CHINA DAILY HONG KONG EDITION Thursday, May 31, 2018 Film | LIFE 19 s part of recent makers were producing work review of its content that was just on the edge of quality, iQiyi — one crossing the line of what is of China’s leading allowed. online A media­streaming plat­ “Their productions are forms — reported that it has WEB FILMS based on where the bottom removed more than 1,000 line of current regulation is,” titles from its website. Yang notes. “And they some­ The move was revealed ear­ times crossed that line, which lier this month at the iQiyi is why we had to keep with­ Technology & Entertainment CLEANED UP drawing uploaded films.” World Conference by Yang To avoid such problems in Xianghua, vice­president of the future, Yang says a new the company. A new focus on quality over quantity has seen the committee will be established Many of the films were to evaluate new projects from Nobel Literature Prize winner Mo Yan shares the behind­the­ uploaded as early as 2014, the leading streaming platform iQiyi remove more than the beginning of their crea­ scenes stories of the upcoming documentary series, Literary year when the term “internet tion, rather than simply Hometowns. FENG YONGBIN / CHINA DAILY feature film” was first used by 1,000 videos from its servers and develop a better appraising them when the iQiyi to describe the growing films are complete. industry for films exclusively way of vetting content. Wang Kaihao reports. Then committee members tailored to, and created for, the will include many experi­ internet. enced scriptwriters drawn Documentary series According to an industry from the industry and exter­ report released earlier this nal to iQiyi. year, about 1,900 such films “If some topics have been looks at the lives of went online nationwide in repeated far too many times, 2017, around 1,300 of which or will create risk, we will sug­ were released on the iQiyi gest that the filmmaker puts 6 Chinese authors platform. the project on hold in case “We want to encourage cre­ their efforts end up being in By XU FAN erary Hometowns came ativity,” Yang explains. “Film­ vain,” Yang says. [email protected] from the story of Lu Xun, makers should approach their Wang Hongwei, a director arguably the greatest writer work with a sense of enjoy­ and an associate professor Nobel Literature Prize win­ in 20th­century Chinese lit­ ment and fulfillment, rather with Beijing Film Academy, ner Mo Yan says he is the kind erature, who died in 1936. than being opportunists who observes: “Young filmmakers of person who dislikes to be on “When Lu passed away, are only looking for money.” need more practice before tak­ camera, but the novelist has China’s top film studios all Withdrawing films is only ing on big projects for cinema. agreed to “star” in an upcom­ wanted to shoot a produc­ the first step. At the confer­ Online films give them a good ing documentary series. tion about him. But it was a ence, Yang revealed that 100 platform to hone their craft, Literary Hometowns, a pity. There were no video million yuan ($15.7 million) and they need to listen to six­episode production that clips of him available,” says will be allocated as a bonus for advice.” will air on China Central Tel­ Zhang. online filmmakers who devel­ Wang says online movies evision’s documentary chan­ So, Zhang, a Chinese lan­ op content that “promotes can be a channel to nurture a nel from June 8, features Mo guage and literature gradu­ love and positive messages”, he love of film within the new and five other authors, Liu ate, wanted to avoid this adds. generations who are growing Zhenyun, Jia Pingwa, Alai, situation in the future. According to Zhang Hong, up in the internet era. Chi Zijian and Bi Feiyu. One Also, Zhang had always deputy head of the China Film “Online platforms cannot be appears in each episode. wanted to see the places that Association, the total domestic low­end copies of cinemas,” he Mo, Liu and Alai, along had inspired the modern lit­ revenue from online films was says. “Instead, they should be with the documentary’s crea­ erary greats. only 100 million yuan in 2014, places for new formats, aes­ tors, attended a ceremony to Citing the case of Alai’s which rocketed to 2 billion thetics and content to mani­ launch the series at Beijing Mao Dun Literature Award­ yuan in 2017. He predicts that fest, thrive and develop.” Normal University on May 25. winning Red Poppies: A Nov­ the figure will continue its Increasing investment may The authors, who were all el of Tibet, which depicts the upward curve to reach 3 bil­ be another solution to some born in China’s rural areas in Tibet autonomous region’s lion yuan this year. quality issues. the 1950s and 1960s, began unique chieftain