Ross Chen started LoveHKFilm.com in 2002 “with the sole purpose of taking up web space with yet another Hong Kong Cinema web site.” But since then, it’s become one of the leading websites for reviews of Hong Kong films and is a great source of information for anyone who wants to learn more about Asian cinema in general. Chen’s site reflects his interest in the HK film scene’s great variety of output – not just the “wire-fu” epics and gangster thrillers that American audiences have been exposed to. The ‘90s saw the Hollywood importation of actors like Jackie Chan, Jet Li, and Chow Yun-Fat; directors such as John Woo and Hark Tsui; and movies that were re-dubbed, re-edited, and given hip hop soundtracks. But as a result, U.S. cinephiles may not realize the full range of what Hong Kong film has to offer. LoveHKFilm.com is a great place to start learning. We talked to Chen about his own experiences discovering Hong Kong cinema.

When did you first discover Hong Kong cinema?

I didn’t start really devouring Hong Kong films until I got into college at NYU. I had rental stores where you could rent all these movies you had heard of and ones you had never, ever heard of. It was just like a playground, really. You could just say, “Oh, I want to see all these John Woo films,” or you could get all of the Maggie Cheung films you wanted to watch, or Tony Leung, and then eventually get into Wong Kar Wai, Johnny To, and it just keeps building. You really learn about a culture and about how they make movies over there – it’s a process of discovery that’s really exciting when you get into it, because it’s so rich and there’s so much you can see.

What was it about these films that made you want to explore them further?

At the time, it was probably just that they were so different from what I was used to. Aside from the stylized action and flying swordplay, I was seeing a different culture. Obviously, my experience with it is probably different from a lot other people’s experiences. They get into it for other reasons, and a lot of them get into it because they like the action, so they keep watching all the action movies they can. And maybe they’ll eventually move on to other genres or other filmmakers. For me, it was like that, too. At the beginning, I really stuck with the action, and then as time went by I got used to other actors and wanted to see what else they were doing. I saw that, for example, Chow Yun-Fat did every type of film imaginable, all these weird comedies. It opens up a lot of things.

What’s the Hong Kong film scene like?

Its reputation now is really based on the ‘80s and the early ‘90s. The state of the cinema really moves in waves – it goes up and down. It took a real boom toward the later ‘80s with the arrival of big stars like Jackie Chan and Chow Yun-Fat, and the whole type of kinetic, all-out action and the incredibly entertaining stuff they were putting out.

It really was a fast-food film industry. You had really popular stars who made eight to ten pictures a year. As a result, you had so many different types of films coming out of varying quality – there were some terrible things getting made, but then there were some really wonderful things getting made. If you make 300 films a year, there’s going to be some really good stuff in there. It’s a very pop-culture-driven scene, so whoever’s hot suddenly appears in all these films, so you really can get a peek into the culture at the same time.

It’s a little different now. It’s not doing as well as it used to. They don’t make as many films, and it’s saturated by pop idols – your Britney Spears types – which is really frustrating for some of us. That’s the way it is now, but there are still chances for certain filmmakers to emerge, ones who are better than others. It’s not much different from Hollywood, in some cases. There’s much less money, that’s for sure, but there’s the same fascination with stars and paparazzi – it’s probably worse there than it is here, if such a thing is imaginable. There is not as much schooling; here you have film schools, people studying stuff over time. Over there, most people just learn by doing, and I think that probably had an effect on how some of it has worked – there really is a gap between the expertise and what actually gets made. Maybe you’ll see a renaissance in the next few years. That’s the hope, anyway.

What are some of the current Hong Kong movies people should check out?

There’s a film called Infernal Affairs that came out two years ago that is really an example of how good a commercial film can be over there. It has two sequels and when you put them all together, it really is an enjoyable viewing experience.

The best director to look at in Hong Kong currently is probably Johnny To. For one thing, he makes like two-three films a year, which really helps you if you want to follow his work. But he encompasses all these different genres – he does romantic comedies, silly comedies, action pictures, thrillers. His films are also steeped in Buddhism, actually. It’s not something people up here would notice, but they have Buddhist philosophies in there, not overtly. It makes his films really interesting because if you watch them all, they have a certain flavor and style that work together. It’s not for everyone, unfortunately – some people are now starting to say, “I don’t get him anymore.” But the ironic thing is, his films are really commercial; they have big stars and are entertaining, but they have an artistic edge, too. His films are really satisfying that way – to a person like me, especially. For me, film is about more than just the movie or my two hours of time. It’s about what you can discover through it and what you can see.

What films represent a decline in Hong Kong cinema?

