中国电影走向世界,不缺金钱缺故事

LOS ANGELES — Investment capital? They're loaded.

洛杉矶——投资？他们多的是。

Film studios? They are promising to build the world's fanciest.

电影工作室？他们承诺要修建世界上最先进的。

As for movie stars, few are more dazzling than Li Bingbing, who was an honored guest here on Tuesday at the annual U.S.-China Film Summit.

说到电影明星，没几个人能比李冰冰更加引人注目，而她也应邀参加了周二在洛杉矶举行的中美电影年度峰会。

But China's ambitious new film entrepreneurs, dozens of whom gathered in the Los Angeles area this week for the summit meeting, the American Film Market and other events, are still searching for something that has largely eluded them: a homemade global hit.

但是，中国野心勃勃的新电影企业家仍在寻找一样很难找到的东西：中国自制的国际大片。本周，数十名这样的企业家聚在洛杉矶参加此次峰会、美国电影市场大会(American Film Market)和其他活动。

"We have 5,000 years of history. We have lots of stories," said Yang Buting, the chairman of the China Film Distribution and Exhibition Association, who spoke on a panel at the gathering on Tuesday.

中国电影发行放映协会会长杨步亭在周二的一次小组会议上说，“我们拥有5000年的历史。我们有很多故事。”

But, Mr. Yang added, "to create movies that are universally appealing, that is an issue for us."

但是，杨步亭补充说，“怎样创作具有普遍吸引力的电影，对我们来说是个问题。”

China's domestic box office is now the world's second-largest, behind the United States, with an expected $3.5 billion in sales this year. That growing market has been pursued aggressively, and with considerable success, by Hollywood, whose studios — to capture a mainland audience for films like "Iron Man 3" or "Pacific Rim"— have worked with Chinese partners, added Chinese subplots and bent over backward to satisfy China's watchful censors.

目前，中国国内的票房收入排名世界第二，仅次于美国，今年的票房收入预计为35亿美元（约合213亿元人民币）。好莱坞(Hollywood)一直在大力争取这个不断增长的市场，而且也取得了很大的成功。为了让《钢铁侠3》(Iron Man 3)和《环太平洋》(Pacific Rim)等电影吸引内地观众，好莱坞的电影工作室与中国伙伴进行了合作，增加了有中国元素的情节，还为满足高度警惕的中国审查者的要求而做出了让步。

But a perhaps tougher struggle confronts Chinese film executives who dream of making movies that will be seen not just at home, but also by a measurable number of viewers in the United States and elsewhere.

然而，要想制作不仅在中国放映，还能在美国和世界其他地区获得大量观众的电影，中国电影业高管还面临着一个或许更艰难的挑战。

"We lack international experience, in general," said Yu Dong, the chief executive of China's Bona Film Group, which is about 20 percent owned by 21st Century Fox.

“总体上说，我们缺乏国际经验，”中国博纳影业集团的首席执行官于冬说。该集团约有20%的股份归21世纪福克斯(21st Century Fox)所有。

Mr. Yu, who spoke over coffee at the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills this week, referred to a growing group of film companies that are smaller than the giant state-owned China Film Group, but share ambitions to play on the world stage.

本周，在贝弗利山庄(Beverly Hills)半岛酒店(Peninsula Hotel)喝咖啡时，于冬提到了一些规模小于国有的中国电影集团(China Film Group)的电影公司，这些公司也希望能在世界舞台上有所作为，数目还越来越多。

"Every producer I've met has told me they want to reach the world audience," said Rob Cain, a film consultant who is working with Chinese companies that hope to crack the global market, despite robust growth at home.

“我遇到的每个制片人都告诉我，他们希望走进世界市场，”正在与一些中国公司进行合作的电影顾问罗伯·凯恩(Rob Cain)说。虽然国内市场增长强劲，但这些公司还希望进军国际市场。

At home, ticket sales have been rising about 35 percent annually. And they show no sign of letting up, as the number of movie screens, which has been rising at a similar rate and promises to reach about 18,000 this year, continues its expansion into smaller markets. Also, China's domestic box office has recently tilted toward Chinese films rather than foreign imports.

