Thursday, April 26, 2018 19 LIFE CHINA DAILY HONG KONG EDITION BETTER WORKS ON SCREEN An annual report on China’s film industry says things are improving, but more needs to be done to keep audiences interested. Wang Kaihao reports.
hinese films are get ting better as film makers promote Top films of 2017 mainstream values Cusing innovative approaches, The 10 best Chinese says The 2018 Report on Chi films in 2017 recommend nese Film Art, which was ed by the critics commit released last week at the ongo tee of the China Film ing Beijing International Film Association, based on last Festival. week’s poll (in alphabetical The annual report, com order) piled by the critics committee of the China Film Association • Angels Wear White (drama) since 2006, looks at the coun • Brotherhood of Blades II: try’s films from various per The Infernal Battlefield (mar spectives. tial arts/history) The report says: “In spite of • Legend of the Demon Cat huge success at the box office, (fantasy/history) emphasis has switched from • Mr No Problem (history/ business gains to public drama) approval. • Our Time Will Come (war/ “Chinese filmmakers in history) 2017 tended to consciously • Paths of the Soul (art mix mainstream values, house) social insights and entertain • The Summer is Gone (art ment.” house) Last year, more than 50 • Twenty Two (documentary) domestic productions earned • Wolf Warriors 2 (war) over 100 billion yuan ($15.9 • Youth (romance/drama) million) from the box office, and the war film Wolf Warri ors 2 earned a remarkable 5.8 billion yuan, becoming the highestgrossing film “We often consider the word screened in China. ‘people’ as something collec However, the 50odd films tive. But each individual is were not all blockbusters in composed of flesh and blood. the traditional sense. Every person has inner strug For instance, there is Paths gles. Filmmaking needs to bet of the Soul, based on Tibetan ter address people’s inner villagers’ pilgrimage to a worlds.” sacred mountain. It set a And, as the Communist record for arthouse films at Party of China’s 19th Nation the box office. al Congress in October said A documentary, Twenty that the contradiction Two, based on the Nanjing between unbalanced and Massacre, an atrocity commit inadequate development and ted by Japanese forces from The films (clockwise from top left) Paths of the Soul, Wolf Warriors 2, Legend of the Demon Cat, Twenty Two, Brotherhood of Blades II: The Infernal Battlefield, Youth and Angels the people’s ever growing 193738, was also warmly wel Wear White are among the 10 best Chinese productions in 2017 recommended by the critics committee of the China Film Association. PHOTOS PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY needs for a better life is now a comed by the market. major factor faced by China Youth, a film by director in the new era, says Rao Shu Feng Xiaogang, based on a “Such diversity was unimag global outlook are ways of get country’s major infrastruc sonal struggles of ordinary ades on how individuals have guang, head of the China 1970s’ military art troupe, inable before,” says Yin Hong, ting there,” he says. ture. Chinese are absent from the pursued justice and personal Film Critics Association. was initially expected to a media professor from Tsing Separately, he says that However, these productions big screen. happiness, and also brought “This is something that the attract only a small circle of hua University, who’s also one major Chinese films now set often found it difficult to But he says American great changes to our country,” film industry should people aged around 60, who of the main authors of the their stories overseas, includ achieve commercial success in Dreams in China in 2013 was he says. address,” he says. are not seen as major con report. ing Wolf Warriors 2, the wide the past. an exception. “They (the stories) deserve “There’s a gap between peo tributors to boxoffice reve “We also now have a film ly acclaimed Operation “So, filmmakers no longer The film based on Yu Min to be told through films. But ple’s demands for better nue. But it earned 1.4 billion genre structure, which is dif Mekong in 2016, as well as use high moral standards to hong, the founder of the edu many realistic productions are domestic films and our pro yuan. ferent from Hollywood.” Operation Red Sea and Detect make heroes,” says Yin. cation colossus New Oriental now based on imagination ductions,” says Rao. The report says: “Many He further points out that ive Chinatown Vol 2, the two “The stories also showcase Group, and his business part rather than true stories. That’s “And the Chinese film mar films of a specific artistic style military action and urban highestgrossing Chinese weakness. The main themes ners shows how they pro why so many filmgoers are ket cannot only rely on the are often recognized by film romances are the two domi films so far this year. are not directly said, but are gressed following China’s unsatisfied.” Chinese population anymore goers, as both filmmakers’ cre nant genres in China, overtak Yin says 2017 marked a expressed in appealing ways, openingup policy and their Yin now expects China will for growth. ativity and people’s choices are ing fantasy productions. beginning of “a new type of which are commonly accepted pursuit of justice in the face of have its answer to the Holly “A bigger market can be now very diverse.” Yin says that Chinese films mainstream production”. in the rest of world.” accusations from the United wood production Pursuit of created only by higher quali This, the report says, is are more closely aligned with In China, mainstream films Nevertheless, he says there States. Happiness and South Korean ty. More creativity is called because after years of pouring overseas trends. refer to those productions are still many restrictions. But Yin says this trend has film The Attorney. for.” money into only one type of “And though we still lack a used to educate the public For instance, as the country died down in the past few Lu Shaoyang, a media pro film, different genres have film that really touches the and promote mainstream val marks the 40th anniversary years. fessor at Peking University, Contact the writer at now found a way to prosper global market, more copro ues, usually through portray of the reform and openingup “However, we have many also wants to “put people at wangkaihao@ together. ductions and stories with a als of national heroes and the this year, he thinks the per great stories from the four dec the center” of films. chinadaily.com.cn Black List creator offers shortcut to success
