【英语中国】美国导演掘金中国有蹊径：执导华语片

The booming growth of China's film market is luring overseas directors to not only market their films here, but to develop original products for the local audience.

Dennie Gordon became the first American female to direct a Chinese feature by taking the helm of 'My Lucky Star,' a prequel to the 2009 rom-com hit 'Sophie's Revenge,' by Chinese director Eva Jin.

The film, which opened this week in China, features A-lister Zhang Ziyi as a cartoonist who falls in love with a spy (Chinese-American pop star Wang Leehom) as the two find themselves caught up in an international diamond heist.

Ms. Gordon said she first had the idea to develop a Chinese-language film when Ms. Zhang, who knew her from previous work-including the movie 'What a Girl Wants,' featuring Colin Firth-approached her about developing a comedy Ms. Zhang could star in.

Ms. Gordon, along with a Chinese producer and a Chinese-American writer in Los Angeles, developed a 45-page outline for the film, which they brought to Beijing to localize and 'get it culturally correct and current.'

Calling herself 'a slave to the page,' she said she carried around a 200-page script in both Chinese and English and had a translator on the set at all times.

'For the English-subtitled version, we had yet another chance to add more comedy, so basically the writing never stopped,' said the director, who has also worked on TV series like '30 Rock' and 'The Office.'

She admits that language could be a barrier during the filming process but said she and Ms. Zhang communicated well.

'As we were shooting the film, I learned that comedy, action and romance are truly an international language,' she said.

Most of the film was shot in Hong Kong, so meetings usually involved English as well as Cantonese and Mandarin. But language wasn't the only obstacle.

'One of the biggest hurdles I had to overcome was the resistance of the Hong Kong team to a blonde female director from Hollywood coming to their country trying to do something stylistically new,' Ms. Gordon said. 'It felt like I was rolling the boulder up the mountain alone.'

After three weeks of shooting, she cut a trailer to share with each crew member, which she said resulted in 'a seismic shift in their attitude and excitement.'

Home-grown romantic comedies have been gaining in popularity in recent years in China.

The latest, Chun-Chun Wong's 'The Stolen Years,' has raked in more than 142 million yuan ($23.19 million) in China since opening late last month till last week, overwhelming Baz Luhrmann's flashy 3-D remake of 'The Great Gatsby,' which opened a day later but has taken in only about 76 million yuan ($12.4 million) here, according to Beijing-based film research company EntGroup.

In face of China's serious action movies that involve 'highly evolved and unbreakable rules,' and 'the Hong Kong, Jackie Chan-style of broad comedy action,' Ms. Gordon says she aimed to bring a specific Hollywood style to the local audience.

'We wanted to create a new hybrid blend of genres that had not been attempted before in China: action, comedy, animation and romance all mixed together,' she said.

'In Hollywood it may feel like a throwback, but here in China it has been considered groundbreaking.'

With an eye to making the film work entirely as a domestic film for domestic audiences, she also invited Chinese composer Nathan Wang to develop the music she wanted for the film. 'To Chinese audiences, it feels really hip and new but also very Chinese, which was important,' she said.

With her first Chinese-language film on the books, Ms. Gordon isn't finished. Her next Chinese project, which starts shooting next spring in Shanghai, is a sequel of 'Go Lala Go!,' a female-driven workplace comedy based on a hit book series. Another still, to be shot in Nepal, Korea and Miami, will be an action-adventure film starring a major Chinese male actor, though Ms. Gordon declined to be more specific.

Although Ms. Gordon acknowledged directors must contend with barriers like censorship in China, she said she nonetheless felt quite at liberty artistically.

'One of the biggest surprises is that I have more creative freedom in China than I have had on any of my three previous Hollywood studio films,' she said. 'It's a great place to be making movies.

'China is very receptive to female directors and there are a number of successful films being made every year by women in China. Compared to the U.S., it is the land of opportunity.'

The film, which is distributed by Bona Film Group and debuted in mainland China on Tuesday, has so far taken in a little over 10 million yuan ($1.63 million), according to Entgroup. It will hit U.S. theaters Friday.

