Photo: IC

"Is Hollywood kowtowing to the Chinese people? No! Is it kowtowing to Renminbi? Yes!" Dai Jinhua, a movie critic and professor at Peking University, said at a conference held by Tencent on December 3.

In her opinion, while an increasing amount of Chinese elements are appearing in Hollywood films, that doesn't mean China and its culture are on the rise. 

Much of what she had to say at the conference reinforced ideas about Chinese-financed Hollywood films that Chinese moviegoers are gradually coming to realize.

"All we've done is paid for a Chinese image… The Hollywood movie industry is a sunset industry, so they are just trying to target the emerging market that is China."

This year has seen a number of co-produced films featuring Chinese elements and actors, such as Transformers: Age of Extinction and X-Men: Days of Future Past. However, when most Chinese moviegoers head to the theaters, instead of seeing these Chinese elements as something to be proud of, they see them as the blatant cash grabs they are. 

While movies are one of the best ways to display and promote a country's culture, if China really wants to show the world how great its culture is, it needs to do so through its own movies instead of just paying for "cultural product placements" in foreign films.

However, the problem is: Are Chinese films up to the task of establishing a good reputation for Chinese cinema overseas?

Roadblocks to greatness



"There are nearly 300 movies shown in cinemas every year, about 200 of those are domestic films. Personally, I think only 20 out of that 200 cut the mustard," movie critic Yuan Dengyu told the Global Times.

Many Chinese movie lovers feel the same way. Considering the huge customer demand for film in China, the number of films actually able to satisfy that demand is pitifully low. As for the films that end up doing well at the box-office, only a few of those are positively received by critics or end up leaving a long-lasting impression on moviegoers.

This feeling of disappointment among audiences in China most likely stems from some worrisome trends the industry has been experiencing over the past few years.

First, renowned directors responsible for China's most memorable films have failed to live up to their reputations at the cinema. Zhang Yimou, Feng Xiaogang and John Woo are all Chinese directors that have made names for themselves around the globe. However, the trio's most recent films, Feng's Personal Tailor (2013), Zhang's Coming Home (2014) and Woo's The Crossing (2014) have all been thoroughly panned by critics.

In an interview on 21ccom.net, Dai called Coming Home "a bad film" that "fell to an all new low." A year prior, a wave of criticism swept social media after Personal Tailor hit theaters. More recently, The Crossing has been criticized by many netizens on media review site douban.com for being "long and lame" and "a disaster."

Second, telling the same old story in an even worse way.

Stories like Journey to the West have been portrayed over and over again in TV series, cartoons and films. In January 2014, The Monkey King brought this story once again to theaters only to receive countless negative reviews and a 4.2 score on douban.com.

Although not based on a fictional character, Rise of the Legend was also a failed attempt at a character that has been seen by Chinese audiences numerous times before as various TV and film works, the most iconic being the movie franchise directed by Hark Tsui and starring Jet Li during the 1990s.

Third, the more criticism, the higher the box-office. Most moviegoers refer to the Tiny Times series as more like a "music video" or a "power point presentation" than an actual film. Yet, the films, the third of which came out this year and with a fourth on the way next year, keep setting box office records although they are despised by many critics and moviegoers alike.

Awful scripts and terrible special effects are also big issues that the current batch of Chinese films need to deal with.

"Chinese films reveal a crucial problem with current Chinese society and Chinese culture. We sacrificed a lot during our modernization, and we ended up establishing hollow values," said Dai.

She pointed to Chen Kaige's film Sacrifice (2010) as an example.

The film depicts an old Chinese play: The Orphan of Zhao, a story that was regarded as representing the greatness of the human spirit by the French after it spread to Europe in the 17th century. However, the morality and values that represent the core values of Chinese culture are completely absent from the film. Instead the characters in the film come across as twisted and incomprehensible.

Threat to survival



Although he doesn't fully agree with the idea that Hollywood is only interested in people's wallets in China, famed director and producer Stanley Kwan is also concerned for the Chinese film industry.

"It's sad that there are no Chinese films on the French media's top 10 and the US media's top 50 lists of best movies," Kwan told the Global Times in an interview after a promotional event for his newly produced film Under The Sicily Sun on December 10.

"The Chinese movie industry looks good (for investment), but isn't that heading towards speculation? Less and less attention is being spent considering the quality of a film," he said.

There is plenty of potential in the industry as great movies are being made, but the value of these films still remains largely untapped.

For instance, Kwan explained that he was surprised that Blind Massage, which won awards at both the 64th Berlin Film Festival and the 51st Golden Horse Awards in Taiwan this year, didn't perform very well at the box office. As one of the judges at this year's Golden Horse Awards, he said the film was excellent in every way, be it directing, cinematography or the performances of the actors and actresses.

"The fact that such a great film didn't receive much attention is a problem that both movie makers and audiences in China should reflect on," said Kwan.

An increasing number of overseas companies are seeking a way into the huge Chinese market, either by working with Chinese investors or through co-productions with Chinese studios. Chinese companies have also begun cooperating with foreign companies to bring even more TV and film works to China. After the Wanda Group's acquisition of AMC, Wanda Chairman Wang Jianlin has also said that he is interested in acquiring larger companies such as Lionsgate and MGM.

Although domestic movies are still somewhat protected by the quota on imported films, it is inevitable that more foreign challengers will be making their way into an already competitive market. However, once the floodgates open will domestic films be able to survive?