By LU ZHU

THIS past December, Christmas came early for Chinese moviegoers. They had four big-budget films to choose from, including A Simple Noodle Story, an offbeat comedy filmed by illustrious director Zhang Yimou; Bodyguards and Assassins, a breathtaking action movie supervised by famous Hong Kong director Peter Chan and featuring a dozen or so screen and entertainment stars from the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan; The Storm Warriors II, adapted from a popular cartoon; and Treasure Hunter, a sci-fi action movie starring Taiwan's king of pop Jay Chou and supermodel Chiling Lin. All these blockbusters seem just a prelude to this year's fierce Chinese New Year's film competition.

The premiere of Bodyguards and Assassins. Superstars guarantee box office.

Stiff Competition

    The holiday film season in China now stretches from the middle of December to February, covering Christmas, the New Year, Spring Festival and sometimes Valentine's Day. This is prime time for China's film market, so you can be sure to see the biggest box office rankings.

    Since 2002 the market share of the nation's holiday film season has been the equivalent of one fifth or even one third of the annual box office returns. In 2008, for example, the entire box office was RMB 4.34 billion, but over RMB 800 million of it came from these holiday offerings, with If You Are the One alone raking in more than RMB 300 million. Such a keen market response draws film producers and distributors to focus on dominating this season, thus heating up market competition.

    Compared with previous years, the 2009-2010 season is longer and has more cinematic choices for filmgoers. The three comedies released on November 20, namely The Robbers, Mars Baby, and Panda Express, ushered in the holiday season with a bit of jostling, a full 20 days earlier than before. With Valentine's Day falling exactly on the 2010 Spring Festival Day, love is also in the air with romantic movies like Hot Summer Days and Once upon a Chinese Classic to stoke up and keep the passion of the film season burning longer.

    Costume dramas, sword fighting action films and comedies remain the season's most well received genres. Actually, the four blockbusters of December highlight the first time in China's film history that so many big-budget movies with so many impressive names were released at the same time. Insiders predict that this year's box office championship will go to A Simple Noodle Story or Bodyguards and Assassins, the latter with an estimated box office in excess of RMB half a billion.

    Judging from media and audience feedback, however, Bodyguards and Assassins directed by Teddy Chan will probably outdo Zhang Yimo; some believe it to be the best Chinese film of 2009. The film dramatizes the last years of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) when revolutionists in Hong Kong pledged their lives to safeguard Sun Yat-sen from assassination by the Qing government. The stack of China's most beloved actors and actresses alone make it worth watching.

    All this year's exciting New Year's film offerings are truly star-studded. Apart from Zhang Yimou and Peter Chan, Kung fu superstar Jackie Chan offers Junior Soldiers, Hong Kong's Jing Wong directed the comedy Police in the Future, and the epic Confucius as well as action films 14 Blades and Fist of the Red Dragon all opened this January. From the international side comes blockbuster Avatar, 2010's first Hollywood entry which opened in China on January 2. Nearly 50 movies will be screened during this 90-day season, providing an unprecedented feast for audiences and a white war for film producers.