In China's fast developing film industry, "he pai pian" (meaning a co-production film between China and a foreign nation that enjoys preferential treatment in the country) has been one of the top terms in the field over the past few years. The fever for co-production films reached its height in 2012, with blockbusters vying to be recognized as co-production movies. Though the fever gradually started to cool down at the start of the 2013, co-productions are still seen as a future trend.
The term revealed
The word "he pai pian" gained greater attention at the beginning of 2012, when new regulations were hammered out to encourage US-China film co-operation.
While there is a quota on the number of imported movies, which is 24 a year, co-productions are not counted among them. Also, a co-production film can enjoy as much as 43 percent of box-office revenue achieved in the Chinese mainland theaters, according to a 2012 report from Yangtze Evening Post, while an imported film can only receive 25 percent.
The domestic movie market showed a quick response as blockbusters like Iron Man 3, The Expendables 2, and Cloud Atlas all claimed themselves as co-productions during their publicity periods.
The definition has come into conflict, as Zhang Pimin, deputy director of the then State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (now the State General Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television), pointed out at a seminar in August last year that "many foreign films, with a purely American story, call themselves co-productions by adding some Chinese elements and several Chinese actors."
Zhang explained that the administration would become stringent in its approval of official co-production identity, with regulations stipulating that: Capital investment from the Chinese side should take no less than one third of the share, Chinese actors need to play main characters, and the requirement that shots have to be filmed within China.
Few films have since then self-proclaimed themselves as "he pai pian," but cooperation between the US and China is becoming a frequent occurrence, and film cooperations have expanded to countries such as France, South Korea and Japan.
International blockbusting
As the two biggest film markets in the world, the cooperation between China and US often draws tremendous attention, with action and fantasy films becoming a firm favorite of such production.
One of next year's most highly anticipated US-China co-production is Michael Bay's latest edition from the Transformers franchise, The Transformers 4: Age of Extinction.
Cooperating with the China Movie Channel, this action-laden movie has already seen shots filmed in Hong Kong and includes Chinese actors.
Outcast, directed by Nick Powell, is another joint production between China and the US. Starring Hollywood actor Nicolas Cage and Chinese actresses Liu Yifei in lead roles, the history-based war film harks back to the era of the Crusades, when a soldier falls in love with a princess from China.
Set for a 2015 release and staring Jackie Chan and Fan Bingbing, is Skiptrace, a joint venture between US company Exclusive Media and Chinese mainland company Talent International Film Company.
As mentioned on the China's movie database website mtime.com, the film will tell a jet setting story that runs across Hong Kong, Macao, Siberia, the Mongolian desert, and the mountainous areas of Southwest China's Sichuan Province.
Esmond Ren, general manager of Talent International Film Company said that "this film will be an adventure that links different cultures," according to the website mtime.com.
It is not difficult to understand this mind-set. Big scenes blockbusters are what Hollywood is good at and have already gained a solid fan base not only in China, but also around the world.
According to a report from Nanjing-based Yangtze Evening Post, Hollywood filmmakers "draw a conclusion" that in China, fantasy, historic and adventure genres are more approachable in regard to cooperation.
"Because such stories can combine both Chinese and Western cultures, and actors from both sides can star in them. At the same time, such scripts are easier to be made into blockbusters," the newspaper wrote.
"Another important thing is that such themes will not be met with a lot of trouble when handed to the censors.
Good neighbors
Compared with the US, movies co-produced with China's neighboring countries, Japan and South Korea, are more in the vein of the romance, comic and horror genres.
Already screened this year are South Korean director Oh Ki-hwan's A Wedding Invitation and Japanese director Tetsuo Shinohara's Sweetheart Chocolate, as well as comedy film Mr. Go and horror flick Bunshinsaba 2.
As Yangtze Evening Post reported, as early as the end of 2012, the Korean Film Council had come to Beijing for a forum together with South Korean actors like Kim Tae-yong, Kwak Kyung-taek, and Kim Sang-Jin. The Chinese representatives included Wanda, Orange Sky Entertainment and Beijing Galloping Horse.
Charm of Chinese stories
A new sign for 2013 is that popular novels from Chinese writers have become a major target for many foreign filmmakers.
The contract signing of Zangdi Mima between China Film Co., Ltd and Oriental DreamWorks sets one such example. Translated as The Tibetan Code, the film is an adaptation of a popular Chinese novel of the same name.
According to a report from Shenzhen Economic Daily, Jeffrey Katzenberg, CEO of Dream Works, once said The Tibetan Code series will be made into a Chinese version of Indiana Jones.
Wolf Totem, a 2004 award-winning novel by Jiang Rong, attracted the attention of French director Jean Jacques Annaud. Starting the project seven years ago, the film finally started to shoot in July 2012 and was completed earlier this month.
"Co-operation between different countries to make films is not a new thing, especially between European countries," Chen Shan, a professor at the Beijing Film Academy, told the Global Times. "It is a natural thing when films go international."
But what interests Chen is that while China used to invite directors and film technical teams to work on Chinese projects, recent years have seen more Chinese companies investing in Hollywood projects, with the 2012 film Looper and the upcoming Kung Fu Panda 3 being such examples.
"Chinese film companies see the performance of such Hollywood blockbusters played globally, and know there can be a cake to share when investing in them," Chen said.