Chinese Box Office Figures for 2012 Released

A steamy moment from Painted Skin 2: The Resurrection, the second highest grossing domestically-made film in China in 2012.

SARFT has published the box domestic and overseas box office performers for 2012, and CMM-I have re-published the results in English here and here - or you can see the top ten results below.

As noted in a Newsbites post earlier this week, the low-budget comedy Lost in Thailand was the shock winner in the domestic box office stakes last year, pulling in a cool RMB 1 billion by the end of the year. The film is still in cinemas, so that figure has no doubt grown considerably in the first weeks of 2013.

Locked Out of His Own Country – Short Interview with Ying Liang, Director of When Night Falls

Director Ying Liang, currently threatened with arrest if he returns to mainland China.

As I noted in a "Newsbites" post back in June, director Ying Liang was threatened with arrest if he set foot back in mainland China earlier this year, following the unveiling of his film When Night Falls (Wo hai you hua yao shuo) at South Korea’s Jeonju International Film Festival on April 28. The threat received some press back in May, but little has been reported since.

I wrote about Ying’s case in an article for Crikey last week, and interviewed the director via email about his predicament. He confirmed that the threat of arrest still stands. Ying is currently living and working in Hong Kong. I have reproduced his answers from our online chat below with his kind permission.

Quick Link: Article in "The Age" newspaper on Sam Voutas and "Red Light Revolution"

Australian filmmaker and actor Sam Voutas (left) acting on location in Eastern China during the making of the China-shot horror film Walking the Dead.

I’ve been somewhat overwhelmed with work recently, which means Screening China has been very quiet. I have a few exciting projects on the boil, some of them China related, which I’ll blog about here in the coming months. I’m also off to Beijing again shortly, so looking forward to catching up on the city’s film scene.

In the meantime, here’s a link to a piece I have in today’s Age newspaper here in Melbourne – a profile of the Australian, Beijing-based filmmaker Sam Voutas:

I reviewed Sam’s film Red Light Revolution, billed as China’s first “sex shop comedy” here.

Enjoy!

Flashback – Hou Hsiao-hsien’s “Flowers of Shanghai”

Michiko Hada and Tony Leung in Hou Hsiao-hsien's Flowers of Shanghai (Taiwan, 1998).

To watch a film by Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien is to partake in a hypnotic, slow motion cinematic dance. To the casual observer, nothing is happening. Relations unfold slowly, minutely, with a passing word here, a subtle glance there, weaving a web of intrigue and emotion lying taut over the seemingly placid surface of the screen. To some it’s torture, but for those able to give themselves over the Hou’s dreamlike worlds, his is a cinema that can make you see whole new dimensions in the world on screen.

I’m not as familiar with Hou’s oeuvre as I’d like to be, mainly because his early work in particular is very hard to get in the West. Recently, however, I was lucky enough to see his 1998 Flowers of Shanghai (Hai shang hua) on the big screen, courtesy of the wonderful Melbourne cinematheque.

Behind Shanghai’s Bright Lights: Teng Yung-Shing’s “Return Ticket”

Qin Hailu as Cai Li, one of China's internal migrants struggling to make ends meet in Teng Yung-Shing's Return Ticket.

Films about China’s vast internal migrant population are nothing new, and the country’s leading contemporary director, Jia Zhangke, has done some of the best films on the topic with The World (Shijie) in 2004 and the wonderful Still Life (Sanxia haoren) in 2006. On the other hand, films about young people (though not necessarily migrants) adrift in China’s rapidly transforming urban landscapes have also made for some of the nation’s dullest cinema. Gao Wendong’s Ant City (Mayi Cun, 2010) is one recent excruciating example that comes to mind. Teng Yung-Shing’s Return Ticket (Dao fu yang liu bai li, 2010) lies somewhere between these two poles. It’s a long way short of Jia Zhangke’s greatest work, but it features enough engaging moments to lift it above the average low-budget miserablist Chinese drama.

Newsbites – Chinese Film Wins Gong at the Berlin Film Festival and More Online Restrictions on the Way

A quick roundup of China-related film news from last few weeks, including just-announced awards from the Berlin Festival Festival.

Wang Quan'an's White Deer Plain.

