Chinese film, television, music

sabiothailand

Junior Member
Registered Member
Cool I guess. South East Asia is not a place famous for people with a good taste in TV shows. These kinds of TV shows are good to market to shallow people for mass consumption but they won‘t leave any mark.
Well that is a bit judgemental.
What kind of race science bullshit is this?

The thing is, small OR big cultural exports are cultural exports nonetheless, they WORK.

My mum as of now has been watching CN drama on WeTV, does that mean my mother is somehow stupid and shallow based on your argument?
 

Sardaukar20

Major
Registered Member
I noticed in YouTube that a number of Japanese are panning Dead to Rights as a Chinese propaganda film. Many Japanese content maker and their commenters seem to think that the Chinese are "projecting" their atrocities onto the IJA in WWII. Some of them think that the current generation are being victimized for the "made up" sins of their past generation. They are trying to gaslighting history itself.

It seems like Nippon Kaigi history revisionism had done it's work on many Japanese minds. They are ignoring that stories of Japanese atrocities are not just exclusive to the PRC. It's everywhere that Imperial Japan had touched. In East Asia, in SEA, and even in the West.

Japan had used ignorance to try to hide it's dirty past. Now they are pushing it to revisionism. Japanese fascism is still very much alive today. It's usually hidden behind anti-PRC agenda.
 
Last edited:

4Tran

Junior Member
Registered Member
There r some new really good donghuas, ofc if you like their genre that is.
I'm enjoying the heck out of Lord of Mysteries. In fact, I'm even rereading the novel right now. Even though the donghua takes a lot of shortcuts, it's still pretty damned good.

Well that is a bit judgemental.
What kind of race science bullshit is this?

The thing is, small OR big cultural exports are cultural exports nonetheless, they WORK.

My mum as of now has been watching CN drama on WeTV, does that mean my mother is somehow stupid and shallow based on your argument?
China has been subjected to a decade of extreme propaganda in the West, so it'd be surprising if its works get much traction there. It's like how most Westerners ignored the Soviet film industry during the Cold War. As such, I'd say that the popularity of Chinese works in SEA is more indicative of their reach than it would be in Western countries.

I noticed in YouTube that a number of Japanese are panning Dead to Rights as a Chinese propaganda film. Many Japanese content maker and thekr commenters seem to think that the Chinese are "projecting" their atrocities onto the IJA in WWII. Some of them think that the current generation are being victimized for the "made up" sins of their past generation.

It seems like Nippon Kaigi history revisionism had done it's work on many Japanese minds. They are ignoring that stories Japanese atrocities are not just exclusive to the PRC. It's everywhere that Imperial Japan had touched. In East Asia, in SEA, and even in the West.

Japan had used ignorance to try to hide it's dirty past. Now they are pushing it to revisionism. Japanese fascism is still very much alive, it's usually hiding behind their anti-PRC agenda.
The reality is that the vast majority of Japanese people are fiercely non-political and don't care about history. The rest are mostly made up of Imperial Japan apologists, and Shinzo Abe was their hero. It's going to shape pretty much anything coming out of Japan about World War II.
 

Nevermore

Junior Member
Registered Member
Like it or not, censorship remains a problem with Chinese entertainment. The threat of it does suppress creativity, though lately it seems creators are becoming more bold. Still, film makers are channeled towards creating "safe" formulaic works over breaking boundaries - you're not going to see a lot of works that are "raw" because those tend to be the most dangerous from a censor perspective.

This is not necessarily a bad thing as entertainment is a vehicle for cultural values. But it does limit the global export market.
The censorship mechanism imposes restrictions only on a limited number of specific plot types or storylines, such as politically sensitive content, graphic violence, pornography, and antisocial ideologies. The majority of story scripts do not encounter material requiring censorship. Ultimately, the core issue remains the level of Chinese creators and the aesthetic preferences of the audience.
 

TPenglake

Junior Member
Registered Member
What happened to Chinese language cinema? I feel like after the golden years of HK cinema, Chinese movies disaööeared into oblivion. I tried watching Wandering Earth and honestly didn‘t like it and I think it is also mirrored in IMDB ratings - 5.9. None of modern Chinese movies have the rawness of HK movies from early 20s and 90s and Korean thrillers.

CDramas seem to have imported the Kawaii culture from Japan which just makes the movie scream that it‘s a superficial garbage with no depth.
Censorship and lack of expertise may have plagued Chinese movies for the past decade, but this year was one of the best years ever with so many genuinely good movies like Nezha 2, Legend of Hei 2, Dead to Rights, Nobody, and The Stage. Even people on Weibo and XHS who usually write off the Chinese film industry as sharing a coffin with the Chinese soccer team, admitted this year particularly the summer season was pretty good and that there might be hope for the future of Chinese cinema.

