Pan Asian Cooperation | hkfilmindustry

Internationalization through Pan-Asian Experiments and International Co-productions

A Battle of Wits is a 2006 Hong Kong historical drama action film. The film is based on a Japanese historical novel called Bokkō by Ken'ichi Sakemi. There is also a manga series called Bokko by Hideki Mori. This is a joint-production between Hong Kong, Mainland China, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea. There are many actors and the production teams come from different regions. It enhances the influential power in different regions and more people in different regions would pay more attention in this film.

The main actor of the film is Andy Lau Tak-Wah. He is a famous Hong Kong male singer, actor and film producer. He is a singer when he debuts. He is influential in the Hong Kong musical career. He was branded by the media as one of the Four Heavenly Kings of Cantopop. (Zhang) Later, he started his film acting.

At the beginning, many people still stereotype him as a singer only and not an actor; they questioned the acting ability of Andy Lau. Later, Andy Lau acted on many popular films like Needing You… (孤男寡女), Love on a Diet (瘦身男女) and Infernal Affairs (無間道). He has got the Best Actor in Hong Kong Film Awards twice until 2006. It shows that his acting becomes more accepted by the public. In 2005, he was awarded ‘No.1 Box office Actor 1985-2005’ of Hong Kong. As he has issued a lot of Mandarin songs and his films were exported to other countries, he becomes very famous in Asia. He has got the Best Actor in Golden Horse Film Festival in 2004. All these indicate that Andy Lau Tak-Wah can ensure the Box Office and he can attract a lot of people to get attention on this film.

Another main actor of the film is Ahn Sung-ki. He is a South Korean actor. He was a child actor when he was 7. He has acted nearly 100 films. He has acted a lot of films like Musa (2001) and Radio Star (2006). For, Musa, he has got the Best Actor in Supporting Role in Blue Dragon Film Awards. For Radio Star, he has got the Best Actor in Grand Bell Awards and Blue Dragon Film Awards. All these indicate the talent of acting. The director of the film said that Ahn Sung-ki has a high status in Korea and everybody respects him very much. (Yau, 2006) As most of his characters that he acts are full of justice, he leaves a positive image to the audience. As he is a Korean actor, he can attract the Koreans to watch this film and know more about the interaction between different regions.

The main actress of this film is Fan Bingbing. She is a Chinese actress. She started her acting career in 1998.She acted the supporting role on the TV drama called My Fair Princess and became more famous. She then acted the film called Cell Phone in 2003. She has got the Hundred Flowers Award for Best Actress because of this film ( Lin, 2010). In 2006, she acted Lost in Beijing and got the Best Actress in Eurasia International Film Festival. This made her became more well-known by the foreigners.

Her influential power and reputation increases a lot. As she can get a lot of attention from different area, including the Western countries, she can attract more audiences to watch it. She has also got the Star of the Year in the same year. (Fan Bingbing Nabs Forbes Star of the Year , 2006)It shows her popularity, high press coverage and website hits in 2005. She can attract more audiences to watch this film because of her beautiful appearance too. All these can show that the attractiveness of her is high and it allows more people to know the film.

Wang Zhiwen is another experienced Chinese actor in this film. He acted a film called Together in 2002. And he has got the Best Supporting Actor in Hundred Flowers Award by this film. Besides the film industry, he also acts a lot of TV drama. These dramas also help him to get more supporters. He also joins different entertainment aspects like the drama and dubbing. It also can increase his popularity. The audience may want to watch him and then go to the cinema.

Another important actor in this film is Nicky Wu Chi-Lung. He is a Taiwanese singer, producer and actor. When he was 18, he was a member of a group called the Little Tigers Team. Their songs like Happy New Year were very popular at that time. He then became a solo singer and issued a lot of Mandarin and Cantonese albums like Wind Chaser and Chase after the Dreams. Later, he acted a lot of TV drama in Taiwan, Hong Kong and China after he went to the army. His TV drama like Treasure Venture (俠女闖天關), At the Threshold of an Era (創世紀) and Treasure Raiders (蕭十一郎)all attract a lot of supporters. He also acts a lot of films at the same time. Therefore, as his experience is brilliant and his beautiful appearance, it can attract a lot of supporters to watch this film.

