Blog Asian Artists

The Art Development Council organized Art Critics Prize presented the gold prize to Jia Xuanning's critic of Hong Kong film VULGARIA (DAI JOOK HEI KET); Jia Xuanning slammed the film for vilifying Mainlanders and director Pang Ho Cheung's use of garbage culture to successfully entertain the general public. The comments stirred up a lot of response. Star Chapman To Man Jat on facebook congratulated Jia Xuanning on the award and urged everyone to stop blasting "Ms. Jia". He said, "Like Mona Lisa's Smile, happy people may see that she is smiling at you. People with self pity may feel that she is laughing at you......" He pointed out that the government presented the award to her in order to encourage struggle session. Since someone was displeased with VULGARIA, he suggested a return engagement at the movies to see if anyone would support such a vulgar movie.

VULGARIA director Pang Ho Cheung online said that before the film was made, in order to convince the boss to invest in a movie that would give up on the 1.3 billion market he only took 1/3 of his salary. He said, "You think vulgarity is garbage; I feel suppressing vulgarity is the slippery slope of stripping freedom of speech and creativity. Indeed, I am just a wise ass; many with great intelligence are busy focusing on co-production films in the North." He stressed that he was not opposing co-production, but he objected to Hong Kong only having co-productions. Pang Ho Cheung's statement won a lot of online cheer.

Raymond Wong Pak Ming supported VULGARIA and thought it was entertainment and very funny. He did not feel the film deepened the China Hong Kong conflict and discriminated against Mainlanders. He said that Pang Ho Cheung made a movie that was blatantly vulgar for Hong Kongers, which did not mean that all Hong Kongers were vulgar. He also said that the film was purely entertainment to make people laugh. As for China Hong Kong co-productions they helped Hong Kong film and at the same time explored the Mainland film market. They were win-win situations.

Source: Mingpao
Translated by: hktopten