This paper aims to analyze different public opinions on whether Hong Kong Movie is dying or not?  This paper will focus on a few aspects, first the government policy and regulation aspect. The second is the economic and commercial aspect and the last is community engagement in Hong Kong movies. The definition of a Hong Kong Movie is 1.  All the presenting companies involved in film production must be registered companies in Hong Kong.

2. For partly presenting companies registered outside Hong Kong, at least one of the presenting companies is registered in Hong Kong. (MPIA, n.d.)

According to data show, the number of Hong Kong Movies is decreasing in recent years. In 2018 there are 53 Hong Kong Movies shown in cinema in 2019 just 46 Hong Kong Movies shows in cinema.  (Research, 2020)

Policy and Regulation Of Movie

This Part will discuss how the public opinion of the movie is formed or constructed with policy and regulation aspects. The Hong Kong government will be the decision-maker of movie policy and regulation in Hong Kong. As the government understand the problem and challenge, however, the government is trying to support the movie industry, and the government try to put a lot of resource into the movie industry. The government has set up different funding to help the movie industry. For example, the First Feature Film Initiative (FFFI) and Scriptwriting Incubation Program. (Council, n.d.) According to the document the government claim that they have a lot of consultation before launching the funding project, the however public has mentioned different problems for Hong Kong Movie’s policy.

According to New Wave Motion convenor袁廸旗 who mentions she is worrying that different programs may be functional Function overlap. For example, will the style and quality of the First Feature Film Initiative movie will be disparate from with Directors’ Succession Scheme. He also worries that the senior movie practitioner will make a serious impact on movie creativity. (袁廸旗, 2021)

Another big issue of movie policy in Hong Kong is the “Main Mainland and Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement” (Department, n.d.)this arrangement opens the Mainland and allow Hong Kong movie to be in the mainland market. according to data from the “Hong Kong Film Development Council” find out that the number of co-production films has an increasing trend from 2012 around 43% of co-production films in the Hong Kong market increased to around 57% of the movie are co-production films in the market. (News, 2019) A lot of directors see that as an opportunity and threat to the movie industry. According to Tenkey Tin Kai Man who thinks that ‘CEPA’ opens the mainland market by giving job opportunities, the limitation of Hong Kong movies is increasing because of the different Regulations of Hong Kong movies and Mainland movie policy. Tin Kai Man also thinks that the Hong Kong government do not have the direction for movie development. He thinks that the different themes of Hong Kong Movies make Hong Kong movie is unique from others. According to Clifton Ko Chi-Sum who thinks CEPA (Department, n.d.) create a great opportunity for Hong Kong movie, He thinks there is no worry if Hong Kong movie follows the regulation of the mainland market, Hong Kong can still be unique.

The Opinion of Tenkey Tin Kai Man and Clifton Ko Chi-Sum are constructed by a tv Program Called” This Week” (視點31) (RTHK, 2021)they are trying to discuss with different practitioners of the movie.

Economic And Commercial

This part will discuss whether Hong Kong Movie is declining or not based on the economic and commercial aspect. Let’s look at the box office and the watching movie h website bite and see to what extent commercial movies dominated the Hong Kong movie market.

As the most direct data that can show the habit of movie selection among the public are the box office. According to the data 2019 total profit of movie is $1,923,194,409 decrease to 2020 years $536,921,311. according to data from Hong Kong Box Office Ltd, there is 329 movies shown in the cinema in 2019, However, there are only 46 of those movies are Hong Kong Movies. (MPIA, 香港電影業資料彙編-2018, 2018)  In 2020 the situation is, even more, worst, there is a total of 218 movies shown in the cinema, 34 of which are Hong Kong movies. (MPIA, 香港電影業資料彙編-2018, 2018) according to an excerpt from a book by PANG she thinks that Hong Kong Movie has become an identity and memory of Hong Kong people. There are a fewer local movies in cinemas that can be recognized. (Laikwan, 2018)Another problem is that the development of co-production movies and the development of Streaming services have a serious impact on the local foundational movie.

