That's actually the line that resonated
most with me!
I think it holds more true
outside the circle of Asian Film fans, though, and a lot of the reviews, both professional and amateur, of Manland China's endless waves of CG-enhanced, cast-of-millions (-of-pixels) costume warfare epics--essentially the only mainland films with potential for distribution in foreign markets due to their genre elements, and the groundwork already laid by Hong among cinema for the past 60 years or so--often note that the finished products are ultimately indistinguishable additions to a tiresome trend made by filmmakers hamstrung by government edicts.
As mentioned, those are largely the only films to have potential saleability on the global home video market, and as such they represent an uncomfortably high percentage of the mainland cinema that gets released on DVD and on-demand in the U.S., Europe and other territories. And when one realizes that few of the technically-proficient directors of these films have genuinely distinctive styles (something their Hong Kong counterparts were able to cultivate in a much freer environment), and are all working to please the regime, their films really do start to blend after a while. Thus, to the "average" DVD or stream renter/buyer, I think the "seen one, seen 'em all" label is apt, even if it
is something of a blanket statement.
A confession, though: While I have a TON of Chinese costume epics of recent vintage in my possession (more for context when I eventually get back to writing my little capsule HK movie reviews than anything), I'll admit I haven't watched many of them yet (still working toward that time!), but I have seen extended chunks of a great many of them when I'm in the Chinese malls, and even to me, someone who generally KNOWS what he's seeing, that generic blandness is palpable. It's even more heartbreaking to realize some of these shows are actually the products of former Hong Kong talent who've had to tow the Mailand line in order to stay gainfully employed.
But such are the times, and I'm at least grateful that some
truly Hong Kong films made by actual Hong Kong filmmakers still push the envelope as far as they can, or at least tell distinctly localized stories using local talent, some of whom can still play criminals, ghosts or crooked politicians.
Mainland cinema is certainly worth watching, and a bit more diverse than the average Joe in the rest of the world probably realizes or cares, but it will always be something of a joke to me as long as a bunch of hair-dyed old men can dictate what is acceptable for billions of their own people to watch (especially when many of those billions get what they want from pirating anyway, while their government looks the other way).