This mystery drama twist-a-thon from China was a huge hit on home turf recently (far outperforming the latest Indiana Jones feature) and has been picked up for distribution in the UK and the US. Although the 180-degree plot pivots start to get a little ridiculous by the end, the script (credited to writer-producer Chen Sicheng, Shuyi Gu and Yixiong Yin) zips along with such gleeful mischievousness that the ride is too fun to resist. Intriguingly, it is supposedly based on a 1990 Russian film called A Trap for Lonely Man,…
Tag: Film
Studio defends Barbie movie after controversial map prompts Vietnam ban
Warners Bros has described a map that appears in its coming Barbie movie as a “child-like crayon drawing” with no intended meaning, after Vietnam said it would ban the film after claiming the map depicted the disputed South China Sea. The Barbie movie provoked controversy in both Vietnam and the Philippines over its inclusion of the map that apparently features China’s “nine-dash line”. The line marks China’s claim to much of the South China Sea – a demarcation opposed by Vietnam and other south-east Asian countries and which was repudiated…
Joy Ride review – slickly likable Asian-American comedy dwells on family and identity
Writer-producer Adele Lim, who worked on the script for Crazy Rich Asians, now makes her feature directing debut with this likable and brash Asian-American comedy about four women leaving the US for a trip to the Chinese homeland; they come to terms with their roots in various ways, expressing sexualities queer and straight and of course celebrating friendship. It all barrels along, with a journey-of-discovery narrative template not entirely dissimilar to the recent Book Club sequel; the energy levels are high and there are some outrageous gags, between which the…
Vietnam bans Barbie film over disputed map of China’s South China Sea claims
Vietnam has banned Warner Bros’s Barbie film from domestic distribution over a scene featuring a map that shows China’s unilaterally claimed territory in the South China Sea, state media have reported. The U-shaped “nine-dash line” is used on Chinese maps to illustrate its claims over vast areas of the South China Sea, including swathes of what Vietnam considers its continental shelf, where it has awarded oil concessions. Barbie is the latest movie to be banned in Vietnam for depicting China’s controversial nine-dash line, which was repudiated in an international arbitration…
Disney’s Little Mermaid flops in China amid racist backlash over casting
The poor performance of Disney’s The Little Mermaid at the Chinese box office has reopened questions on Hollywood’s increasing difficulties in the world’s second-largest economy and the role racism has played in the film’s reception. The live action remake has grossed just $3.6m (£2.9m) since its release in Chinese cinemas on 26 May, according to Box Office Mojo. The film, starring Halle Bailey as the mermaid Ariel, arrives as Hollywood tries to edge back into a market increasingly dominated by domestic productions, and as Chinese authorities have shown reluctance to…
Boonie Bears: Guardian Code review – smash-hit Chinese animation tells an eco tale
The ninth feature in a hugely popular Chinese animated series directed by Lin Yongchang and Shao Heqi, Boonie Bears: Guardian Code is also the franchise’s highest-grossing film, second behind The Wandering Earth 2 as the biggest Chinese film of 2023 so far. With its two main characters Bramble and Briar, adorable bears who were abandoned by their mother in a forest fire, this environmentally conscious adventure is an entertaining, if rather formulaic, ride. For lovers of cute animals, the CGI designs of the brothers are quite lovely and detailed, though…
The Breaking Ice review – frozen emotion and sexual tension on North Korean border
Singaporean film-maker Anthony Chen brings warmth, sympathy and directness to this intimate drama set in Yanji on China’s border with North Korea. Three young people – two men and a woman – make a connection; each are looking for a way of breaking free from the emotional deep-freeze they’ve landed themselves in, just as the whole world wants to thaw itself out of the vast stagnancy created by the Covid pandemic. At its best, this movie has the easy and seductively unencumbered swing of the French New Wave, with something…
Youth review – heart-stopping stories in China’s sweatshop capital
Charlie Chaplin’s frantic production-line factory worker in Modern Times is a ghostly presence in this giant, immersive documentary from Chinese director Wang Bing, the movie equivalent of a wall-sized tapestry; it is about the sweatshop capital of China, the northern town of Zhili in Huzhou, Zhejiang province, known as the “city of children’s clothing”. Thousands of workshops turn out mountains of cheap garments and every year vast numbers of young people from about 16 to 22 come from outlying cities to do a season of brutally hard work in return…
Why China just can’t quit Hollywood – video
The US and China have a complex relationship, yet the movie business is one area where the two nations have enjoyed collaboration. But in the last few years, even this partnership has become more competitive. However, as the two countries’ political relationship grows more rancorous, China is opening the door to US blockbusters once again. The whole thing is starting to resemble a romance straight out of the movies. So why is China’s film industry so dependent on Hollywood? The Guardian
Restart the Earth review – Chinese sci-fi is pacy plant-based apocalypse
No doubt to Alan Titchmarsh’s great relief, the horticultural arm of the post-apocalypse flick is finally entering the growth phase, with the likes of Annihilation, The Last of Us and now this lightweight effort from Chinese director Lin Zhenzhao. The hubris here is that mankind has overcompensated for the desertification of the planet with cutting-edge research to promote plant growth, accidentally creating a super-species of sentient flora that has choked the Earth, and whose roving vines hunt down people to snack on. Yang Hao (Mickey He) is a bunkered-in dad…