"Hong Kong Style" gives Hollywood a hand, as in Rush Hour 2.

"Hong Kong Style" movie making is credited with lending a hand to the much-loved but recently criticised Hollywood film genre, the action feature.

The expression "Hong Kong Style" has become entertainment industry shorthand for pictures with plenty of thrills and spills, but softened by the use of ballet-like martial arts sequences perfected in the SAR, rather than explicit gore and computer-generated violence.

Coming at a time when Washington was increasingly scrutinising and criticising violent films, and the "R" (restricted) rating was being more strictly enforced, the visually stunning but non-brutal images are not only acceptable to politicians, but are widening the audience base. That base was once almost exclusively Caucasian men, and excluded ethnic groups and women.

While "Hong Kong Style" is being increasingly ascribed to Western-made films, it is also increasing audience awareness of Hong Kong and other Asian talent, building on last year's Oscar-winning Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

Building on the legend: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

The overseas interest is having a knock-on effect in Hong Kong itself, where film production is again on the rise. About 150 pictures, with an average budget of HK$10 million, are in the pipeline for 2002 - compared with 133 for 2001, 95 in 1999 and 92 in 1998.

As something of a precursor to this trend, American producer-distributor Regent Entertainment went into partnership with Hong Kong's Media Asia Group in 2001, in a deal set to make eight action films over two years, each budgeted at less than US$5 million, featuring American stars but shot in Asia. The first will be Hong Kong Holiday.

Media Asia Group is also working on The Touch, with Michelle Yeoh as both star and co-producer, and the company is planning a major move into the American DVD market, following a venture into the UK, where sales for some Bruce Lee properties exceeded sales expectations fivefold.

Managing director of Media Asia Group, Thomas Chung, says it is vital for Hong Kong productions to raise standards and keep them high. "Quality doesn't just come from bigger budgets. You have to spend time on the script, on location - everything. On The Touch, we're already into our seventh draft and I think it will be another two before we are ready to shoot."

Early months of 2002 poignant for Hong Kong movies

Early 2002 has been an important period for Hong Kong movies. Superstar Jackie Chan is finishing the hugely expensive US$35 million Highbinders for Emperor Multimedia Group and he is due to start on an equally high-priced, as-yet-unnamed film for Media Asia Films.

Chinese-language films get returns.

Both Media Asia and Celestial Pictures are leveraging production plans to capitalize on 2001 success. Celestial Pictures is planning 12 films in 2002 and up to 25 in 2003. Says CEO William Pfeiffer: "last year was an encouraging year and it was proven that Chinese-language films can make substantial returns. We just believe that in the long term, business for Asian-language content will be good."

Hong Kong had a strong presence at the October 2001 Milan film, television and multimedia market, MIFED, where despite fears over attendance following the 9/11 attacks on the US, 13 companies showed products, including Emperor Multimedia Group and Star East.

A new wave of Hong Kong talent is beginning to emerge into the international limelight. Director Kirk Wong, who cut his teeth in Hong Kong directing films like The Club, Gunmen and Crime Story (with Jackie Chan), has moved up fast, having already directed Mark Wahlberg in The Big Hit. He is currently adapting the Marvel comic strip, Iron Fist, starring Ray Park.

New wave of production talent emerges.

"Kirk is the perfect director for this project," says Patrick Gunn, vice president of Artisan Entertainment, the film's producer. "He has a great appreciation for the source material and will be able to capture the spirit of what Iron Fist is all about."

Another rising star is Donnie Yen, who led in the 1993 movie, Iron Tiger. That film grossed more than US$14.5 million during a five-week re-issue by Miramax in 2001. Yen co-starred in the fourth Highlander film, Endgame, and is due to be seen next opposite Wesley Snipes in Blade 2.

Yen is also due to star, direct action sequences and executive produce a television pilot called Sinner, produced by John Woo. Yen describes the movie: "kung-fu 'Batman' is about redemption. And I work with a beautiful detective and have a relationship."

"Hong Kong Style" makes the mainstream

The Musketeer: Hong Kong technique in use.

So what is "Hong Kong Style", and how is it translated into film? Hollywood observers believe The Matrix in 1999 first revitalized the expression in American films, thanks to Yuen Woo-Ping's choreography, changing the approach to action. Los Angeles Times film writer, Richard Natale, explains: "it has come to be an all-purpose label for a highly-stylised and carefully-choreographed manner of dealing with violence and physical action, everything from various kinds of martial arts to swordplay and gun battles."

Director Peter Hyams used elements from Hong Kong techniques as far back as the 1994 Jeane-Claude Van Damme film, Timecop, and developed the approach in last year's revision of the Three Musketeers, called The Musketeer.

Style evolving.

The phenomenon is not limited to Hollywood. The French cult hit, Brotherhood of the Wolf, is included in the newly-defined genre, with director Christophe Gans saying: "Brotherhood is about old themes such as chivalry, and if you want to talk to young audiences, you have to reference their generation, which is familiar with video games and martial arts."

The style will undoubtedly evolve, with Charlie's Angels producer Leonard Goldberg already working on the sequel, with a live action version of Wonder Woman.

Gans believes the new style is here to stay, because it has become part of a long tradition of movie making. "The only special effects that never grow old are what you can do with the human body."

from special correspondent Liz Hodgson, Los Angeles