According to MS Helen SO Hiu-ming researcher of Our Hong Kong foundation thinks that the government try to help the movie with a lot of money input, however, Hong Kong people’s habit has been changing, especially with the pediatric situation. The number of users in Over-the-top services is increasing in a global society. (Hiu-ming, 2020) (Hiu-ming, 新時代的香港電影政策（下） | Our Hong Kong Foundation, 2020) according to the user data of Over-the-Top services in Hong Kong has been continuously rising in recent years. According to the Statista website show that the number of a user is increasing from 1.83 million to 2020, 2 million. (郭曉晴, 2020) The Market penetration rate of Over-the-Top services also increased from (25.06%) in 2017 to (28.16%). (郭曉晴, 2020) The over-the-Top service provides more choice for the audience. Helen state that Over the Top is convenient it reduces the number of audiences to watch a movie in the cinema. Let’s use the data of 2018 as an example according to HK_Film_Industry_Info2018_Preview it shows the number of attendances in cinemas between Hong Kong movies and western movies has big different Hong Kong movie attendance is 820,000 in 2018, (MPIA, 香港電影業資料彙編-2018, 2018) co-production movie has 2.6 million attendance and the non-Hong Kong receive twenty-two million. (MPIA, 香港電影業資料彙編-2018, 2018)This data shows that the habits of watching movies among Hong Kong people, Hong Kong movies are more like an identity or nostalgia. 

The community engagement toward Hong Kong Movie

The last part discusses how community engagement will change/construct public opinion toward Hong Kong movies.
Chung Wah Chow a Freelance Writer think that the movie “Ten Years “is the starting point to reengage Hong Kong People to discuss Hong Kong movie or get their attention to people. (Chow, 2016)Her opinion is formed because Ten Years win the Hong Kong Best Film Awards in 2016. Which created a lot of disputes; However, they have more attention toward Hong Kong Movies afterwards. Tang Ching-kin, an individual writer in Hong Kong mentioned as a public admission that Hong Kong Movies cannot be back as popular as in the 90s as a result people will try to find a way to support Hong Kong movies. His opinion is formed by the data from local movies. As Tang Ching-kin suggest Hong Kong People go to the cinema to support Hong Kong movies. (Ching-kin, 2021)

Another big reason that engages Hong Kong people to support Hong Kong Movies is the development of Hong Kong Community Cinema, according to an interview of the founder, he states that Hong Kong Community Cinema started in September 2016. Community Cinema aims to screen more non- commercials movies for the community. (陳亭聿, 2017) He states that one of the reasons there less non-commercial movies is because the rent of cinemas is expensive. His opinion is formed by data from cinema rants and the number of commercial movies shown in cinema. As mentioned according to the data the number of Hong Kong movies is decreasing. The cinema rant is high for example the Langham place rant around million per month and the Movie City Plaza rant around Eighty-two hundred thousand per month. (梁子謙, 2021)

How will I advocate resolving the conflicting opinion and decide?

In this part, I will share my opinion based on the above stakeholder’s opinion and make a decision.

I think the above opinion has similar ideas which are that the Hong Kong/Local Movie are challenged by those co-production movies. I think that the government have a lot of finical input for the Movie industry. However, there do not have clear how Hong Kong Movies should be developed.

The Hong Kong government should aim at providing more funding to support local movies instant input lot of funding for commercial movies. I think the government need to have a clear regulation for different movie stakeholder to follow. If the regulation and directions are clear, I think it can attract more people to work in the movie industry. The public also tends to watch more Hong Kong movies I think Tin Kai Man has the most Accurate argument about the Hong Kong Movie industry which is needed to find a clear direction and clear regulation before bringing Hong Kong Movies back to a successful day.
  

