Crouching China,Hidden Next International Blockbuster

The quiet backlash against Os- car winners 12 Years a Slave shed light on a trend that has crept through Academy voting， as well as festival voting， for decades. Some Academy voters admitted that they consciously avoided watching 12 Years a Slave， but still voted for it for Best Picture due to awareness of its content. Matthew McConoughey was never previously considered one of Hollywood’s great actors， but he shed dozens of pounds to play an unlikely AIDS-infected hero， and his Best Actor Oscar win was preceded by co-star Jared Leto’s Supporting Actor Oscar for his portrayal of the transvestite sidekick in the same film.

Many in the film industry value commentary on political and social issues over narrative. Not to say 12 Years a Slave and Dallas Buyers Club weren’t great films. They both were. But early on， Wolf of Wall Street， Martin Scorsese’s latest collaboration with Leonardo DiCaprio， was widely seen as a frontrunner. In one way， a semicomedy （it did take The Golden Globes’“Best Comedy or Musical” Award） about drug-guzzling Wall Street criminals is the exact opposite of the aforementioned two. However， Wall Street criminals could just as easily be classified as a “values” or “issues” movie， as such behavior has been a hot topic since 2008， specifically.

Meanwhile， in recent years， as part of the country’s moves to increase global “soft power”， China’s government-affiliated film studios have produced several films with hopes of Oscar recognition， most recently Flowers of War， starring Christian Bale， the most expensive Chinese production ever at the time. It hardly ever entered into the conversation for best foreign language film overseas. The Nanjing Massacre， its subject matter， occurred in 1937.

Not since Crouching Tiger， Hidden Dragon swept around the world in 2000 has China tasted Oscar glory， and that production was based in Taiwan but partnered with studios on the mainland and in the United States. Although Ang Lee’s Oscar for Life of Pi last year was widely celebrated in China， the director himself was the most Chinese piece of the massive production. Crouching Tiger is now more than a decade old， a decade in which the Chinese film industry has progressed by leaps and bounds along with the Chinese economy and the accompanying expendable income of the Chinese public. What is it going to take for an exclusively homegrown Chinese film to nab a Best Foreign Language Oscar， or even just a nomination？

Pinpointing Taste

Chinese movies are getting better and better， and in recent years several low budget Chinese films have grossed truckloads of money， but the two Chinese movies to gross the most money overseas remain Crouching Tiger and Hero， a Jet Li vehicle which actually preceded the former， but was released in the West in the wake of Tiger’s run， capitalizing on the popularity of wuxia（physics-defying martial arts？） craze.

One of the highest-grossing films during the Chinese domestic film industry’s boom last year is titled American Dreams in China， and was touted by some as China’s answer to Best Picture-winner The Social Network. It was honored with several do- mestic Golden Rooster Awards， including best picture. In its climax， a Chinese entrepreneur， facing a lawsuit from Americans for copyright infringement， wins the day by showing to the Americans that he can memorize an entire textbook and chiding them about their lack of understanding of Chinese culture. And then he solves the $15 million lawsuit by deciding to take his company public on Wall Street. American Dreams in China was one of the better-reviewed blockbusters. Many of the top-grossing films of the year in China were Chinese-made， but universally loathed by critics， both Chinese and foreign.

Chinese film critic Raymond Zhou explained the situation to The L.A. Times in an interview early this year. “Audiences increasingly hail from cities and towns smaller than Beijing， Shanghai， Guangzhou and Shenzhen. The aspiration and aesthetics of this demographic form the bedrock of China’s market， and they have their own tastes and quirks，” revealed Zhou， adding“That audience’s tastes are plebeian.”

However， mainstream American taste isn’t exactly leaning towards the brutality of slavery and the AIDS epidemic. The top grossing film of 2013 in the United States was The Hunger Games： Catching Fire followed closely by Iron Man 3， both of which also performed well in the Chinese market.

Shooting for blockbuster or awards isn’t a quandary first arising in China， of course. Films like Titanic aren’t easy to construct for anyone. But many of the films that have performed the best in China recently haven’t been big expensive productions. The benchmark is Lost in Thailand， which grossed over $200 mil-lion in 2012 despite a budget of only $4.8 million. A particularly original film， the closest American comparison would be The Hangover， but it’s not about getting loaded. This type of film could conceivably perform well in the United States， but such foreign-language films rarely do well outside of their native market – people going to the theater to laugh don’t want to read subtitles. And many spectators are drawn by word-of-mouth mention of some hot topic du jour explored in the film， which may be specific locally. In Xu Zheng’s film preceding Lost in Thailand， that buzzword was “little third”， a widely-known Chinese term for a mistress.

The Next Generation

China does also have filmmakers who make “values” or “issues” movies in realms Academy voters like. They are filmmakers like Jia Zhengke， whose work has been seen in European film festivals including Cannes， Berlin， and Venice since 1997. His latest film， A Touch of Sin， is the best-reviewed movie to come out of China in 2013 – at least by foreign critics. It only saw a limited run on the Chinese mainland and almost zero promotion. Compared by some Western critics to Taxi Driver， with four tales of people pressured into violent rampages， it’s not so much censorship or repression that hinders it from performing well in China， as much as it is the toogritty subject matter. Likely due to Jia’s success at European film festivals， he can make movies about the “issues” he wants， but he does so knowing that they’re not going to make money. Lighter fair – comedic or inspirational – is en vogue to be sure， and gritty depictions of injustice just don’t appeal much to mainstream spectators， as they don’t to most moviegoers in the West.

A Touch of Sin is the 2013 Chinese film most similar in tone to 12 Years a Slave and Dallas Buyers Club， and although it’s good – very good – it wouldn’t be a surprise to hear of festival voters choosing it solely because of its “impor- tant” content， but an average Chinese moviegoer would not want to waste 50 yuan or two hours on it. Jia doesn’t do only controversial films either：

Jia is considered a leading figure of China’s “6th Generation” of filmmakers， a group which will likely produce a talent who will find the stage of the Kodak Theater some day. Zhang Yimou， director of Flowers of War， is a representative figure of the “5th Generation”， and early in his career， he saw more film festivals. Jia has also helmed a more mainstream， bigbudget government-approved projects， most notably The World in 2004， as have many members of his “generation”.

Historical films can work for both awards and box office – they did for Roberto Benigni and Life is Beautiful， Italy’s top-grossing film internationally of all time. But unlike Flowers of War， Life is Beautiful mixes comedy with the tragedy and finds areas of gray rather than black and white， good and pure evil， as all great war films do. While the Nanjing Massacre is one of the most horrific events in hu- man history， which all people should know about， Japan would be a better candidate to nab an Oscar-nomination making a film about it. That’s the kind of grappling with history that makes Oscar voters salivate. As with American Dreams in China， one dimensional patriotism doesn’t appeal to foreigners whatsoever.

Until Chinese James Cameron builds a scale replica of MH370， writes Jack and Rose onto the plane， then sinks it into the Indian Ocean， the best bet for the next breakout Chinese film would be something in the vein of Amelie， France’s highestgrossing film ever on the international market and 5-time Oscar nominee – a highlyartistic， beautifully-made romantic comedy， heavy with French flavor yet universally adored around the world. Amelie wasn’t about France yet overwhelmingly French. A stellar Chinese film that can be universally embraced while optimally illuminating a few modern “Chinese characteristics” is just around the corner， and we will certainly see some Chinese faces other than Ang Lee raising Oscars in the years to come.