With the year coming to an end, people start to reflect upon what have been achieved as well as lost in their 2011 and so does the movie industry. In wrapping up this year’s film productions, a group of statistics came to the surface and might shed some light on the picture of domestic film industry in China. With the most-expensive-ever epic blockbuster The Flowers of War bringing down the curtain on 2011 film scene, China has experienced a quite fruitful year. The box office revenue reached 10 billion on October 26th, 66 days earlier than in 2010. The four movies that starred Hollywood stars indicated Chinese filmmakers’ ambition to reach a broader international audience.

It has come to a time when both film critics and fans started drawing up their own rankings of the best movies in their hearts by various standards. Some say that the story should come first and the technique second; some are big fans of dazzling special effects. According to one of them, there are good movies but no bad ones, only movies of bad quality. A good movie should first have a compelling story, such as the top three on the IMDB list—The Shawshank Redemption, Godfather II and Inception. A good story makes a good movie. But when the story is not so good, there is still room for technical breakthroughs and innovations. A movie is still worth watching if it can bring the audience visual and audio enjoyment, such as Avatar and Titanic by James Cameron.

Here are our list of important films that define the 2011 Chinese film industry.

1. Buddha Mountain

Directed by: Li Yu (李玉)

In a small county in Sichuan, there were three lost young people. They were Nanfeng (Fan Bingbing 范冰冰) who had a troubled family, Ding Bo (Chen Bolin 陈柏霖) who did not get along with his father and Feizao (Feilong 肥龙) who was not able feel any warm from his rich family. They lived together in a rented house. The landlady (Zhang Aijia 张艾嘉) had a tough life and bickering kept happening. Gradually the three loners found comfort in each other.

The movie tells a story of time which has something to do with youth and wandering, helplessness and strays, life and ideals. There are families and friends other than a major romance. Different plots are connected in a clear logic with each other. From the movie we see the director Li Yu’s sincerity and great courage to confront life by means of cinematography.

2. Love for Life

Directed by: Gu Chang Wei (顾长卫）

A peaceful village was suddenly shrouded by the terror of the malignant HIV. One of the villagers Zhao Deyi (Guo Fucheng 郭富城) was infected and soon got ostracized; he was later sent to an abandoned primary school with other virus carriers. Instead of feeling for each other, they constantly had conflicts. A gloomy air had permeated through the temporary ward. Then another patient Qinqin (Zhang Ziyi 章子怡) showed up and soon fell in love with Deyi. The relationship was not at all blessed, not even accepted, but the young couple loved each other till the very end of their life.

Director Gu Changwei used an all-star cast this time under the pressure of commercialized film industry. Though not as good as his previous Peacock and And the Spring Comes, Love for Life still stands out against a background of an overall suffering quality of domestic films.

3. KORA

Directed by: Du Jiayi (杜家毅）

Adapted from a bestseller by the same name, it records the journey of the author Xie Wanglin (谢旺霖) who has ridden more than 2,000 kilometers to Tibet. Such a wandering story in pursuit of freedom has drawn many young people. During his journey of more than 2,000 kilometers, riding had become as familiar as eating and he had been on the brink of death for several times. He only spent a total of about 1,300 yuan along the whole journey.

KORA tells an extremely simple story. There are not many techniques other than sharp montages. However, the story is enough to touch people with the young director Du Jiayi’s sincerity and a totally strange cast.

4. The Piano in a Factory

Directed by: Zhang Meng (张猛)

In a northeaster city of heavy industry in early 1990s, Chen Guilin (Wang Qianyuan 王千源) who had been laid off by the factory formed a band himself and barely made ends meet by performing in weddings, funerals and opening ceremonies. His wife Xiaoju (Zhang Shenying 张申英) left him for a rich businessman who sold fake drugs. She even wanted to have their daughter back. Suffering from his own failure, Guilin set up his mind to buy his daughter a piano so he could have her with him and he even thought of stealing. After running into a Russian book on piano, he started to make piano by himself at a dilapidated factory with his friends.

From production to casting to technique, every section of the film is quite local and “close to the earth”. A down-to-earth movie can make the audience extremely uncomfortable during the process of watching. Unlike the two most popular kinds of movie of today—commercial blockbusters and thrillers, the audience would curse while they watch and mourn for their not so fat wallets at the same time.

5. Starry Starry Night

Directed by: Lin Shuyu (林书宇)

The 13-year-old girl Xie Xinmei (Xu Jiao 徐娇) lived with her grandpa in a remote mountain. She had a strong attachment to the wooden house and the quiet night sky. One day she had to return to city life with her parents. The cosmopolitan life could not bring her the sense of belonging. Xiaomei made friends with a boy named Zhou Yujie (Lin Huimin 林晖闵) who shared the experience of constant moving. After her parents broke up, Xiaomei decided to go back to the mountain for the starry night with her new friend.

This is a rare Chinese film that features aestheticism. Being aesthetic easily leads to unrealistic. But Starry Starry Night has overcome the problem and the two young actor and actress have done a very good job.

