Wong Jing: “China Has Surpassed Hong Kong in TV Productions!”
As part of the judging panel on Anhui TV’s comedy competition show Next One <超级笑星>, Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Jing (王晶) is out on the lookout for potential new movie stars. “I’m not just searching for actresses, but actors as well. I am more impressed with the [boy constants], but some of the girls are okay too. As a filmmaker, it is our duty to search for new talents that can contribute to the film industry.”
Wong Jing praised Next One to be a quality production, adding that many mainland Chinese programs have the budget to make better and more entertaining variety programs while Hong Kong and Taiwanese shows tend to lack sufficient budgets. “Mainland Chinese programs have now surpassed the quality of Hong Kong and Taiwanese productions,” concluded Wong Jing.
He continued, “I’ve filmed many mainland Chinese dramas and films, but I never had the opportunity to work on a Chinese variety show. Through Next One, I also hope to familiarize myself with the current quality of mainland Chinese productions, because just by watching the shows on TV is not helpful enough.”
Mainland China’s film industry has already surpassed Hong Kong’s movie circle, which dominated the international Asian market for decades. Despite Hong Kong entertainment’s drop in influence, Wong Jing believes that Chinese films and Hong Kong films can still co-exist peacefully in a non-competitive nature.
“It’s all about finding the right resources. Hong Kong and Taiwan’s film industries did pretty well in the last few years. I believe that as long as creativity is alive, any industry has the potential to produce big films. Szechuan, Shanghai, and Fujian have made many smaller films that were critically successful, and many of our current big blockbusters are produced in Hong Kong.”
While Chinese blockbusters, including those produced by Hong Kong and Taiwan, have managed to find a common formula that attracted mass appeal across different Chinese audiences, not all Chinese films can be grouped together as a unified identity. Wong Jing argued that due to culture and language differences, Chinese, Hong Kong, and Taiwanese comedy films still lack a common ground.
“Feng Xiaogang’s (冯小刚) [comedy] films are very popular in the North, but the more South you go, the least popular they become. Likewise, if our Hong Kong-style comedy films are brought to the North, they can’t even be compared to Er Ren Zhuan (folk dance) artists. If there is a filmmaker who manages to make a film that can appeal to both the North and the South, then he is the world’s number one.”
Source: Sina.com
This article is written by Addy for JayneStars.com.
maybe in movie but not series…china series are too freaking old and boring…
I disagree and if you regularly watch Tv series from China, you can clearly see that their quality has surpassed HK tv series, especially recently as we can see the quality of Hk series depleting. That is especially true for the ancient series which TVB fir example does not dare to even make these days. But even when they do, they are really inferior to the series from china.
Storyline Japan is better. Scenery China is better. Pacing TVB is better. Romance Korea is better. Drama (Sob Story) Taiwan is better.
No, not really. The China’s version of Boys Over Flowers or Hana Yori Dango or Meteor Garden was criticised and laughed at by many westerners on internet when they tried to see if China matched the standards of tv compared to Korea. = Failed.
To my memory, Meteor Rain was quite successful and it boosted the name of Zhang Han and Cheng Shuang up to stardom. Others like Yu Hao Ming (poor him with the accident) also had good rise. It was good enough to make a sequel. At the same time, I rmb that the Korean version met a lot of criticisms for the bad acting.
To me, the best version of HYG is the Japanese one. None can beat it. The characters are like stepping out of the manga, especially Shun.
@Fox – Thanks for information. You read the manga too.
i disagree too. ive been watching dramas since i was 6. in the past hk dramas were awesome, while its difficult to find one good chinese drama. now its the opposite. its difficult to find one good hk drama. chinese drama may not be really good yet, but some of the ancient dramas (Bu bu jin xin, the female prime minister, legend of zhen zhuan) are really good. ive finished watching the smell of the fragrance yesterday and it was awesome. i’ll watch it again. this kind of feeling i dont have for hk dramas anymore.
i havent watched many modern chinese drama, but hk modern dramas arent fun either.
A Change of Heart is a good modern HK series.
a change of heart could of been really good, but the ending was so unrealistic and crazy!
There are good and bad series from every country and company. I have watched series since I was 4-5 years old and used to watch 80-90% TVB and the rest were ATV,Taiwan and a few China series since a China used to make a few adaptions of the classics back then. But now I only watch about 10% TVB at most and the rest is mainly ancient series from China, Taiwanese and Korean series.
I love many ancient series from China, but of course some were not good. I must admit test I do not like the modern series from China that I gave seen so far. But then again I have only seen a few modern ones so cannot make a fair judgement yet.
Your ‘freaking old’ comment shows you have not been watching China’s TV series since a decade ago, so you are not in a position to comment. Period.
