Still more Hollywoodization

av_phile: "Any recommended DVD title?"

A Touch of Zen, Come Drink With Me, and The Valiant Ones for starters...

"Our traditions, history and culture doesn't seem to contain the swashbucking adrenalin-producting karate, jujitsu, kung-fu, ninja and samurai, nor the legends that can make good Disney animation material  to interest hollywood a bit."

It's not the actioners...though an arnis film would be nice.

"To ask Hollywood to stay out of the picture, you might as well ask for the moon.  They're too powerful politically and economically to stay on the sides."

We don't ask, we legislate.

"Do you mean hanggang  cinema art houses lang ang habol natin?"

That's a lot to ask right there--are you aspiring for a Crouching Tiger size hit?  How many Crouching Tigers are out there? How many Life is Beautiful?  Ten, twenty tops. Then ask: how many foreign films are made--that would be in the thousands.

Most foreign films are lucky to get a total gross of seven to fifteen million.  Princess Mononoke, if I recall correctly, grossed not much more than ten million.  That's Studio Ghibli, backed by Disney. One million is considered respectable business; heck, a hundred thousand is okay, as long as you've covered price of a rental, which can cost as little as five thousand for a print.

"Can't we produce a Walt Disney or a Ralph Bakshi?  Can't we have a local John Williams? Can't we flood world cinema houses with an epic like Jose Rizal?"

Sure--start with Southeast Asia.  LIke I said, what works.  That's how Hong Kong did it.

"Are we just confined with the likes of Lea Salonga na pang theater lang? Or pang voice talent lang?"

It's more: "what have we done to catch their attention?"

"More of an exception.Hindi kaya there would more chance of saving the local cinema if we get Hollywood's assistance?"

Hollywood help us?  Sure--it's a matter of trying to convince them why us and why not, say, the Thai?

"And there are new developments in all-digital movie production that we will need to revitalize our industry, rather than using or enhancing those old movie recording euipment."

We don't need Hollywood for that. Lav Diaz is doing a digital movie; so is Tikoy.

"For sure we can't beat 'em.  Might as well join 'em."

Try, oh, Lee Tamahori, Geoff Murphy, Roger Donaldson.  Sound familiar?  Or try Ringo Lam, and Tsui Hark. Or Milos Forman and Roland Emmerich.  Wolfgang Petersen. These are people who joined Hollywood, and ended up making Hollywood crap. There's the rare John Woo or Paul Verhoeven who succeeds within the system, but I much prefer their native product...

"Movies small fry?  With each hollywood movie generating box-office returns about the equivalent of a brand-new Boeing 747 jet .  I think worldwide, it's even bigger than the aviation industries combined."

Is wrong.  The aviation industry is a multibillion dollar industry, you're talking about hundreds of Boeings, not even considering other planes, subsidiary industries, airports--heck, NAIA is bigger than any Hollywood blockbuster hit; I'm willing to bet the JFK Airport in New York is more expensive than any single movie studio.

Movies are considered strictly small fry, and the Philippines is considered a small market--Japan is the biggie, and even then Jack Valenti has only so much say over how US should dictate foreign and economic policy to open up the Japanese market.  

Oh, forgot the Chinese.  The US is droooooling over that market, but the Chinese are a hard nut to crack.  They do pretty good movies too, and it's a successful little industry. Again, by tightly regulating the Hollywood imports.

ADB, IMF, World Bank, they don't even look at movies.  I know, I have talked to those people for years. Take it from me, textile is a bigger industry than movies.