HeyChristine.com

Monday, November 27th

Alright, time to get serious...

Now that Nelson has left, I need to buckle down and catch up with myself. Today's journal entry is going to be simple, i.e., I'm plugging in Mingson's write-up of the film "Hidden Whisper" that we highlighted in today's EB which, by the way, went out with zero problems (Gus, congratulate me and hurry back please!). Her summary meant a lot to me personally and really brings out all that we have been trying to accomplish with ORIENTED and now with HeyChristine.com. Truth comes out, I can get really touchy feely about stuff like this. A copy of her text as posted to our website is below.

FYI, I never really knew how involved Mingson was with her work until we asked her to help us out at ORIENTED. She has turned out to be a great addition (as well as Carson Wu) and I cannot overemphasize how thrilling it is to learn about the things that she is doing. I predict that Mingson will one day run her own regional production / talk show / documentary program in Asia. She has a natural talent of leading an audience, as those who attended the film witnessed. In fact, the more I read her summary, the more I am thinking that she really ought to have a personal website herself. Her personality comes right through her writing.

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Mingson Chou on "Hidden Whisper"...

That's what all of you who came to see Hidden Whisper in its English-subtitled version last Thursday and Friday should give yourselves, because you ended up breaking the box office records for the movie! (Sorry about the delay in posting this article, I've been encountering some technical difficulties.)

Aside from the premiere, which not only boasted a visit from the star SHU Qi as an added attraction (which never happened) but also gave away literally hundreds of free tickets, the two English-subtitled showings had the highest ticket sales of any showings--and when you're talking seven showings a day for the seven days it had been playing (and that's including the typically peak opening weekend screening times), that's pretty darn impressive!

The Thursday night showing had a turnout of 84 people, which is already from three to five times more than the usual, particularly for that screening room which shows less popular art films and often has 20 or fewer viewers per showing (especially when it's a Taiwanese film). Then just when we were reveling in our success, you all left us dumbstruck with an absolutely unheard of turnout of 192 people on Friday night! My colleagues and the director were practically jumping out of their seats with excitement, running up to me at one point before the film started, gasping excitedly, "It's already 80% full!"

Your interest in and appreciation of the film were immensely encouraging for the director Vivian CHANG, and she genuinely enjoyed the thoughtful questions that were asked after both showings. What has been fascinating and rather invigorating is that everybody's reaction has been different--some were moved to tears by the film, some felt detached from the subject matter; some said it was refreshingly different from other Taiwan films, some complained that it was exactly the same; some were most enthralled by Part I, some said that Part II was the most memorable; some were impressed by SHU Qi's performance, some said they were sick of seeing close-ups of her glum face by the end of it. Yet no matter what the reaction, everybody has said that they were happy to have had the opportunity to see one of the newest films in Taiwan cinema from a promising young director. I mean, really, if you think about it, wouldn't it be kind of strange if this movie were distributed back in your home country at some point, and yet you, living here in Taiwan, had not yet seen it?

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About English-subtitled screenings...

Also, because many people have asked, I thought that I would take this opportunity to explain just how these English-subtitled screenings came about.

If you've read my bio on this website, then you know that I work in the Film Production and Planning Department of Central Motion Picture Corporation (CMPC), the oldest and largest movie production company in Taiwan. CMPC produces and co-produces anywhere from 3-8 feature films a year. After a movie has been completed, we usually try to find a foreign film festival that will be interested in either screening it or entering it into competition. If it is accepted by one, then English subtitles must be done. Thus, when a few months later the film is finally scheduled to hit the theaters domestically, as long as it has been to at least one foreign film festival, there already exists a copy of the film with English subtitles.

The Taiwan film industry is in a sad, sad state and has been for the past many years. Even excellent films which are widely acclaimed by critics and audiences elsewhere make piddly ticket sales in the Taiwan market. It is a common assumption that the local market is a lost cause, and we must rely on foreign distribution and ancillary market sales (e.g., videotapes, VCDs, DVDs, cable) just to break even.

Back when Lament of the Sand River was in production, I mentioned in passing to the line producer of the film that that kind of period piece rich with historic atmosphere would actually be interesting to foreigners, and since we'd have an English-subtitled version anyway, perhaps we could arrange a special screening just for them. Months later, when the film was playing in our theater and was down to six or ten or three (no joke!) people per showing, that same colleague of mine ran up to me and asked, "Mingson, did you say that you had twenty friends who would be willing to see this film?"
It was a leap of faith for an old, conservative, and extremely local organization like CMPC to break out of its patterns and try something new. Then again, what did it have to lose? My colleague asked me hopefully if I thought that perhaps twenty or -gasp!- even thirty people might show up. As it turns out, even with last-minute publicity and a significant number of people who found out only the day of, almost sixty people came! This time, with more lead time for publicity, you yourselves saw the unbelievable numbers that turned up for Hidden Whisper.
So all this is to say, your genuine interest in viewing local movies is an unexpected inspiration to local filmmakers and contributes, in however small a way, to the morale (and cold, hard cash revenues!) of the people behind these films. Thank you for your enthusiasm, for your support, and for proving me RIGHT time and time again!

If you have any feedback on any of this or on Hidden Whisper itself, feel free to write me. I plan to print out all of the reactions to the film I receive and compile them for the director to see, as concrete and thoughtful commentary from an audience that cared enough about her film to go to the trouble of seeing it in the theater.

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