Check those movies out when they release on streaming, you'll feel the same as well.
 

tamsen_ikard

Senior Member
Registered Member
Censorship and lack of expertise may have plagued Chinese movies for the past decade, but this year was one of the best years ever with so many genuinely good movies like Nezha 2, Legend of Hei 2, Dead to Rights, Nobody, and The Stage. Even people on Weibo and XHS who usually write off the Chinese film industry as sharing a coffin with the Chinese soccer team, admitted this year particularly the summer season was pretty good and that there might be hope for the future of Chinese cinema.

Check those movies out when they release on streaming, you'll feel the same as well.
Chinese movies are terrible. Chinese drama is significantly superior in all aspects whether its actor quality, scripts, story telling,. I would say Chinese drama is as good as Korean drama and are getting very popular in many countries. Another Chinese media platform that is significantly superior are Chinese Donghua or Anime. I would say they have surpassed Japanese Anime in every way whether its stories, animation and longevity except international fan base. But I am sure it will get there.

Compare that with Chinese movies, they are just aweful in so many ways. And another funny thing is how so few Chinese movies are actually made per year. Its dysmal. Compare that with 100s of Hollywood movies or 1000s of Indian movies, China barely makes that many movies. That shows how bad the pipeline is.
 

TPenglake

Junior Member
Registered Member
Chinese movies are terrible. Chinese drama is significantly superior in all aspects whether its actor quality, scripts, story telling,. I would say Chinese drama is as good as Korean drama and are getting very popular in many countries. Another Chinese media platform that is significantly superior are Chinese Donghua or Anime. I would say they have surpassed Japanese Anime in every way whether its stories, animation and longevity except international fan base. But I am sure it will get there.

Compare that with Chinese movies, they are just aweful in so many ways. And another funny thing is how so few Chinese movies are actually made per year. Its dysmal. Compare that with 100s of Hollywood movies or 1000s of Indian movies, China barely makes that many movies. That shows how bad the pipeline is.
Did you watch any of the movies I mentioned? Plus I'm surprised you actually have that high of a standard for Chinese movies considering that I think you previously mentioned how Wolf Warriors 2 was a masterpiece and lamented how China doesn't make those kinds of movies anymore.

I think you're the only one with that opinion of the C-Drama industry. The last good C-Drama was Long Season, everything else after that has been half-assed crime dramas or that Xianxia crap that keeps getting made even if they always debut to 5.9 on Douban. All those movies I mentioned score 8 and above Douban, which is pretty unprecedented in the Chinese entertainment industry. It's literally been 2 years though, since a C-Drama has scored 8 and above on Douban. They're so bad nowadays that even scoring 7.5 is a miracle.
 

vincent

Grumpy Old Man
Staff member
Moderator - World Affairs
The reality is that the vast majority of Japanese people are fiercely non-political and don't care about history. The rest are mostly made up of Imperial Japan apologists, and Shinzo Abe was their hero. It's going to shape pretty much anything coming out of Japan about World War II.
The result of the Imperial remnants wiping clean of their atrocities from the history books. When your history is full of shit, of course you don’t want to know about them.
 

tamsen_ikard

Senior Member
Registered Member
Did you watch any of the movies I mentioned? Plus I'm surprised you actually have that high of a standard for Chinese movies considering that I think you previously mentioned how Wolf Warriors 2 was a masterpiece and lamented how China doesn't make those kinds of movies anymore.

I think you're the only one with that opinion of the C-Drama industry. The last good C-Drama was Long Season, everything else after that has been half-assed crime dramas or that Xianxia crap that keeps getting made even if they always debut to 5.9 on Douban.
The bread and butter of Chinese Dramas are the romance dramas and they are as good as Korean ones. Have you ever watched one? :p

90% audience of dramas around the world are women, and they are not watching crime dramas and xianxia. They are loving the Chinese romance dramas.

I would recommend watching: Hidden Love, Amidst a snowstorm of love, You are my glory

These are very good contemporary romance dramas.

Reform era historical dramas are also great. For example "Like a Flowing River" or "Minning town". Both master pieces. Also recent 3 body Tencent drama was awesome. And also Reset, another great sci-fi.


In terms of Chinese movies that I found great and watched multiple times, it will be wolf warrior 2 and Operation Red sea. Both were really good. But then you get really bad ones like Born to Fly.

I recently watched YOLO, I thought it will be good, but somehow it was really boring.

Movies need to be fun and engaging. Even pop corn movies can be engaging. But most Chinese movies have very bad editing, story telling and camera work. Chinese dramas are superior in all these aspects based on my own personal observation.
 
Top