Wang Quan’an’s White Deer Plain Collects Berlin Award
The Berlin International Film Festival winds up today, and the festival awards have now been posted on the festival’s website. There was just one feature from mainland China in this year’s competition – Wang Quan’an’s White Deer Plain  (Bai lu yuan), described by the festival as an “epic that takes place towards the end of imperial China in a period of dramatic political and social upheaval.” White Deer Plain managed to pick up one gong – the Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Achievement, awarded to cinematographer Lutz Reitemeier for his lensing on the film.

Drunken White Men, Kindhearted Whores and Bestial Japanese: Zhang Yimou’s "The Flowers of War"

Christian Bale and Ni Ni in Zhang Yimou's latest heavy-handed effort, The Flowers of War.

Were Zhang Yimou and the folks at SARFT really surprised when Zhang’s nationalistic, overly sentimental and cliché ridden latest film failed to garner an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Film last month? Admittedly the Academy Awards are no stranger to clichés or melodramatic content, but given The Flowers of War was up against A Separation by Iranian director Asghar Farhadi – by all accounts a beautifully understated drama – Zhang’s film was always facing an uphill battle. The Flowers of War is so heavy handed, and in parts frankly laughable, that I don't think it's at all surprising that it failed to even make the Oscars shortlist.

Putting China’s Sexual Sea Change on Screen – Interview with Sam Voutas

Sam Voutas (right) directing Red Light Revolution. Images courtesy Sam Voutas.

Last November I reviewed Sam Voutas’ Red Light Revolution, China’s first “sex shop comedy.” Shortly after I interviewed Sam for Australia’s Metro magazine and learnt that 2012 is shaping up to be a good year for the Australian writer-director-actor. Red Light is set for theatrical runs in the UK and Canada this month, and a UK DVD release in mid-February. Meanwhile, in China Toudou – the local equivalent of Youtube – is giving the film an “online release” today coincide with Chinese New Year. You can view the film – unfortunately without English subtitles – here.

On the eve of Red Light Revolution’s online release in China, and theatrical runs in Canada and the UK, I’ve selected a few choice quotes from my interview with Sam for Screening China. My full interview will be available in the February issue of Metro.

Where Can Chinese Indies Be Purchased or Viewed Online?

The DVD cover for Zhao Dayong's The High Life, now available through Lantern Films.

Readers of Screening China often write to me and ask where they can obtain copies of the independent Chinese films I write about. Unfortunately it's not easy to get many of the titles, but some are now available on DVD for online purchase, or are available for viewing online, so I thought I'd do a post with a couple of tips on where these sites can be found. Please note I have no affiliations with any of the companies or websites listed and take no responsibility for their products or services. All the sites I've listed provide copies of films with English subtitles.

Beijing Hua and Blow-up Sex Dolls: Sam Voutas’ "Red Light Revolution"

Shunzi (Zhao Jun) and Lili (Vivid Wang) in Sam Voutas' "sex shop comedy" shot entirely in Beijing, Red Light Revolution.

“Sex. Shagging. Making love. Whatever you want to call it, everyone does it. But no-one does it more than us Chinese…”

So begins Sam Voutas’ Red Light Revolution (Hong deng meng), billed as China’s first “sex shop comedy.” I was at The Beijinger when Sam’s film started doing the rounds in Beijing, and I have to admit I was initially a little dubious about the film. A Chinese sex comedy written and directed by a laowai? What were the chances of it being any good? Shortly before I left Beijing earlier this year I got to meet Sam – a fellow Australian – and he gave me a copy, which I perused once I was back in Melbourne. And I must concede, whatever the chances against it, Sam has produced a film that’s not only very funny, but also manages to really capture the flavour of life in China’s capital.

Vacant Human Shells – Li Hongqi's “Winter Vacation”

"I want to be an orphan" – the amusing child character from Li Hongqi's Winter Vacation.

Chinese cinema is no stranger to deadpan urban dramas, but few have matched the ultra-minimalism of Li Hongqi's Winter Vacation (Han jia, 2010), which I caught recently at the Melbourne International Film Festival. Set in yet another bleak northern town, Li's players depict the repetitive motions of their senseless lives as if all emotion has been sucked out of them, leaving them as vacant human shells without apparent motivation for any of their actions.

New Dreams in a Old Landscape – Zhang Meng's "The Piano in a Factory"

Wang Qianyuan (left) as Chen, the laid-off factory worker and musician, and Qin Hailu as his girlfriend in Zhang Meng's The Piano in a Factory.

