Chinese Cinema's International Market - Asian Educational Media ...

44 Stan/ev Rosen
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Chinese Cinema :v International Market 45
Rank Title Studio
Lifetime Gross Opening I
, I Theaters Theaters
Date
14 Y Tu Mama IFC • $13,839,658 I , $408,091 I 3/15102
Tambien 286 40
(Mexico)
15 VrJ!ver (Spain) SPC $12,899,867 I $197,703 I 1113106
689 5
16 The Protector Weinstein $12,044,087 I $5,034,180 I
[Tom vum
9/8106
/Dragon ' 1,541 1,541
goon~;]
Dynasty
(Thailand)
17 Cinema Miramax $11,990,401 I $16,552 I 21219()
Paradiso (Italy)
'124 I
18 Das Boot Columbia $11,487,676 I $26,994 I 211 OIX2
(Germany) 2 2
19 The Lives SPC $11,286,112 I $213,589 I 2/9107
of Others 259 9
(Germany)
20 Brotherhood Universal '$11,260,096 I , $100,839 I
(Jf the Wolf
611101
• 405 37
(France-Canada)
21 House of Flyinx SPC ' $11,050,094 I $397,472 I 1213104
Daggers (China) 1,189 ' 15
22 La Vie en Rose Picturehouse ' $10,30 I, 706 I $179,848 I 6/8107
(France)
178 8
23 Shall We Miramax $9,499,091 I nla 71lll97
Dance 7 (Japan)
24 Talk to Her SPC $9,285,469 I $104,396 I 11122102
(Spain)
255 2
25 My Life as a Skouras • $8,345,266 I $11,6671 ' 511/87
Do~; (Sweden) I I
Source: www.boxofficemojo.com/genres/chartl'lid=foreign.htm
or in the kind of high profile limited release that has worked so well for a number of
the Chinese blockbusters.' 6 The importance of branding can be seen in the attachment
of Jet Li's name to the title Fearless, without which the film would not have done as
well at the box office.
However, the fate of China's most recent blockbusters on the U.S. market, and a
backlash against such films within China, have raised concerns that even those films
which do well domestically will face diminishing returns overseas. Although I will
explore this theme again below, it is helpful here to note the performances of Chen
J{aige's The Promise, Feng Xiaogang's The Banquet, and Zhang Yimou's Curse of the
Golden Flower, since they reveal quite clearly the basis of these concerns.
The Promise (Wu ji), with a reported budget of $42 million (making it the most
expensive Chinese film up to that time), a cast of international Asian stars, a Golden
Globe nomination, and China's entry for the best foreign film Oscar in 2005, seemed
highly promising. Chen Kaige openly promoted his commercial aspirations for the film,
fuming when a Chinese reporter asked him at the premiere in Beijing how he would react
if the box-office results were unsatisfactory. 17 Although setting some box-office records
in China, it bombed badly with critics and audiences in the United States, bringing in
only $669,625, a mere 2 percent of its worldwide gross. By unfavorably comparing it
to previous martial arts successes such as Crouching Tir;er, Hero, and House of Flving
Daggers, American critics were noting the high bar that has now been set for aspiring
Chinese blockbusters. Many reviewers, particularly in the trade papers of Hollywood,
pointed to its high cost, its "cheesy" CGI (computer-generated imagery) work, music
more "Western" than "Eastern," "cartoonish" martial arts fighting, and its general
incoherence, at least in the truncated American release. 1 s
If anything, Feng Xiaogang's The Banquet was even less successful, again despite
its box-office success in China ($16.6 million, second only to Curse of the Golden
Flower in 2006). As with Chen Kaige, Feng was very specific about the importance of
· the overseas market, stating that "when the budget has reached a certain scale, investors
aren't willing to invest without the North American market ... where they need things
to be more straightforward. They hope the story and narrative arc even simpler, the
relationships between characters aren't that complicated.'' 19 He also noted how a foreign
language Oscar would create a great marketing buzz for the film. Indeed. as Ying Zhu
notes elsewhere in this volume, beginning with the recent A World Without Thieves
and certainly including The Banquet, Feng has moved in the direction of Hollywood's
preferred "high concept" film, which emphasizes simple and definable storylines as a
key to box-office success.
However, The Banquet was unable to obtain a North American release and the
response from film festivals and critics again suggests that Western audiences have set
certain expectations for Chinese blockbusters. At its premiere at the Venice International
Film Festival, the critics complained that it was "disappointingly Western." noting that
"we hope to sec a Chinese movie with Chinese style or taste here in Italy .... If the
background was cut out, we could hardly tell this was a Chinese movic." 40 Subsequent
Critical commentary suggested that the market had become over-saturated with this type
of Chinese blockbuster. As one commentator put it, "Banquet is another wuxia epic
With a love triangle. There's one in Hero, House of Flying Daggers. Sel'en Swords, and
The Promise .... But enough is enough already. Doesn't China have any other types of
stories to tell'7" 41 Another echoed that sentiment, complaining that The Banquet was a
rnernber of "that suddenly popular Asian cinema genre: the indulgent. overproduced
costume epic aimed at a completely non-Chinese audience many thousand miles away
.. · polished and programmed for international acclaim." 42 The trade papers were no