By XU FAN University, Leonard began his shared with the people in the into a membersonly book [email protected] career as a celebrity agent’s survey. A week later, he found store filled with exclusive assistant in 2004. A year later, the list was forwarded back to titles, where the entire inven After a longhaul flight from the then 27yearold became a him dozens of times. And six tory is organized alphabetical New York, Franklin Leonard junior executive at Leonardo months later, he received a call ly and every book has the same looked a bit tired. But his DiCaprio’s production compa from an agent who tried to sell nondescript cover. speech recalling the dramatic ny, Appian Way Productions. him a script by confiding in “The Writers Guild of Amer birth of The Black List, an A big part of his daily job was him a “personal secret”. ica registers some 50,000 new influential survey about Holly to read scores of novels, articles “Listen, don’t tell anyone I pieces of material every year, wood’s most popular but and scripts, which proved to be told you this, but I have it on and most of those are screen unproduced screenplays, a timeconsuming way of try very good authority that this plays,” he says. quickly captured the attention ing to identify works with real script will be number one on And only 10 percent, or Spotlight (2015), the winner of the Oscars’ best picture in 2016, is of the Chinese audience. potential. Besides the usual next year’s Black List,” says the 5,000, of such screenplays are among the most acclaimed films with screenplays on The Black As the founder of the list, working week, Leonard recalls agent. filtered to be read by those in List. PHOTOS PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY Leonard was attending the having to take another 20 Leonard was dumbfound high positions in major studi fourth Chinese Movie Script scripts home with him to read ed. Before that, he had no os or big production compa writers’ Seminar, which was on weekends. plans to make another list. nies, which produce around Despite the Beijing event borders, which is the key to organized by Bianjubang, an During one late night in Seeing The Black List going 300 features every year, says marking Leonard’s first visit to making appealing movies. online platform for scriptwrit 2005, the exhausted young Franklin Leonard speaks at the viral and realizing its value, Leonard. China, he has been paying “I grew up in a small town. ers, to discuss the key to dis man suddenly had an idea in fourth Chinese Movie Leonard turned it into an To date, more than 300 attention to Hollywood’s What is most interesting for me tinguishing good stories on the company’s office, high Scriptwriters’ Seminar in Beijing. annual survey, which now screenplays on The Black List increasing interest in the Chi is that through watching films, April 19. above Sunset Boulevard in Los reaches around 650 film execu have been made into feature nese market for its huge annu I can go anywhere in the world The title of Leonard’s speech Angeles. He sent emails to tives who are behind about 90 films, grossing a total of more al output and growing box or in space,” says Leonard. was Without a Writer, There is nearly 100 film industry devel information in order to do percent of all Hollywood mov than $26 billion in worldwide office revenue. “I cannot board a plane to Nothing. opment executives, asking their jobs better, but email was ies. It has also soared to boxoffice takings, and bag “I think the United States is China every day, but I can go to But the Hollywood film them to anonymously list their comparatively new in 2005,” become an influential index to ging 264 Academy Awards still trying to figure out the the cinema or turn on my tele executive’s rapid rise to fame is favorite yettobe produced says Leonardo during an help Hollywood decisionmak and 48 Oscars. pass code to the Chinese mar vision to watch great films an interesting story that could screenplays of the year. interview with China Daily ers cut the time it takes to find Among the most acclaimed ket,” he says, adding they have about China. I’m really look just as well be titled Without “Initially, it (the anonymous after the event. potentially lucrative stories. screenplays are the Oscars’ yet to obtain a successful for ing forward to seeing more an Email, There is Nothing. survey) was very selfish. I just Unexpectedly, he received a For the executives who are best picture winners Slumdog mula. films about China and Chinese Growing up in Georgia in the wanted to make my job easier response to most of the emails, busy dealing with selecting Millionaire (2008), The King’s But he believes cinema has a life,” says Leonard, who is also southeastern United States … There is a long history in which he then made into a list, screenplays, Leonard says Speech (2010), Argo (2012) and distinctive charm that helps a fan of Jackie Chan, Jet Li and and graduating from Harvard Hollywood that people share and then, again anonymously, their job is “a little like walking Spotlight (2015). transport an audience across Wong Karwai.