China Film Journal

Chinese movies don’t make any money: or at least, the only directors that make money are Zhang Yimou and Feng Xiaoggang, says one real-estate investor who also dabbles in the media. This from a brief Chinese article on Sina.com:

尽管冯仑是一名地产商人，但开办了一本电子杂志《风马牛》。对于“竞争”者如徐静蕾《开啦》等电子杂志，冯仑大揭其底，称“这些杂志基本上赚不了钱”。而记者询问他是否也会投资电影，冯仑连连摆手，称“一年中国电影票房也就三十几个亿，赚钱的就冯小刚和张艺谋两个导演，投资电影其实赚不了钱”。 记者 巫天旭

That’s what he said. Sounds a bit bleak, but on the other hand, considering the DVD market and whatnot, it’s not hard to believe that profit margins from box office and other related products are going to really pull in a lot of money. 

We just read an article in Xinhua about a “made to order film vignette and profile series” called “Boy Meets China” is going to “introduce some of the country’s most colorful, influential, and potentially influential people: sports figures, superstars in the music, movie, and fashion scenes, young entrepeneurs and artists whose works sell for millions in the Western world.

The “boy” who is hosting the show is 22 year old New Yorker Eames Yates, Jr. The point behind this show, which is supposed to air on the new international channel, is to remedy the information asymmetries between China and the US, because not enough US people really understand what the “new China” is like. So Yates goes out and interviews a bunch of famous people, such as Jet Li, and had this to say about the experience.

“Mr Li was genuinely happy and fun. After I got over my initial fear that he was going to deliver a fatal blow if I said the wrong thing, I loosened up and we really connected in a way that should occur much more often between East and West.”

Well, need we go on? The whole thing sounds hopelessly cliched — or is that just the soporific effect of Xinhua-nese language? I don’t know. All I know is that the Olympics is not just about a platform for athletes — no, it’s going to end up being a platform for a whole host of wankers to host their wankathons on TV, engaging in a type of spiritual pollution that the commies, had they any sense, should get riled up about.

We haven’t found any clips online yet, but we’ll post some them as soon as we do.

On February 16, Chinese director Wang Xiaoshuai (王小帅) won his second Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival, taking honors for best script for his new film In Love We Trust 《左右》, a film that has one whopper of a premise: the daughter of a divorced couple develops leukemia and the only way that they can save her is by having another child (which will serve as a donor for the first?). There are a couple of previews and interviews on the video-sharing sites. We’re not sure when it comes out in China, but we like Wang’s movies despite their get-under-your-skin-in-a-weird-way sentimentality, so we’re looking forward to this one. The first video is a preview and the second one an interview with the cast and crew.

Chen Kaige (陈凯歌）just finished production on the long-awaited biopic of Peking opera singer Mei Lanfang (梅兰芳).They are now moving into post-production. The article says that it’s still unclear when the film will be released and what festivals it’s going to play.In slightly related news, one of the actresses in that movie is Gillian Chung, most recently of Edison Chen photo scandal fame. She had a role in Chen’s movie, but what with all the new censorship rules and the moral brouhaha caused by the whole thing, word is that her scenes might get cut, though the film’s producer denies that.There are some books, like this one called “Peking Opera and Mei Lanfang” (Zuguang), which might help get you up to speed on the life and times of the famed singer. 

Technorati Tags: meilan fang, opera, peking opera, singer, actor, leon lai, gillian chung, chen kaige, zhang ziyi, biopic

Tang Wei (汤唯), the female star of Ang Lee’s Lust, Caution, has been blacklisted from all mainland Chinese press. However, this doesn’t just coverher appearances in print media and TV commercials, but extends to the participation of her and other people involved in that movie in awards events, film festivals, etc. This means that you won’t catch her on the cover of Elle magazine again anytime soon.The Viagra seems to be working for the people at SARFT, since they’ve decided to reassert censorship guidelines in a March 7 statement:

In a statement titled “Reassertion of Censorship Guidelines” and dated March 7, SARFT said that, on Monday, it informed all major film and broadcast entities and governing bodies that it was renewing prohibitions on “lewd and pornographic content” and content that “show promiscuous acts, rape, prostitution, sexual intercourse, sexual perversity, masturbation and male/female sexual organs and other private parts.” However, the public notice, posted on SARFT’s Web site, did not specifically mention “Lust” or Tang.      

Of course, they did have some issues with Lust, Caution in particular, what with the way it glorified traitors and maligned an entire nation and race of people. Here are some of the charges, in Chinese:

电影上映后，负面批评不少，认为恶搞抗日史实，亵渎抗日先烈，宣扬汉奸，损害国家荣誉，践踏民族尊严，危害社会公德，颠倒真、善、美与假、恶、丑，混淆了正义与非正义的基本性质；看完电影，遭受巨大精神痛苦，民族自豪感、民族自尊感遭受严重挫伤。      

In addition to the usual malarkey about the distortion of history, the glorification of traitors, and the trampling of national dignity, there’s also this bit about how “after watching this film” the (indoctrinated) audience would “feel great spiritual pain”. The Hollywood Reporter article mentions that Tang’s Ponds cream contract, worth a pretty penny, will be adversely affected.Technorati Tags: china, chinese, SARFT, cinema, film, Tang wei, lust caution, anglee, ang lee, ban, censorship, blacklist, actors, actress, movie