Like so many recent Chinese dramas, Zhang Meng's The Piano in a Factory (Gang de qin, 2010) is set in China's drab northeast, where the old socialist heavy industries have been shut down and the inhabitants left unemployed. Unlike many recent Chinese features, the story forsakes a miserabilist realist aesthetic for a refreshing lightness of touch and surrealistic visual edge.

Hong Kong From the Bottom of a Glass – Freddie Wong's The Drunkard

Freddie Wong's debut The Drunkard, seen at this year's Hong Kong International Film Festival.

The image of the dissolute artist pursuing a bohemian lifestyle and resisting the allure of the market may not have much credence in today's rampantly commercialised culture. But if the novel The Drunkard is anything to go by, the tension between art and commerce was very real for Shanghai-born novelist Liu Yichang. His autobiographical stream-of-consciousness work tells the story of a writer living in the squalor of early 60s Hong Kong, balancing serious literary ambitions with the need to write pulp fiction and soft porn to earn a living. For not the first time a local director has produced a screen adaptation of Liu's book, which appeared at this year's Hong Kong International Film Festival.

The Horror of History – Wang Bing's The Ditch

Prisoners in Wang Bing's The Ditch.

Bedraggled men sit in a seemingly empty desert landscape, the bareness of their surrounds strangely beautiful on screen. We see the group from a distance, as if the desert itself is a brooding presence observing these puny beings on its surface. The men are allocated numbers and descend into caves dug into the desert floor, where earthen “beds” carved out of the wall await them. Welcome to the world of Wang Bing's The Ditch, surely one of the most stark depictions of the deprivations of the Maoist era ever committed to celluloid.

News Bites: No Word From Ai Weiwei, Hong Kong Festival Awards, & 3D Porn

Chinese artist Ai Weiwei has not been heard from since he was arrested in Beijing on Sunday, April 3. Image the Guardian

Last week I posted about the arrest of China's most prominent contemporary artist (and documentary filmmaker) Ai Weiwei. There has been no word of Ai's current whereabouts since then, and yesterday afternoon the Guardian reported that Ai's driver Zhang Jingsong and his accountant Ms Hu are also now missing. Ai Weiwei's friend Wen Tao has not been heard from since he was arrested the same day as the artist.

News Bites: Changes Afoot for Screening China & Zhao Liang's Together Selected for Berlin

Xin nian kuai le – or happy new year! Just got back from a week in China's far west visiting my wife's hometown for the festival of fireworks, food and crappy television galas that is Chunjie, or Chinese New Year. And with the arrival of the Year of the Rabbit some changes are afoot for Screening China.

Let the Bullets Fly Takes China’s Domestic Box Office Crown

The dirty three: Ge You, Chow Yun-Fat and Jiang Wen star in Jiang's new "Eastern Western" Let the Bullets Fly.

A quick news bite and reason to celebrate – Jiang Wen’s visually stunning Leone-influenced “Eastern Western” Let the Bullets Fly recently became China’s biggest domestically-produced box office hit according to the Hollywood Reporter.

2010: Chinese Cinema in Review

Documentary maker Ai Xiaoming filming in the studio of painter Yan Zhengxue in Beijing, September 2008. Image Dan Edwards.

While 2010 is rapidly receding into the past, earlier this week dGenerate Films paused for a moment to look back over the past year with a compilation of comments and “best of” lists from a range of filmmakers, critics and academics. Although I was on holiday in Australia when they were compiling contributions, I managed to knock  together a quick entry comprising titles, moments and events that sprung to mind when I thought about the past twelve months. It's been a busy year!

Other contributors include the dGenerate team, academic Michael Berry, Beijing-based festival programmer Shelley Kraicer, and filmmakers Xu Tong, Hu Jie and Huang Weikai. My effort is reproduced below – you can click here for the complete entry on the dGenerate Films site.

dGenerate: Taking Chinese Indie Films to the US

Apologies – time has once again gotten away from me and it's weeks since I last posted. I blame a string of visitors to the capital  – and too many nights out as a result.

A lot has been happening so to get the ball rolling again here's an interview I conducted some time ago with Kevin Lee, Vice President of Programming and Education for dgenerate Films, a non-theatrical US distributor that's taking Chinese independent cinema to North American audiences. Their website has become an important source of news on Chinese independent cinema, and they have been kind enough to link to several of my Screening China posts and other articles this year.

The interview below was conducted during Kevin's visit to Beijing earlier this year and was published in Agenda magazine (no. 66, November 4-17), the sister publication to the Beijinger magazine. It was also published on theBeijinger.com on November 18.