Chinese cinema, a domestic steamroller with limited international projection

China It aspires to become a dominant power in the coming years and sees in the cinema a great showcase for its soft power, but propaganda and the peculiarities of the Chinese market sometimes get in the way of a greater international reception.

The Chinese box office ousted the United States in 2020 thanks to the fact that the Asian giant’s cinemas are having a better performance during the pandemic, although the greatest successes have been starred in productions aimed at a domestic audience.

Among them, epics such as “The Battle of Lake Changjin” – narrates the intervention of Chinese soldiers in the Korean War -, which is already the highest grossing film in the history of the country after collecting 6,000 million yuan (about US $ 900 million or 800 million euros).

The authorities want the cinema to represent “socialist values”, with which these films are even shown in schools and are protected from criticism such as those of a former journalist who this year ended up arrested for “attacking the honor” of the soldiers who fell in that battle.

“The highest-grossing films of recent years have been ‘red issues’ or were very general like the comedy ‘Hi mum’. They all conform to political correctness, ”expert Sun Yao, manager of a projection room, told EFE.

Even renowned filmmakers such as Zhang Yimou – awarded at the Cannes and Berlin festivals – have taken up this “trend”, with the recent premiere of “Cliff Walkers”, a ‘thriller’ set in the Japanese occupation, and soon that of ” The Coldest Gun, ”focused on a Chinese sniper who, during the same Korean War, killed or wounded 214 US soldiers.

Censorship and lack of creativity

For Sun, the most commercial Chinese films do not succeed abroad for political and cultural reasons, since they are intended to move Chinese audiences with elements that are difficult to translate to an international audience.

“China does not produce a ‘Squid Game’ – a series from neighboring South Korea – due to censorship and a lack of creativity and experience. But art has no borders and Chinese artists do not necessarily have obstacles to success abroad, as the last Oscar testifies to the filmmaker Chloe Zhao ”, he points out.

Directors such as Wang Zhe believe that creators should not blame restrictions for their failures: “In the past, great works of art have been made under censorship,” she believes, and blames the limited projection on the “lack of maturity” of the film. industry, which must “abandon empty productions.”

In China, they are betting on family comedies and romantic entanglements that are limited to fulfilling mere commercial expectations, which causes, according to Sun, that the quality drops “without stopping”.

But this was not always the case: in the 1990s, a time of greater creative freedom, Chinese filmmakers achieved notable international success with films such as “Live!”, “Hero” or “The Red Lantern” by the aforementioned Zhang Yimou.

And in 1993, Chen Kaige’s “Farewell to My Concubine” became the first Chinese film to win the Palme d’Or at Cannes.

Later, one of the most prominent directors appeared, Jia Zhangke, who narrates the adventures of miners, factory workers or pickpockets who have to deal with the frantic development of the country in films such as “Still life” (2006) or “A touch of violence ”(2013), exhibited in Cannes or Venice.

More recently, in 2019, the science fiction film “The Wandering Earth”, based on the novel by Liu Cixin, was one of the Chinese titles with the highest projection thanks to its being shown on Netflix, as well as one of the best exponents of this genre that Beijing supports to promote innovation.

Other filmmakers have opted for more risky styles, as exemplified by the monumental “An Elephant Sitting Still” (234 minutes), by director Hu Bo, who committed suicide after finishing filming, or the dreamlike “Long Journey Into Night”, by Bi Gan, whose magical realism was compared to the work of Gabriel García Márquez.

But thematic restrictions are always present: Wang Bing, who produced a nine-hour documentary on deindustrialization in 2001, had to collaborate with European production companies in 2018 to put out “Dead Souls,” a film about Chinese re-education camps that it was also screened at Cannes.

Parallel industries

The existing barriers between the local and international celluloid industry also do not help viewers from other countries to discover “hidden gems” among Chinese productions or for a global phenomenon like “The Squid Game” to emerge from China.

It is difficult to find Chinese movies on platforms such as Netflix, which in turn is not available in the Asian country, where local portals compete with little foreign competition.

This absence is due to government obstacles, but also to the competitive local market, dominated by platforms such as Bilibili or iQiyi – backed by digital giants such as Tencent – that offer content at very low prices.

Netflix productions such as “House of Cards” have reached China through third parties such as iQiyi, which canceled an agreement with the US firm arguing that its contents “did not work well.”

And in commercial theaters, the Chinese government only allows a maximum of 34 foreign premieres a year, despite which the market remains tempting for Hollywood, which has seen how some of its ‘blockbusters’ have been more successful in China than in any other part, as happened with the “Transformers” saga or the “Avatar” rerun.

But this also causes some to exercise self-censorship, according to the country’s press: “I have to praise the James Bond films. They never mess with China because the Chinese market is huge. The power of Chinese consumption is our strength “, the Global Times newspaper ironically after the premiere of” No time to die. “