- Lilian Lin. Follow her on Twitter @LilianLinyigu

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Copyright (c) 2013 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

Getty Images王力宏、丹尼·戈登和章子怡上周在滨海湾金沙亮相《非常幸运》新加坡首映礼。
中国电影市场的蓬勃发展不仅吸引海外导演前来推广他们的电影，还促使他们为本地观众制作原创影片。

丹尼·戈登(Dennie Gordon)成为首位执导中国电影的美国女导演。她执导的《非常幸运》(My Lucky Star)是2009年上映的浪漫喜剧《非常完美》(Sophie's Revenge)的前传，《非常完美》由中国导演金依萌执导。

本周这部电影在中国上映，一线明星章子怡在片中饰演一位漫画家，她与一名间谍（美籍华人流行歌手王力宏饰）在共同卷入一场国际 石盗窃案后陷入爱河。

戈登说，拍一部华语电影的念头是在章子怡提议她拍一部自己可以参演的喜剧时萌生的。章子怡通过戈登此前的作品认识了她，包括由科林·弗思(Colin Firth)主演的《水瓶座女孩》(What a Girl Wants)。

戈登与一位中国制作人和一位美籍华人作家共同在洛杉矶为这部电影编写了一份45页的大纲，随后他们将这份大纲带到北京使其本土化，让它符合中国的文化以及和时尚潮流。

戈登自称为“剧本奴隶”，她说，拍摄期间她一直带着200页左右的中英文剧本，并且随身带着一名翻译。

她说，由于推出英文字幕版，我们还多了个机会可以增加更多的喜剧内容，所以基本上写剧本的工作从未停止过。戈登还曾执导过《我为喜剧狂》(30 Rock)和《办公室风云》(The Office)等电视剧。

她承认，电影拍摄过程中语言可能是一个障碍，但她说，她和章子怡能够很好的沟通。

她说，拍摄这部电影期间我发现，喜剧、动作和浪漫情事真的是一种国际语言。

这部电影大部分是在香港拍摄的，因此相关会议通常包括英语、广东话和普通话。但语言并不是唯一的障碍。

戈登说，我需要克服的最大障碍是，对于一位好莱坞金发女导演来到这里试图拍出全新风格的东西，香港团队有所抵触。感觉就像我独自一人在往山上滚动一个大圆石。

在拍摄了三周后，她剪辑了一个预告片与每位团队成员分享，她说，这一做法令他们刮目相看，并使他们感到兴奋。

近几年在中国，本土浪漫喜剧片越来越受欢迎。

据北京电影研究公司艺恩咨询(EntGroup)的数据，截至上周，最新上映的由黄真真执导的电影《被偷走的那五年》(The Stolen Years)自上月末上映以来在中国已获得逾人民币1.42亿元（合2,319万美元）的票房，远远高于在该片上映第二天上映的巴兹·鲁曼(Baz Luhrmann)执导的3D重制电影《了不起的盖茨比》(The Great Gatsby)，这部电影仅获得了人民币7,600万元（合1,240万美元）的票房。

戈登说，面对有着极为成熟且牢不可破的规则的中国严肃动作片以及“香港的成龙式动作喜剧”，她致力于将好莱坞的独特风格带给中国观众。

她说，我们想创造一个此前在中国没有被尝试过的多种类型融合的风格，也就是将动作片、喜剧片、动画片和爱情片融为一体。

她说，在好莱坞这可能感觉是一个复古尝试，但在中国这被视为是开创性的。

为了让这部电影完全本土化，她还邀请了中国作曲家王宗贤(Nathan Wang)按她的想法为这部电影配乐。她说，对中国观众来说，这部电影的配乐相当时髦和新颍，但同时也很中国化，这一点十分重要。

在推出了首部华语电影后，戈登并未停下脚步。她将执导的下一步华语电影是《杜拉拉升职记》(Go Lala Go!)的续集，将于明年春季在上海开拍。《杜拉拉升职记》改编自一个畅销书系列，是讲述女性主导职场的喜剧片。另外她还将执导一部将在尼泊尔、韩国和迈阿密拍摄的动作冒险片，将有一位中国重量级男演员参演，但戈登拒绝透露更多细节。

尽管戈登承认，在中国，导演必须应对审查制度等障碍，但她说，尽管如此，她感觉自己在艺术上有很大的自由度。

她说，最令她吃惊的一点是，与此前拍摄的三部好莱坞电影相比，在中国的创作自由度更大，中国是一个非常适合制作电影的地方。

她说，中国非常能接受女导演，在中国每年都有许多成功的电影是女导演制作的，相比美国，这里的机会更加均等。

这部电影由博纳影业集团(Bona Film Group)发行，周二已在中国大陆上映。据艺恩咨询的数据，截至目前该片票房略超人民币1,000万元（合163万美元）。周五这部电影将在美国影院上映。