HK tv series quality declined years ago. There was just not enough of quality actor / actress and story line was terrible. I agree that in terms of ancient series HK’s days of glory has ended. To make things worst HK actors / actress are now focussing their career in the Mainland market. Even in modern series I don’t recall any good ones over the last six years.
i had the same assumption until i actually started watching mainland series last year. tvb’s period dramas just cannot compare to the mainland’s. the costumes, scenery, storyline and actors all look way better. i still remember a period in the 1990s where mainland actors were soooo old and ugly but if you check out all the recent hotties like yan kuan, chen xiao, lin gengxin, etc., you’ll probably never lust after a tvb actor again.
How about Yuan Hong. I really like him! He wrote a lot of 13 Prince poems/ script in BBJX!
Your freaking old comment may be a reflection of your dated view of China’s series. I used to have a strong aversion to China production, and loyally follow TVB. But honestly China production have improved leaps and bounds while TVB has regressed. Of course, not all China’s production is of high quality and you must be selective. I prefer the periodic and costume dramas, where China production have a much bigger budget. Also, some of the special effects may not be great, but TVB special effects are pretty bad too. Recent good dramas in my view are Bu Bu Jing Xin, Legend of Zhen Huan, Lu Zhen, Lan Ling Wang. Old one worth watching is Tian Xia Di Yi.
Anyone else watched Lan Ling Wang? Opinions? I want to watch it for Ariel and I do have a certain fondness for Feng Shao Feng (despite his HORRENDOUS taste in projects – he’s like a magnet for crap dramas). I checked out the 1st ep and I’m already cringing… I hope it gets better?
So Wong Jing is eyeing the “boys” now..Hmmm
Naked Killer III: the gay version.
Raymond lam , Bosco & Ron are the choice
China has more money and resources compared to HK. But whatever, I still like my Cantonese series.
me too.
Same here.
For once, I actually agree with this. China has soooo much more money and the market is HUGE! They are able to developed and invest in more quality projects and explore with the options they have. Hong Kong has been stuck at one place since the mid 2000s to now. Every time I see TVB dramas, it’s the same thing over and over and over again.
I still like it because that’s what I grew up seeing, but man, I wouldn’t mind switching to Chinese dramas nowadays either because I am able to see more variety.
A Change of Heart is a good modern HK series.
This is quite obvious since they’re a much bigger country. In a few years, they’re going to be the biggest market for movies, overtaking the United States. That’s why some of them are already trying to add in some chinese stars since they are trying to appeal to that market.
I think they’re set to overtake the US in 2020 in terms of overall $ but like its GDP, Chinese movies don’t have broad appeal and lack the soft power that America has to project themselves on the international stage.
Appealing by adding stars is one thing, but hollywood will never make as much money as they want since so many movies go into the black market with most of their movies all getting screened and blocked.
Overall, I think it’s just another calculated move by China to boost themselves by making even more $$$ which seems to be their main intention for the foreseeable future.
more money is spent on production that’s why quality is better. but chinese series are long and borning. the story and plot maybe good but geez, they can spend episodes and episodes on the same idle plot…. hk series more fluid and entertaining
definitely!
the first thing that i will watch the dramas is check if they have appealing cast and then check how many episodes are there, if there r too much episodes even-though casting are good, i wouldn’t consider watching it because too much episode gave me a feeling that the drama(s) going to be very draggy!! that’s why i prefer watching Hk over mainland dramas!
I admit that the pacing for HK series seem to be better but the story lines and all have been so bad lately. About the length, it really depends because ancient/historical series generally tend to be longer than a typical modern series for example and that is acceptable. However, if it were a modern series then I will more likely skip it since modern series which are too long can get really boring and draggy.
Quality wise, yes. Story wise, still debatable. And I HATE dubbing.
agree!! dubbing sucks so much!!!
yes, maybe because I’m biased … I love mainland drama more tho … ^^
In the last 8 years I’ve been turning to Mainland entertainment more, there are probably 2 show a year from Hk i would watch, the good stuff is hard to find now.
Yea, I have not seen a good drama from TVB for a long time.
Don’t think Mainland series is good to produce idol drama like K-drama did it successfully. Mainland has only powerful to create ancient series. With that so much money and rescources due to economy boom, it’s no surprise that China will surpass former British colony, HKG.
Agreed. Their expertise is in ancient drama series. Modern day series is almost unwatchable. I still prefer TVB for all its faults. War time series a lot from China but somehow I never enjoyed them at all. And see the recent adaptations of those wuxia books and you see utter rubbish even if beautiful to look at rubbish. TVB’s problems, apart from many is the fact they do not have HD. I wonder why.
I agree that China’s strength are the ancient series which is a plus to me since I love ancient series and prefer them to modern series. I have seen a few modern series from China and did not really like the ones that I saw. But I have only seen a few so cannot really comment.
They are quite famous in china