms about. So it’s become a much more global cinema.

… Like the director of All about Women is known for these action movies and this is a completely different thing for him, this sort of screwball comedy. So we’re seeing directors venturing into new territories. So it’s getting harder and harder to say what Hong Kong cinema is, except that it’s sort of shattered into these different kinds of films, you can’t really pin it down anymore. Which is interesting in itself. I sort of find it interesting how it’s changed so much.

DC: So you still see it as having an important role even as Hong Kong cinema evolves in this more global direction.

TV: Yeah, definitely, because Hong Kong has always been this port where all kinds of cultures collided anyway, so in a way the cinema should reflect that. And actually, even though a lot of the films this year are not even shot in Hong Kong or are typical Hong Kong movies, some of them actually are. One Nite in Mongkok and Eye in the Sky are … shot on the streets of Hong Kong, they’re sort of what you think of as a Hong Kong movie, cops and robbers running around, and this sort of urban landscape and all this energy, that’s still there.

And I think it’s good to keep showing Hong Kong cinema partly for that reason because if people keep coming back, they keep seeing how films are changing. And also there’s just the pure entertainment aspect. No matter how much Hong Kong cinema changes, it’s still like a machine for making entertainment, they have it down.

DC: The Hollywood of Asia, almost.

TV: Yeah, almost. Only sort of even more, I think when people really got into Hong Kong films in the ’80s and ’90s was [because] they saw Hollywood clichés recycled in a way and turned on their heads and then sent back out again. So you were seeing Hollywood being outdone by this other place. Taking these Hollywood ideas and giving them more energy and giving them a twist. That’s what I think attracted people to Hong Kong movies at that time in the first place. And it still kind of happens. It’s always interesting to me see how that goes on. So it’s definitely worth continuing to see.

DC: I’m also excited because this summer you’re also doing an “Asia Trash” festival.

TV: We used to have things called Art Nights. …Thursday nights in the summer the museums would stay open late and people would come for tours and do things. Since the funding no longer exists for that, we decided to do Trash Nights (laughing).

DC: Yeah, it’s the crisis, people don’t want to think anymore.

TV: Yeah, you want to see blood and guts and swords and violence, so that’s what we’re doing. I hope that works out, this is our first experiment with that. I hope we don’t offend too many people.

DC: Well, that’s pretty exciting. So are you already planning for next year? How far ahead do you plan?

TV: I do plan, at least 6 months in advance is when I have to confirm things. So yeah, almost as soon as this festival is over I’ll be thinking about next year. But I’m looking at things year round anyway. I always have a list, either physical list I’m writing down or a list in my head, I always know I’ve got Hong Kong coming up, so I’m always on the look out for stuff.

DC: I also saw Johnnie To just had a film out at Cannes, Vengeance correct? … [French singer] Johnny Hallyday is in it…I’m very intrigued by that collaboration right there.

TV: Me too. The funny thing about Sparrow, the film we’re showing, is that it feels like a musical, you really do expect people to start singing at any minute. It looks a lot like Umbrellas of Cherbourg because of all the stuff with umbrellas and rain and birds and stuff. You really have this feeling that anybody’s going to start singing. So it’s kind of a natural progression now that he’s actually working with a French singer.

DC: I’m wondering how Western the films are getting as they have more interaction on the global market.

TV: I guess they are in a way. It varies by director. Some obviously are trying hard to get this Western audience, and they change their films that way. But Johnnie To just does what he wants to do. So if it’s shooting in France with Johnny Hallyday, but next year he may be back in Hong Kong doing something very Hong Kong. You never know. He’s kind of industry unto himself.

…He’s been around a long time, and I think he’s been averaging like two films a year since the early 80s. He used to make very typical Hong Kong movies, crime films, gangster movies, but then he started branching out and he also now does comedies and weird things. And he collaborates with younger directors and they become his protégés and then they go off and carry on the Johnnie To aesthetic. But no matter what he does, he’s a really good director, so he always does it well. He’s very adaptable that way.

DC: Talking about him working with young directors, do you see there being a specific school of Hong Kong cinema right now?

TV: It’s hard to say again because things have become so fragmented. There are always going to be these crime movies, that’s always a very, very popular genre, but you really can’t say these days, “this is the big genre in Hong Kong.” Korea’s been like this too. Once upon a time, you could say Hong Kong action movies are what really put Hong Kong on the map, and a certain kind of art film put Taiwan on the map. But if you look at Korea or Hong Kong now, you can’t really say it’s one kind of movie. It’s a whole variety.

For more about this year’s “Made in Hong Kong” film festival, and for a complete schedule, visit the Freer and Sackler Galleries website www.asia.si.edu.

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