中国国内票房的年增长率约为35%。这个势头似乎不会减弱，因为正在以相似速度增长的电影银幕仍在向较小的市场进军，有望在今年达到1.8万块左右。此外，中国国内的票房近期已经向中国电影而非进口电影倾斜。

But the urge to export movies, Mr. Cain said, has much to do with the Chinese government's promotion of what is often called "soft power"— the ability to project influence through nonmilitary means, including, of course, the film business.

但是，凯恩说，出口电影的欲望与中国政府宣扬的所谓“软实力”有很大关系。软实力即通过非军事手段施加影响力的能力，其中当然包括电影。

"If you're trying to score points with the Communist Party and the central government, you want to support their soft-power agenda, to help spread the culture," he said in a telephone interview on Wednesday.

周三，他在电话采访中说，“想让共产党和中央政府喜欢你，你就要支持他们的软实力议程，帮他们传播文化。”

Wang Jianlin, chairman of the Dalian Wanda Group, staged a remarkable show of such strength in September, when he hosted Nicole Kidman, Leonardo DiCaprio, Harvey Weinstein and other Hollywood luminaries at his company's celebration of a planned studio and entertainment complex in the beach city of Qingdao.

今年9月，大连万达集团的主席王健林通过一场引人注目的表演展示了这种力量。在万达于海滨城市青岛举行的工作室和娱乐产业园区开工典礼上，他成功邀请到了妮可·基德曼(Nicole Kidman)、莱昂纳多·迪卡普里奥(Leonardo DiCaprio)和哈维·韦恩斯坦(Harvey Weinstein)，以及其他一些好莱坞大腕。

Styled the "Qingdao Oriental Movie Metropolis," Wanda's proposed development is projected to cost as much as $8.2 billion, and would match or surpass the capacity of studios in the United States.

万达的开发项目名为青岛东方影都，预计耗资82亿美元(约合500亿元人民币)，制作能力将达到或超过美国的制片厂。

But nothing would speak louder than a globe-spanning hit.

但是，什么也不如一部全球热映的影片有说服力。

In the United States, the best-selling Chinese-language film to date remains "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," which had about $128 million in North American ticket sales after its release by Sony Pictures Classics in 2000. Since then, some international blockbusters have had Chinese backers, co-stars and settings; but they mostly have been Hollywood products with a Chinese veneer.

在美国，迄今为止最畅销的中文电影仍是《卧虎藏龙》(Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon)。索尼经典电影公司(Sony Pictures Classics)于2000年发行《卧虎藏龙》，在北美收获了大约1.28亿美元的票房。此后，一些国际大片利用了中国的赞助商、演员及背景，但它们大多只是包含中国元素的好莱坞制作。

In a next wave, China's emerging film companies are proposing to reverse the equation, by finding Chinese stories with global appeal and just enough American content or backing to attract viewers who have grown comfortable with Hollywood-style movies.

在下一个浪潮中，中国的新兴电影公司打算扭转这个模式，寻找具有全球吸引力的故事，其中要包含适当的美国内容或背景，以便吸引那些已经习惯好莱坞式电影的观众。

As Mr. Yu puts it, any Chinese film with international ambitions must be rooted what he called "an American way of looking at China."

就像于冬说的那样，有国际抱负的中国电影都必须根植于他所谓的“美国看中国的方式”。

His own company's best bet, Mr. Yu said, is a planned action thriller, called "Moscow Mission," about six Chinese police officers who tackle crime on the Beijing-to-Moscow train. "There will be a lot of English dialogue, but with a Chinese story," he said of the film, which is still in the script stage.

