Battle for the New Year Crown

By TANG YUANKAI

    The turn of the year is the high season for China’s film industry, when three major festivals come in a row: Christmas, New Year and Spring Festival (or Chinese New Year). With a steep increase in the number of moviegoers, this period of a month or more (Spring Festival can fall anywhere between late January to early February) is always marked by hectic competition among established directors intent on refreshing their reputations, and newcomers eager to carve out a niche. This year the battleground was particularly crowded.

    Many old hands reappeared this season, although Zhang Yimou was notably absent as he was occupied with the Beijing Olympics opening and closing ceremonies in 2008. But mainland directors Feng Xiaogang and Chen Kaige, and Hong Kong directors John Woo and Hark Tsui all had new works. Newcomers include a handful of actors-turned directors, such as Donnie Yen, who directed and stared in Ip Man, about Bruce Lee’s mentor Ye Wen.

    Chinese filmmakers long ignored the timing of their films’ debuts. In the past theaters even closed during the holidays. In 1995 Hong Kong kungfu star Jackie Chan brought his Rumble in the Bronx to the mainland during Spring Festival, and easily made RMB 110 million in box-office takings, an astronomical figure by the standards of the time. A year later his Golden Dragon hauled in another RMB 80 million. Such dazzling success awoke his mainland peers to the concept of the “New Year Film.” The first mainland-produced Spring Festival hit — The Dream Factory — leapt onto screens in 1997, and surprisingly overtook Jackie Chan’s Who Am I? in ticket sales. Its director Feng Xiaogang has remained the “Spring Festival movie tsar” to this day.

    These days mainland studios rush to churn out work for the holiday season, but many films are actually an ill fit for the holiday mood and therefore perform poorly on the market. But the overall ardor for the New Year season has never diminished. China’s filmmakers have been forced to embrace commercial factors that they formerly disdained, and to put public taste above personal preferences in their productions.

    Most people go to the theater for sheer entertainment, something that can pluck their heartstrings or nerves. A film is expected to bring out extreme sentiments, through magnifying or distilling elements of life, be it fear, love or hate. The desire for some dramatic experience may have been stronger at the end of 2008, as Chinese people reeled from a series of ups and downs during the year, from the Olympic Games and China’s first spacewalk, to ice storms, a devastating earthquake and the global financial crisis.

    After a decade of searching, New Year films have discovered the recipe of success. Staple ingredients include an all-star cast, a dose of humor and lots of romance. Though somewhat clichéd, the formula doesn’t seem to bore audiences, and still leaves room for creativity and novelties.

    In the 2008/2009 season, Feng Xiaogang presented a remake of the Harry-met-Sally story called If You Are the One. Zhang Jianya delivered the twin of his 2007 romantic comedy Call for Love, detailing a man’s courting of 12 women. His new work, Fit Lover, reverses the plot and looks at a girl’s choice of 12 suitors. All About Women by Hark Tsui has all the traits of Hong Kong’s commercial films, such as charming heroes and heroines, a straightforward story, free imagination and mischievousness.

Feng Xiaogang Is Back

    In 2006 Feng Xiaogang broke away from his signature comedies about everyday life, and created the imperial-era thespian extravaganza The Banquet. Response from the audience and critics was mixed, but the box office yield was strong. The next year Feng experimented further with the war film Assembly. Although the film featured no big stars, Feng’s name alone was powerful enough to pull big crowds. Within a month the film made RMB 235 million on the domestic market.

    In 2008 Feng resumed his comic style as well as his alliance with Ge You, the bald lanky actor known for his quick quips, who has starred in most of Feng’s films. In If Your Are the One Ge You plays a 40-something returned expatriate in search of a wife who combines the merits of both Eastern and Western women. After dating several ladies of disparate identities and proclivities, including a lesbian, he captures the heart of a stewardess of “poisonous” beauty.

    To make the affection between the very un-charming man and the super-charming girl believable, the film portrays the leading actress as a mistress in an extramarital affair. In a desperate struggle to get out of the immoral relationship, she condescends to accept a man not of her match without putting her heart into the relationship. Eventually she finds an “inner good” in him.

    Though a surreal story, the film shows a concern with the real world. At its end the director appeases his audience, dizzy and worn out after an eventful year, through the mouth of his character: “Take life as it is. For these years we have made more money but fewer friends…” He even conjured an across-the-board rally of China’s stock market through technical effects. “I was making a New Year film, and so was obliged to make the audience happy,” explains Feng.

    Ticket sales for If You Are the One soared to over RMB 80 million in four days following its premiere. But amid waves of laughter were loud complaints about its plethora of embedded advertisements. The director in fact had an open clash with the investor on this issue, during which a glass was smashed. “The shards splattered onto his face,” said a source close to Feng.