Chinese film, television, music

Temstar

Temstar

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Registered Member
TPenglake said:
Observation.

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It has been two weeks since Nezha 2 has been available in US theaters and so far, still not enough critic reviews for a Rottentomatoes rating. Any movie from any other country, be it a Korean, Indian, or Brazilian production by the first week usually has a tomato rating even for just small indie productions, nevermind the biggest blockbuster in that country's history. But you're telling me that an animated movie beat Inside Out 2 at the box office and only 5 US critics, whose job it is to make the public aware of lesser known movies, were bothered to check it out in a current movie landscape where the only other big title is Captain America?

This is the thing. People might complain about how difficult it is for even good Chinese cultural products to penetrate the Western market, but one has to realize how hard the American media apparatus itself promotes the cultural products of nations it is friendly to. Bollywood movies are always getting promoted by American critics, even if its usually to no avail since its still mostly Indian diasporas watching them and K-Dramas only got as big as they are now thanks to Netflix. Even with Japan, anime and Japanese video games have always had their Western fans, but actual Japanese traditions, history, and the attractiveness of Japan as a vacation destination only became ubitquitous in the US thanks to stuff like The Last Samurai and Shogun.
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I think what happened here is an unavoidable step on the road between "Chinese movies are only for Chinese" to "Chinese movies have equal global reach to Hollywood" in that there was always going to be a movie that changes people's perception about maturity of Chinese film industry, and it's expected that particular film itself being the pathfinder wouldn't enjoy the global promotion efforts that sequent films after it will enjoy. Nezha 2 was predicted to be a hit, but few people really predicted the magnitude of the hit. But now that people know next time something of this scale comes out (could even be Nezha 3 in five years, but hopefully sooner than that) much more effort will be put into getting the dubbing done before hand and getting the global premier and associated marketing ready.

SEA and Japan will open soon and I predict it will be a hit there too. Japan is confirmed but no firm date yet:
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Philippines on March 12
Thailand on March 13

On Twitter I can see Thai and Viet oubing shippers, they are way excited and they haven't even seen it yet.
 
bd popeye

bd popeye

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People take photos of a wall painting featuring the hit animated film "Ne Zha 2" in Jiangxia District of Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, March 1, 2025. (Photo by Zhou Guoqiang/Xinhua)

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Tourists pose for photos with a wall painting featuring the hit animated film "Ne Zha 2" in Dongfeng Village of Boxing County in Binzhou, east China's Shandong Province, March 1, 2025. (Photos by Chen Bin/Xinhua)

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A tourist poses for photos with a wall painting featuring the hit animated film "Ne Zha 2" in Jiangxia District of Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, March 1, 2025. (Photo by Zhou Guoqiang/Xinhua)
 
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TPenglake

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bd popeye said:

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People take photos of a wall painting featuring the hit animated film "Ne Zha 2" in Jiangxia District of Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, March 1, 2025. (Photo by Zhou Guoqiang/Xinhua)

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Tourists pose for photos with a wall painting featuring the hit animated film "Ne Zha 2" in Dongfeng Village of Boxing County in Binzhou, east China's Shandong Province, March 1, 2025. (Photos by Chen Bin/Xinhua)

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A tourist poses for photos with a wall painting featuring the hit animated film "Ne Zha 2" in Jiangxia District of Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, March 1, 2025. (Photo by Zhou Guoqiang/Xinhua)
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Besides the box offce milestone, the number of children in these photos and also just taking into consideration the Ne Zha franchises' core audience, it highlights another milestone in that now a large chunk of the world's adolescent population has other media characters to look up to besides Disney. I used to think this was trivial, after all childhood is just one part of life. We all get older, move elsewhere, and encounter new things, experiences that we internalize and morph into who we are as adults regardless of how our childhoods were, for better or worse.

And yet, one can't deny that since childhood is our foundational taste of life, the things that made us happy when we were young do in some ways stay with us and continue to influence us in indirect ways. Think about how as an adult you may no longer eat a certain food item you craved when young due to changing tastes or dietary reasons, but its still bound to conjure up good feelings in you if it was given to you by your parents whenever you did well in school or if you felt sad. This goes the same for media, like how I myself how may still have some sentimental feelings for an irrelevant island nation with more sheep than people just because of its association with a childhood favorite, the LOTR trilogy. Or a more obvious example of how Asian Americans carry a romanticism for Japan thanks to anime. Romanticism that lasts into adulthood, so much so most ABCs nowadays consider vacationing in Japan to be right of passage.

The effect that Disney's films have had on the world since their creation needs no explanation. One anecdote I would share is working with a Chinese immigrant engineer a while back who lamented about the lack of options of non-Disney movies to show his children and how familiar he ended up being with Disney characters as a result, eventhough he never watched that stuff back in China. In short, get them while their young and you'll have a stranglehold on their psychology no matter what kind of people they become in adulthood or what their views are. I'm not saying Chinese shouldn't show their children Disney movies, art is art and more exposure to it doesn't hurt. But what is important is to break the hegemony they've had on shaping the formative years of generations worldwide for close to a century.
 
