Monday, June 6, 2016

[2016.06.07] INFERNAL AFFAIRS COMES TO THE INTERNET

Leung Ka Shu
courtesy of mingpao.com

The Cultural Industries Summit 2016 took place yesterday. Attendees included Association of Cultural Industries president Peter Lam Kin Ngok, iQiyi founder Gong Yu, famous Korean singer Park Jin-Young, Andrew Lau Wai Keung, Chan Hing Ka, Leung Ka Shu and Leon Lai Ming. Lau Wai Keung, Chan Hing Ka and Leung Ka Shu's topic was "how creators can grasp 'one belt, one road' opportunities to break out of Hong Kong". Lau Wai Keung admitted that when working in the Mainland, he had to put aside the differences and his ego.

Yesterday at the Cultural Industries summit, Lau Wai Keung, Chan Hing Ka and Leung Ka Shu's topic was "how creators can grasp 'one belt, one road' opportunities to break out of Hong Kong". Leung Ka Shu had decades of television experience, he saw how small the Hong Kong market was while the Mainland had a huge audience and economic network. It was a good direction for young people to develop their careers; Chan Hing Ka said that the first qualification to break into the Mainland market was Putonghua fluency and courage to innovate; Lau Wai Keung also cited an example and said that in 1992 he went to Beijing to make a movie. Because he could not speak Putonghua fluently he had to speak English to communicate in Beijing. Like the average Hong Kong person he thought he was above needing to learn Putonghua. Now he has already trained the team to learn Putonghua fluently. He said, "I understood that working in the Mainland, I had to put aside the differences and my ego!" Leung Ka Shu also agreed that in order to connect the Mainland and Hong Kong cultures, the language barrier had to be overcome. Thus most companies used Mainland screenwriters to ease the conflict between the Mainland and Hong Kong. With more familiarity with the language, they could communicate more and the work format could be simplified as well.

Speaking of the Hong Kong domestic film advantage, Lau Wai Keung felt that Hong Kong people was great at being flexible and grasping the market. However in order to understand a place, they needed to live there for actual contact. Thus he set up his office in Beijing, often "BS"ing with investors, young screenwriters at the company in order to understand the market there.

Chan Hing Ka felt that Hong Kong's advantage were "fast, brutal, accurate" and "cheap, pretty, great"; Lau Wai Keung also agreed that "fast, brutal, accurate" were Hong Kong's advantage. On creators' ideas, Hong Kong knew how to adapt more.

Leung Ka Shu felt that Hong Kong's advantages and flaws were all in one. Hong Kong had an international vision, but could not completely connect to the Mainland. Thus it needed to have cultural exchanges to understand and communicate with each other more to try to catch up as soon as possible. He pointed out that film still had a lot of room for development in the Mainland market and larger degree of acceptance. Television had quotas, only five creators could be from overseas. Thus he hoped that Mainland would give looser opportunities, through cultural industries exchanges opening the Mainland quota to Hong Kong to achieve co-existence despite being different.

Leung Ka Shu revealed that Media Asia will work with iQiYi in June on the internet series INFERNAL AFFAIRS (MO GAN DOH), with 3 seasons and 36 episodes. The investment will be near 100 million yuan and the production will shoot in Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Thailand. He said that the film version was a successful example and had global influence. Thus the Mainland also saw its important. Most of the series actors will be from Hong Kong like Gallen Lo (Law Ka Leung), Law Chung Him and Damien Lau Chung Yan. Who will play the film's Tony Leung Chiu Wai and Andy Lau Tak Wa characters? Leung Ka Shu said that the television version will start from the story's center, with the police and the mob undercover agents as the subject then continuing to later generation's developments. Will the film actors guest star? Leung Ka Shu revealed that Eric Tsang Chi Wai and Berg Ng Ting Yip's characters will appear again. Wai Jai's daughter will be Cecilia So Lai Shan.

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