How would contacting old Soviet filmmakers, depending on how many are left, help when they themselves have hardly contributed much to modern Russia's own film industry? Plus its not like people around the world were lining up to watch Soviet movies the same way they did for The Godfather.
Regardless of who China learns from, be it Korea, Japan, or America, the most important thing is the country needs to up its production values and write better scripts. The former will take a while since its an issue with technology.
As much as I think this is a great opportunity for China to develop its movie industry, I have to admit that I'd rather they focus their efforts on the future of entertainment, which in my opinion, isn't in movies.
The global film industry was worth $77 billion in 2022. By contrast, the
global gaming market size was valued at $249 billion in 2022 and is anticipated to grow to
$665 billion by 2030. That's almost ten times the size of the film industry.
Not only that, but
young people play games. New generations across the Global South are growing up not going to the movies, but playing video games on their phones and watching short-format video content from services like Tik Tok. You want to influence them and expand Chinese entertainment power? Then you need to control those domains, NOT films.
It is therefore of critical importance that China 1) continues to control the short-format video content market via services like Tik Tok, 2) stop censoring and restricting video games as much and help developers go overseas, and 3) be a fast follower or leader in new media formats like AR and VR.
Now, I'm not saying China should get its young addicted to video games again - that price is too high to pay for entertainment power. But it'd be great if Chinese companies can continue to use the domestic market as a source for development while their actual target is the Global South. The Chinese government should be encouraging Chinese gaming companies to expand internationally, and provide better support at home. Deal with addiction in a different way, not by banning the entire industry.
