King Kong

Hong Kong's most powerful producer on "Blood: The Last Vampire" and the state of HK cinema.

And your new film “Blood: The Last Vampire” is actually in English, so there’s not a big learning curve for the audiences here. It’s also interesting because it’s a melding of multiple genres. What excites you most about it?

The subject matter. The original anime is the most exciting thing, the catalyst, the most important element, and when I saw that, I thought that it would cross over to all cultures. It’s so well done, you know. I think that we were faithful to it. The original animator [Hiroyuki Kitakubo] saw the movie and is very happy about it. His comment was, “Bill, please let me do the sequel.”

You mentioned this new age that we’re coming into with the Internet and how things are changing for filmmakers. What do you envision for the future of Hong Kong cinema?

I think, [for] the future, we need to come up with better and more original ideas. We need to come up with ideas like the original anime of “Blood.” Right now, Hong Kong movies do have crossover [appeal]. China has given Hong Kong cinema a great sort of backbone, a big market to support it. We have to come up with new ideas and the new Jet Li. Yuen Wo-ping has to come up with better choreography, better than what he did with “The Matrix.” We need to outsmart audience anticipation of things.

Do you think that Hong Kong cinema is the epicenter of the East?

At this moment, it is still the epicenter.

What is Hong Kong cinema’s greatest rival?

Korea. And Japan is already way ahead of us in many aspects: their comic world, their anime. But in terms of commercial movies, Hong Kong action movies still travel a lot.

“Blood: The Last Vampire” is now open in limited release.

[Additional photo: "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," Sony Pictures Classics, 2000]

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