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In China, Potter magic on hold till party film is a hit
BEIJING: It has been something of cruel summer for Chinese movie audiences.
The latest installments of Hollywood blockbusters like "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" and " Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2" have been delayed, and it is doubtful that American-made crowd pleasers like "The Hangover Part II" will ever arrive in the theaters.
In the meantime countless movie-goers have been driven into cinemas as part of a government campaign to promote a epic about the Chinese Communist Party.
"I was confused throughout the entire movie," Liu Yang, sophomore at Tsinghua University Medical School, said after watching 'Beginning of the Great Revival,' which was released last month to coincide with the party's 90th anniversary. "It featured way too much romance with Mao Zedong."
Even as box-office revenue soars and the nation accelerates construction of new theaters audiences in increasingly sophisticated cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou criticize the selection and quality of films.
Government regulations effectively limit wholly foreign-made films to 20 titles a year. Despite a World Trade Organization ruling that seeks to remove the quota, the Chinese state administration of radio, film and television continues to shield the domestic film industry from foreign competition.
Box-office receipts last year in China totaled $1.57 billion, up 64% from 2009. Even with their comparatively small numbers, foreign films drew 44% of all receipts and made up four of the Top 10 draws last year.
"You can control the system and all the incentives for people to watch movies, but at the end of the day they are going to watch what they want to watch," said Kevin Lee, vice president for programming at dGenerate Films, a distributor of independent movies from China, most of which are never seen at mainland theaters.
The government also wields a heavy hand over domestic productions and imports, tinkering with scripts, censoring content and barring entire genres. Recent regulations include bans on scenes depicting excessive drinking and smoking and plots that denigrate revolutionary heroes and government officials. Another guideline warned television producers to steer clear of dramas employing time travel. Such shows, the State Administration said, "casually make up myths, have monstrous and weird plots, use absurd tactics, and even promote feudalism, superstition, fatalism and reincarnation."
In two dozen recent interviews at theaters around the capital, some patrons said they were pleased that domestic films were beginning to adopt Hollywood production values. But younger viewers, especially those who have grown up downloading American sitcoms and films nearly all of them illicitly increasingly demand the technical wizardry and narrative complexity that they say is often lacking in state-backed productions.
"Unlike domestic films, foreign ones often have layers of plots," Wang Tong said earlier this week as he waited to see the Hong Kong thriller "Mysterious Island" at a theater not far from Tiananmen Square.
That's not to suggest that Chinese filmmakers are short on creativity. A number of recent box-office successes, including "Let the Bullets Fly," an action comedy set in the 1920s, and "City of Life and Death," a period drama about Japanese war atrocities in Nanjing, have also been well received critically.
And a growing number of sophisticated art-house dramas and documentaries have been made without government backing, though such films are often banned from Chinese theaters and rarely make it beyond the international festival circuit.
Then there are films like "Beginning of the Great Revival," the state-backed extravaganza that features over 100 stars but has been panned by many of those who have seen it. The production has earned $46 million during its first three weeks, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency. But with state-owned enterprises buying up large blocks of tickets, the film's popularity has been questioned.
Despite adamant denials by a co-director, Huang Jianxin, many audiences seem to believe one prevailing rumor: that foreign blockbusters will be delayed until "Great Revival" receipts surpass $120 million. Such suspicions are reinforced by a couple of undeniable truths: "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" will not reach China until Thursday, three weeks behind the United States premiere, while "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2" is not scheduled to land here until Aug.
In China, Potter magic on hold till party film is a hit - The Times of India
but Transformers? haven't seen the new one, doubt it is a loss 