于冬表示，他自己公司最有希望的项目是一部计划中的动作惊悚片。这部名为《莫斯科任务》(Moscow Mission)的影片讲述了六名中国警察在北京至莫斯科的列车上抗击罪行的故事。他提到该影片时说，“会有大量英文对白，但这是一个中国故事。”该影片还在编剧阶段。

Still, the difficulty of marketing such hybrids was underscored last weekend by the modest performance of "Man of Tai Chi," a Chinese-American co-production that starred Keanu Reeves.

不过，上周末，由基努·里维斯(Keanu Reeves)主演的中美合拍影片《太极侠》(Man of Tai Chi)表现不佳，突显出此类混合制品存在营销困难。

The film, which has dialogue in English, Mandarin and Cantonese, sold few tickets when it was released on a handful of screens in the United States by Radius-TWC. It was nonetheless featured as a model Chinese-American co-production in a Monday night presentation at Universal Studios by Chinese officials and filmmakers, as well as Christopher J. Dodd, the chief executive of the Motion Picture Association of America.

这部包含英语、国语及粤语对白的影片在北美一些影院上映，只售出了少量影票，影片的发行商是Radius-TWC。尽管如此，环球影城(Universal Studios)还是于周一晚间呈现了这部电影，中国官员、中国电影制作人以及美国电影协会(Motion Picture Association of America)首席执行官克里斯托弗·J·多德(Christopher J. Dodd)都称之为中美联合制作的典范。

An enduring challenge for Chinese filmmakers who want to go global is their own government's insistence on tight control of film content through a still-rigorous censorship apparatus.

想进军国际市场的中国电影制作人面临一个持久的挑战，即中国政府坚持通过依旧严厉的审查机构来严格控制影片内容。

"We want to see positive Chinese images," Zhang Xun, president of the China Film Co-Production Corporation, told those assembled at the film conference on Tuesday. To underscore her point, Ms. Zhang ticked off "hot spots" to be avoided, including excessive violence and horror, scenes that might offend third countries and potentially volatile religious references.

周二，中国电影合作制片公司总经理张恂告诉此次电影会议的与会人士，“我们希望看到正面的中国形象。”为了强调她的观点，张恂列举了一些需要避开的“危险地带”，比如过度的暴力和恐怖内容，可能冒犯第三国的场景，以及可能引发不满的宗教内容。

Some executives have concluded that the fantasy or historical adventure genres, which largely sidestep those concerns, are likely to spawn the next real Chinese global blockbuster.

一些高管已经断定，奇幻或历史冒险题材可能会催生下一部真正的中国产国际大片，此类影片在很大程度上避开了这些担忧。

Zhang Zhao, the chief executive of Le Vision Pictures, for instance, said in a Tuesday interview that his company was developing what it hoped would be a universal hit, based on the classic Chinese novel "Water Margin," about outlaws and spirits during the Song Dynasty, a thousand years ago.

例如，乐视影业首席执行官张昭周二接受采访时表示，该公司计划根据中国古典名著《水浒传》拍摄一部国际大片，《水浒传》讲述了1000年前的宋朝一些亡命之徒的故事。

Mr. Zhang said he believed the global breakthrough for China would come "very soon," though, earlier in the day, he sounded a cautious note on the subject.

张昭表示，他认为，中国电影的全球性突破“很快”就会到来。不过，当天早些时候，他对此持谨慎态度。

"I don't think Chinese films can travel the world all that well," he warned peers during a panel discussion.

他在参加小组讨论时提醒同行，“我认为，中国电影的世界之旅不会一帆风顺。”

But, Mr. Yu, of the Bona Film Group, contended that to conquer the movie universe, it is really only necessary to prevail in two places, the United States and China.

但博纳影业集团的于冬认为，要征服电影世界，在两个地方取得成功就行了——美国和中国。

"If we are able to play a part in these two markets, we pretty much control a majority of the world," he said.

他说，“如果能在这两个市场占据一席之地，我们就在很大程度上控制了过半的全球市场。”