Moreover, Choi Siwon is one of the essential actors in this film. He is a Korean singer and actor. He is a member of a Korean pop group called Super Junior. As Korean wave is popular in the recent years, many people put attention on kpop a lot. The Korean wave affected a lot of regions. Their influences spread to the whole Asia at that moment. Super Junior was one of the most popular kpop groups. As many people may think that singers should focus on singing and dancing, they are curious about the acting of the idol. A Battle of Wits is the first film that Choi Siwon joined. Many people got interest on him and some of them are attracted by his beautiful appearance. Also, many teenagers like Choi Siwon a lot; it can attract different types of audience to watch the film.

As the actors come from different regions, they can attract different regions of supporters to watch this film as each of them have their own supporters. In fact, it also attracts some audiences that want to enjoy the chemical reactions of different actors. Different regions of actors may have different acting habits. The cooperation of these actors is very precious. There may be no second chance. Most of the actors act a lot of films but their partners usually are the actors in the same regions. Some of the actors may cooperate for many times. Even the genre of the films are not the same, the audience feel bored about it. The collaboration of different actors can give a fresh feeling to the audience.

The interaction of the actors can increase by the cooproduction too. As most of them have not corporate before, they may have interests to communicate with others. As different regions of actors live in different styles and places, they have different experiences and it leads to different acting method. Then, they communicate more; they can give advice to each other and improve the acting method. The performance of the actors may change. When the actors see the acting of others, they can learn these methods. It can improve the quality of acting of the actors.

Besides the actors, the production team of the film is also very important. The director of the film is Cheung Chi-Leung. He is a Hong Konger. He read the comic of Bokko in 1995. He prepared 11 years to produce this film. He finally found 150 million of RMB from the investors of China, Japan and Korea. The director originally wanted to find Watanabe Ken (渡邊謙) to act a character in the film. But he finally thinks that the Japanese has a habit that even the film contains a Japanese actor, they still think that it is a foreign film. It was not a necessary to have a Japanese actor. Therefore, he changed his mind. He found that the quality of production team in Japan was good too so he invited some Japanese technical staff to produce the film. (Yau, 2006) He found Okubo Takeyuki to manage the lighting, Osaka Fumiko to follow the planning and Sakamoto Yoshinao and Kobayashi Gen to be the cinematographer.

As different regions have different style of technique, it is beneficial for the audience to see the different style of filming style. As these Japanese staff needed to cooperate with different regions of staff, the other staff can learn the strengths from them. Then, they can get improvement. They also can have some communication in sharing their technique. Then, if the atmosphere of cooperation is good, the opportunity of second cooperation will increase.

The film was released to china, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, South Korea and Japan. The actors of the film also went to different regions to promote the film. They went to Korea, Japan and Mainland China .The box office of A Battle of Wits finally got US$17,812,601 all over the world. (MUK GONG (BATTLE OF WITS))The box office of Hong Kong is about HK$15 million. It got the No. 5 of the best box office of Chinese film in that year. The review of the film generally was good. Viewers appreciated the story plot of the film and the interpretation of caring and love. This film also got some awards. This film has got the Best Film in the 12th Golden Bauhinia Awards. And Eric Kwong Chi-Leung has got the Best Film Editing Awards in Hong Kong Film Award. And Yi Zhenzhou has got the Best Art Director in the Golden Rooster Awards. This film also got a lot of nominations in different Awards. All these show that the quality of this film is accepted by the industry and the public.

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Reference:

Fan Bingbing Nabs Forbes Star of the Year. (2006, March 10). Retrieved April 20, 2015, from http://www.china.org.cn/english/NM-e/161064.htm

Lin, L. (2010, March 8). 第二十七届大众电影百花奖（2004年10月）. Retrieved April 20, 2015, from http://www.dmcc.gov.cn/publish/main/498/2010/20100308115733027538208/20100308115733027538208_.html

MUK GONG (BATTLE OF WITS). (n.d.). Retrieved April 20, 2015, from http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/intl/?page=&view=bycountry&id=_fMUKGONGBATTLEOF01

Yau, T. (2006, December 7). 打造亞洲武俠電影：專訪《墨攻》導演張之亮. Retrieved April 20, 2015, from http://www.funscreen.com.tw/headline.asp?H_no=110

Zhang, C. (n.d.). “四大天王”蓦然回首十五年. Retrieved April 20, 2015, from http://news.xinhuanet.com/ent/2006-02/18/content_4195962.htm