Well, my site is kind of known for being ultra harsh on Hong Kong films, and so people say, “How can you love Hong Kong films when you’re so mean to them all the time?” And I am frequently quite harsh, it is true. Sometimes, if you are so invested in something, you can’t make excuses for it as much as you would like to. There are a lot of films of all types that are just not very good, but it makes the good ones worth even more. Making excuses for even the bad movies is unfair to the good ones, because you’re saying, “Who cares if this one’s not that good? They’re all like this.” It kind of denigrates the whole industry.

There is some stuff you’ll find at Blockbuster that isn’t very good. But they get played for certain reasons: they’re action pictures or there’s an appearance by someone. There’s a film called The Vampire Effect, which is actually called The Twins Effect starring a couple of bubble-gum pop idols, and Jackie Chan has a cameo in it. Not a very good film. There’s one called China Strike Force that Miramax put out that has Mark Dacascos – he’s on the American version of Iron Chef, the Chairman Kaga guy, but he was also in Brotherhood of the Wolf and Cradle 2 the Grave. China Strike Force has Hong Kong-style action that’s over-the-top choreographed stuff, but really, the film is terrible.

A lot of Hong Kong films have tried to emulate Western ones, more recently, in terms of their plotlines, their emotions, and I think that’s a mistake. I think it’s one of the things that have hurt Hong Kong films, besides the bubble-gum pop idols, which are now everywhere.

What did you think of the attempts to Hollywoodize the Hong Kong directors and stars in American productions?

It’s hard for me to say, really. The fan point of view is they really wish they would go back [to Hong Kong]. But it’s hard to tell people what to do. I think John Woo’s movies were better in Hong Kong – I think he lost a lot in coming here. But he gets a lot more money to make his films here, and he gets more creative freedom in some ways, especially now that he’s like a name in the U.S. So in terms of what they’ve done, the only Hong Kong star whose films in America are decently representative of what he can do is probably Jackie Chan – the Rush Hour and Shanghai Noon movies. But it’s a tough thing. Hollywood is the big beacon for everybody – they want to go there, they want to be a part of it. Part of it is about the money, part of it is about expanding their horizons. But some of them you really want to see go back; you really want to see Chow Yun-Fat go back because he doesn’t do enough movies over here and they don’t really challenge him, like Bulletproof Monk. And people have really given up on John Woo, which is sad.

There is a whole cult of people devoted to the anti-Miramax, we-hate-what-has-happened-to-Hong-Kong-cinema feeling, because it has become a commodity. It’s a real sticking point for some people. But there are two sides to it – the Hong Kong people want to make money, too, and you can’t really deny them that. In some ways, them being able to make money selling off their talents and their properties to the U.S. does allow them to hopefully keep their own industry afloat. So it’s not really for me to say whether it should or should not be happening. I don’t like how Miramax does it, obviously, but sometimes I think they’re shooting themselves in the foot, so really they’re the ones who pay the price.

But even with these people coming over here, I think there are people still working in Hong Kong who are worth seeing. Even though you don’t have Chow Yun-Fat there anymore, you still have Andy Lau and Tony Leung and Stephen Chow.

What’s wrong with Miramax’s American releases of Hong Kong titles?

Over on the Miramax side, they spend so much time trying to figure how to sell these movies, they end up doing things to them that really hurt the films. Shaolin Soccer ultimately was not that bad; it’s a pretty good video release. The danger is you’re going to get a film that was cut and dubbed and the soundtrack was changed to hip hop or something to fly with people here. But it’s not going to work forever. It’d be better if they could find a way to put out what is being made, and hopefully the audience will make itself known.

How can people find uncut Hong Kong films over here?

The problem is now you have companies telling these importers, “You can’t sell these films in the U.S. because we own the rights for U.S. distribution.” Sometimes that’s not so terrible. In the case of Shaolin Soccer, people had to buy the Miramax DVD and it’s not such a bad alternative to the one over there. But there’s a problem when people want to buy Drunken Master II, which is not available in its original form. Or if people want to buy all the Jet Li films that were put out by Miramax: Fong Sai-Yuk I and II, which are called The Legend and The Legend 2 here, and Fist of Legend which is cut and has a different soundtrack. It makes it so we can’t see the versions we want to see. It’s true that probably 90 percent of the people who saw these films in America never knew the existence of the original ones, but that’s not really fair to the way films are made – there is an audience, and maybe they don’t think it’s worth their time to satisfy this audience, but these are the people who, in a sense, were promoting their products for free for many years. There is a real disconnect between the way studios do things and the way fans get into it.