6. Cribug

Directed by: Wang Chuan (王川)

Cribug was a huge mistake of the universe. It was the mission and glory of warriors from both earth and heaven to destroy Cribug every 333 years. In the year 1664 of Cribug era, heavenly deities tried to destroy the sixth generation of Cribug with nuclear weapons but failed. Soon after realizing that the Cribug was still alive, warriors were recruited to irradiate Cribug. At the same time, in the faraway Wowo County, the two monsters Manji and Mandaren were disturbing the villagers’ life greatly.

There have been not a few domestic animations in 2011 with both big and small productions. Unfortunately most of them have lost their investments. Cribug with a medium investment did not recoup the money it had spent by the box office. The movie went off the screen several days after its debut. Nevertheless, most of those who have seen it spoke highly of it and its online rating went above 8. It was indeed a rare good two-dimensional movie in recent years and has filled the gap of domestic hot-blooded movies.

7. My Garden of Eden

Directed by: Sun Xian (孙宪)

The documentary recounts the process of how a black-tailed gull was born and grew up. The gull suffered from the death of its father, brother and at last its mother and became an orphan. In the process it struggled between life and death. Black-tailed gull is a species of seabird along the eastern coast of Asia. They choose the lone islands in the waters of northeastern Asia to breed.

It is the first movie about bird ecosystem in China which was produced by three amateur moviemakers from Weihai, Shandong who spent 7 years on the island. During last year’s Cologne Movie Festival in Germany in September, My Garden of Eden stood out among more than 100 movies and won the award of “People’s Choice” and it won the “Best Documentary” of this year’s Golden Rooster Awards. The hardships of making such a film could be seen on their weathered faces.

8. Wu Xia

Directed by: Chen Kexin (陈可辛)

In 1917, in the LiuVillage in southwestern China, Liu Jinxi (Zhen Zidan 甄子丹) and his wife A Yu (Tang Wei 汤唯) had two sons Fangzheng and Xiaotian. The family led a peaceful life until one day a stranger came to the village. They looted the village and were accidentally killed by Jinxi. Since one of the looters was wanted by the government, Jinxin was awarded as a big hero. However, all of these aroused suspicion of another man Xu Baijiu (Jin Chengwu 金城武) who was a cop. Having found out that the two looters were killed by some kung-fu master, Xu started his investigation and Jinxi’s real identity began to come to the surface.

The biggest characteristic of this year’s movie market is that domestic commercial blockbusters all suffer unexpected setbacks. In this light, Wu Xia directed by Chen Kexin is quite precious which barely passed the test. Moreover, with its novel method, traditional Chinese kung-fu movies have been enriched.

9. Love is Not Blind

Directed by: Teng Huatao (滕华涛)

High-end wedding planner Huang Xiaoxian (Bai Baihe 白百何) could never believe that her boyfriend who she had been together with for seven years hooked up with her best friend. Huang found this unacceptable but did not let it take her down. She bravely coped with the pressure from both work and the failed relationship. Free of relationship, she started to see things other than romance, such as the sissy colleague Wang Xiaojian (Wen Zhang 文章) who had always been her enemy. During the 33 days, she gradually realized that her Mr. Right was just there beside her.

According to Meng Jinghui (孟京辉), the famous director, it is a comedy, but it is not funny. The seemingly not-serious and comical movie addresses to those who are like Huang Xiaoxian and Wang Xiaojian. They still stick to their love ideals in such a grave and chaotic time.

10. The Flowers of War

Directed by: Zhang Yimou (张艺谋)

In Nanking of 1937, the atrocious Japanese army had devastated the city. An international church remained a harbor and the clergy offered refuge for a group of women college students from Jinling (金陵, Nanjing at that time), 12 prostitutes from the Qinhuaihe River who came to escape the war, and 6 soldiers of the national army who climbed out of dead bodies. In confrontation with the massacre, it was the 13 prostitutes who became heroines to protect the students. The Japanese army finally took over the church and was about to take away the college students. The 13 prostitutes who were deemed the lower class of society stood out to go to the celebration party held by Japanese army in replacement of female students. Dressed in student uniforms with hiding scissors inside, they went to the fatal date.

Adapted from a novel by Yan Geling(严歌苓) by the same title, Zhang Yimou’s The Flower of War tells a story during the ghastly Nanjing massacre. A collaborated production of the East and the West, the film is by far the most expensive Chinese movie. It stars the Academy Award winner Christian Bale as the American mortician and several new faces even in China as the group of convent students and prostitutes. Intended to have broad international appeal, the movie has been lauded by most viewers as the director’s best work so far.

With the Chinese Spring Festival just around the corner, it is sure that there will soon be another round of fierce competition in the market of the New Year’s film. While another bunch of films waits to hit the screen, the Festival will be a huge feast for cinema-goers.

sources:

http://ent.qq.com/zt2011/number/index.htm?pgv_ref=aio2012&ptlang=2052

http://news.china.com.cn/rollnews/2011-12/09/content_11651576.htm