FairAndUnbiased

FairAndUnbiased

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TPenglake said:
Besides the box offce milestone, the number of children in these photos and also just taking into consideration the Ne Zha franchises' core audience, it highlights another milestone in that now a large chunk of the world's adolescent population has other media characters to look up to besides Disney. I used to think this was trivial, after all childhood is just one part of life. We all get older, move elsewhere, and encounter new things, experiences that we internalize and morph into who we are as adults regardless of how our childhoods were, for better or worse.

And yet, one can't deny that since childhood is our foundational taste of life, the things that made us happy when we were young do in some ways stay with us and continue to influence us in indirect ways. Think about how as an adult you may no longer eat a certain food item you craved when young due to changing tastes or dietary reasons, but its still bound to conjure up good feelings in you if it was given to you by your parents whenever you did well in school or if you felt sad. This goes the same for media, like how I myself how may still have some sentimental feelings for an irrelevant island nation with more sheep than people just because of its association with a childhood favorite, the LOTR trilogy. Or a more obvious example of how Asian Americans carry a romanticism for Japan thanks to anime. Romanticism that lasts into adulthood, so much so most ABCs nowadays consider vacationing in Japan to be right of passage.

The effect that Disney's films have had on the world since their creation needs no explanation. One anecdote I would share is working with a Chinese immigrant engineer a while back who lamented about the lack of options of non-Disney movies to show his children and how familiar he ended up being with Disney characters as a result, eventhough he never watched that stuff back in China. In short, get them while their young and you'll have a stranglehold on their psychology no matter what kind of people they become in adulthood or what their views are. I'm not saying Chinese shouldn't show their children Disney movies, art is art and more exposure to it doesn't hurt. But what is important is to break the hegemony they've had on shaping the formative years of generations worldwide for close to a century.
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US boomers still listen to Beatles, Guns n Roses and Rolling Stone, and this music is 50+ years old.

Chinese millennials still listen to Jay Chou despite being 20+ years old. When I sing karaoke, I'm one of the few who sings songs from the last 5 years. So many still only sing Jay Chou and SHE.

Jay Chou (2003) is actually equidistant in time to Guns n Roses (1985) and today.
 
Temstar

Temstar

Brigadier
Registered Member
TPenglake said:
Besides the box offce milestone, the number of children in these photos and also just taking into consideration the Ne Zha franchises' core audience, it highlights another milestone in that now a large chunk of the world's adolescent population has other media characters to look up to besides Disney. I used to think this was trivial, after all childhood is just one part of life. We all get older, move elsewhere, and encounter new things, experiences that we internalize and morph into who we are as adults regardless of how our childhoods were, for better or worse.

And yet, one can't deny that since childhood is our foundational taste of life, the things that made us happy when we were young do in some ways stay with us and continue to influence us in indirect ways. Think about how as an adult you may no longer eat a certain food item you craved when young due to changing tastes or dietary reasons, but its still bound to conjure up good feelings in you if it was given to you by your parents whenever you did well in school or if you felt sad. This goes the same for media, like how I myself how may still have some sentimental feelings for an irrelevant island nation with more sheep than people just because of its association with a childhood favorite, the LOTR trilogy. Or a more obvious example of how Asian Americans carry a romanticism for Japan thanks to anime. Romanticism that lasts into adulthood, so much so most ABCs nowadays consider vacationing in Japan to be right of passage.

The effect that Disney's films have had on the world since their creation needs no explanation. One anecdote I would share is working with a Chinese immigrant engineer a while back who lamented about the lack of options of non-Disney movies to show his children and how familiar he ended up being with Disney characters as a result, eventhough he never watched that stuff back in China. In short, get them while their young and you'll have a stranglehold on their psychology no matter what kind of people they become in adulthood or what their views are. I'm not saying Chinese shouldn't show their children Disney movies, art is art and more exposure to it doesn't hurt. But what is important is to break the hegemony they've had on shaping the formative years of generations worldwide for close to a century.
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You're damn right, fresh from Weibo:
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Someone's daughter and her best friend just switched from cosplaying Elsa and Anna to Nezha and Aobing. This thing has enough of a gravitational pull that I strongly think it will bend the way Nezha's story is told from now on. Like how Nezha 1979 was the de facto canonical image before with the androgynous look and ripping out of tendon, from now Nezha and Aobing are friends and the alternative "he killed Aobing and then killed himself" telling will become the minority.
 
E

Eventine

Junior Member
Registered Member
It's over due that Chinese children had their own national heroes and symbols, instead of Hollywood hand downs. Much of the Western / white worship from Chinese liberals especially women are ultimately driven by 1) media brain washing from watching foreign shows and movies and 2) academic brain washing from attending university in the West. Both need to be cut off for China to be confident in itself again.
 
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