system, In comparison, last year’s According to Zhang, the to write after China Zhang says: “I was very curi­ total box­office revenue for total investment in online launched its reform and ous about how this great domestic films in Chinese cin­ films in China reached 2.7 bil­ opening­up policy. work was created. emas was 30 billion yuan, so lion yuan last year, increasing The documentary series “So, I told all the authors Zhang believes that there is 74 percent since 2016. focuses on their birthplaces, that we not only wanted still a huge potential in the About 50 percent of the old friends and relatives. interviews in Beijing but also market for online movies. He films produced have secured Also, viewers will get to wanted to travel with them estimates that internet fea­ investment of 1 million yuan see Gaomi, a small city in back to the places where tures attracted 800 million or more, while in 2016, that Shandong province that’s they were born and raised.” Chinese viewers in 2017, figure was closer to 20 percent. the backdrop of Mo’s 1986 Though all the novelists around half the number of “Bigger investments will epic novel Red Sorghum, and made time to join the filming, those who visited cinemas. gradually fill the gap between Shangluo in Shaanxi prov­ their first reactions when As China’s paid­for video­ online films and those made ince, where Jia’s award­win­ approached were the same — on­demand market has taken for cinemas,” Zhang believes. ning novel Shaanxi Opera they all refused to be part of off, Zhang sees the bigger pic­ The industry will take a chronicles the villagers’ the documentary. ture and recognizes the poten­ more scientific approach as lives. Speaking about his initial tial for huge growth in the well. The documentary series response, Mo, who finally near future. Zhang says online films also focuses on ethnic Tibet­ changed his mind thanks to The biggest problem facing From Top: The Ferry Man: Manjusaka is the highest­grossing Chinese online feature film so far this attracted about 8 billion clicks an author Alai’s climb up the Beijing Normal University the burgeoning market, how­ year; Chosen, an online feature film released through iQiyi, was also sold to Netflix earlier this year. in China in 2017, 61 percent 4,300­meter­high Balang literature professor Zhang ever, is that it is choked by a PHOTOS PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY fewer than in 2016. Mountain in Sichuan prov­ Qinghua’s persistence, says: bottleneck of quality. “That doesn’t mean the ince and travels with award­ “I had turned down the invi­ Up until now, Chinese market is shrinking,” he winning female writer Chi to tation many times. A writer online drama series like Day parts from 2016 and 2017, ers to miscellaneous film­ explains. “That is because the China’s northernmost vil­ is not an actor. I feel uncom­ and Night and Burning Ice which attracted no more than makers. major media­streaming plat­ lage, Beiji, where the temper­ fortable in front of a cam­ have proved incredibly popu­ a 4­point rating. “We used to be undecided forms have made efforts to ature can fall to as low as ­42 era.” lar and garnered widespread Consequently, the industry as to whether we set a high regulate their statistics and C. Mo, 63, who studied at the acclaim, with each scoring is appealing for an improve­ threshold to allow only high­ get rid of bubbles and traffic The series, produced by university in late 1980s, now more than 8.5 points out of 10 ment of quality, and iQiyi, quality products online,” Yang manipulation.” the CCTV documentary heads the university’s inter­ on the popular TV­and­film­ with these new measures in says. “In the end, we gave the However, he also points out channel and made by Beijing national writing center, of rating­platform, Douban.com. place, is going to be a tougher green light to a greater num­ more works need to be done Normal University’s docu­ which Zhang Qinghua is the Comparably, online films have sell than ever. ber of films, because many because iQiyi, Youku and Ten­ mentary center with support executive director. struggled to capture the pub­ “Poorly made productions films are not able to be cent — China’s biggest three from the university’s inter­ For Mo, the series is an lic’s imagination to the same with inappropriate content screened in cinemas. media­streaming platforms — national writing center, took opportunity to again look at degree. Some put this down to and negative values will not “On online platforms, if have still not created a uni­ more than two years to com­ the relationship between a a lack of star power and, per­ be able to go online,” Yang only very few people watch a form standard to calculate plete.