References

Ching-kin, T. (2021, 2 28). 不要再問「香港電影是否已死」好不好？ | 鄧正健 | 立場新聞. Retrieved from http://www.thestandnews.com: https://www.thestandnews.com/culture/%E4%B8%8D%E8%A6%81%E5%86%8D%E5%95%8F-%E9%A6%99%E6%B8%AF%E9%9B%BB%E5%BD%B1%E6%98%AF%E5%90%A6%E5%B7%B2%E6%AD%BB-%E5%A5%BD%E4%B8%8D%E5%A5%BD/

Chow, C. W. (2016, 4 12). 香港觀察：電影《十年》效應 – BBC News 中文. Retrieved from BBC News 中文: https://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/trad/hong_kong_review/2016/04/160412_hkreview_hk-film_ten_years

Council, H. K. (n.d.). Hong Kong Film Development Council. Retrieved from http://www.fdc.gov.hk: https://www.fdc.gov.hk/en/services/services2.htm

Department, T. a. (n.d.). TID: Mainland and Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA). Retrieved from http://www.tid.gov.hk: https://www.tid.gov.hk/tc_chi/cepa/tradeservices/av_cinema_picture_lib.html

Hiu-ming, H. S. (2020, 9 15). 新時代的香港電影政策（上） | Our Hong Kong Foundation. From Our Hong Kong Foundation: https://www.ourhkfoundation.org.hk/zh-hant/report/34/%E8%97%9D%E8%A1%93%E5%89%B5%E6%96%B0/%E6%96%B0%E6%99%82%E4%BB%A3%E7%9A%84%E9%A6%99%E6%B8%AF%E9%9B%BB%E5%BD%B1%E6%94%BF%E7%AD%96%EF%BC%88%E4%B8%8A%EF%BC%89

Hiu-ming, H. S. (2020, 9 22). 新時代的香港電影政策（下） | Our Hong Kong Foundation. Retrieved from Our Hong Kong Foundation: https://www.ourhkfoundation.org.hk/zh-hant/report/34/%E8%97%9D%E8%A1%93%E5%89%B5%E6%96%B0/%E6%96%B0%E6%99%82%E4%BB%A3%E7%9A%84%E9%A6%99%E6%B8%AF%E9%9B%BB%E5%BD%B1%E6%94%BF%E7%AD%96%EF%BC%88%E4%B8%8B%EF%BC%89

MPIA. (2018). 香港電影業資料彙編-2018. Hong Kong : Create HK.

MPIA. (n.d.). 香港影業協會 MPIA. Retrieved from MPIA: http://www.mpia.org.hk/content/about_definition.php

News, N. (2019, 8 16). 【經緯線本周提要】合拍片得與失　兩代導演看法大不同. From Youtube : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_v2pTCdU8YQ&t=77s

Research, H. (2020, 10 23). Film Entertainment Industry in Hong Kong | HKTDC Research. Retrieved from HKTDC Research: https://research.hktdc.com/tc/article/MzExMjc4NDIz

RTHK. (2021, 3 9). 視點31：UA的離去 – 理想與現實；香港電影盛世？田啟文、高志森、游學修@試當真、曾麗芬；更改香港選舉制度特首感覺「圓滿」 – YouTube. From YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7B477SJwVro&t=1046s

袁廸旗. (2021, 1 27). 我對未來數年香港電影的一些疑惑 | 方格子. Retrieved from 方格子: https://vocus.cc/article/6011004dfd8978000133e739

梁子謙. (2021, 3 14). 【UA結業】香港戲院最新戰國地圖！邊間月租600萬？邊間院綫最多影院？ | 人物/專題 | 地產新聞 – 地產站 Property Station – D210314. Retrieved from Property Station: https://ps.hket.com/article/2899834

郭曉晴. (2020, 10 24). 數據分析｜疫下影片串流平台用戶增　Netflix香港觀眾仍最愛韓劇｜香港01｜社會新聞. Retrieved from 香港01: https://www.hk01.com/%E7%A4%BE%E6%9C%83%E6%96%B0%E8%81%9E/538803/%E6%95%B8%E6%93%9A%E5%88%86%E6%9E%90-%E7%96%AB%E4%B8%8B%E5%BD%B1%E7%89%87%E4%B8%B2%E6%B5%81%E5%B9%B3%E5%8F%B0%E7%94%A8%E6%88%B6%E5%A2%9E-netflix%E9%A6%99%E6%B8%AF%E8%A7%80%E7%9C%BE%E4%BB%8D%

陳亭聿. (2017, 7 31). 提供選擇，看見自由：專訪「社區院線」創辦人張景暉 – The News Lens 關鍵評論網. Retrieved from The News Lens: https://www.thenewslens.com/article/75031