Why this dragon didn’t roar: starring Sam Neill, first Chinese-Australian film co-production The Dragon Pearl was a flop
- To appease China and get approval for The Dragon Pearl, its name and the character of the dragon were changed and the script rewritten at the last minute
- Despite its international cast, most of the central performances were terrible, and the film was spoiled by a ‘laughable’ CGI dragon and hastily reworked script
Traditionally, unless it comes stamped with the names George Miller, Baz Luhrmann or Mick “Crocodile” Dundee, Australian cinema has had trouble breaking through internationally.
Partly this is to do with geographical isolation, partly it’s because, like most English-speaking places, it’s completely in thrall to Hollywood.
But there’s also an inbuilt inferiority complex. As local-boy-done-good Simon Baker (The Mentalist) told The New York Times: “Australians have a little bit of a cultural cringe with hearing their own accent on the screen.”
Looking to break the deadlock, in 2007 Screen Australia signed a co-production deal with China, then the world’s third largest film market. The first release under the new agreement was the 2011 children’s fantasy The Dragon Pearl, and it more than lived up to its internationalist billing.
Directed by Australian Mario Andreacchio and shot in China’s Hengdian World Studios, the film features a cast of Antipodean, mainland Chinese and Hong Kong actors, plus visual effects from Australia’s Rising Sun Pictures.
