You might heard of the Chinese New year Gala on CCTV on the eve of the new year. Have you heard “Lunar New Year films”? According to Wikipedia. The tradition started in Hong Kong in the 1980s. In recent years, it became a much more popular tradition than the New Year Gala. Many young people will use the LNY holiday time (normally a week) to go to the cinema to watch movies. This is also a big business opportunities for the movie industry.
Last year, because of the COVID zero policy, there was very few films for the Lunar New Year holiday. But this year, there are quite a few.
Man jiang hong, literally translated as “Full river of red”, is a specific format of Chinese poetry that was very popular in the Song dynasty. It is also referred to as the one poem allegedly written by Yue Fei, a famous Song general who defended the South Song dynasty against invaders from the north, but was framed by Chancellor Qin Hui and murdered in prison. Yue Fei and Qin Hui are historical figures that everyone in China knows. The poem was likely written much later in history but was attributed to Yue Fei. During the Sino-Japanese war, Jiang Jieshi, the leader of the Republic of China, compared himself to Yue Fei, and the poem Man Jiang Hong became very popular. Anyone educated in the period of the Republic of China has learned the poem by heart and can also sing a song of this poem.
This year, the most famous Chinese film directer Zhang Yimou made his LNY movie with the title “Man Jiang Hong” Full river red. It is about a fictitious story that happened 4 years after Yue Fei died in prison. It is a suspense comedy. You can watch the trailers on YouTube and trailer 2.
The cast is impressive, with Jackson Yee:
Yee ranked 8th on Forbes China Celebrity 100 list in 2019, and 1st in 2020 and 2021. According to Chinese media reports, he is currently one of the most commercially valuable stars in China.
And Shen Teng:
From Feb 2021 until Jan 2023, Shen had been the Chinese actor with the most box-office value. But his position was taken over by another actor, Wu Jing for a while. Now that Man Jiang Hong became Box-office number 1, it is very likely that Shen Teng has returned to be “the Chinese actor with the most box-office value”.
The public reactions to the suspense comedy are what Chinese people outside China are impressed at.
The first reaction is the young people shouting the poem (with cell phone prompt) right after the movie showing was finished. You can see some footage [on twitter here and there, and there.
Just as the Sino-Japanese period, the poem was used to shore up patriotism, the poem is used the same way. You might wonder, who is the invader these days?
In last year’s Big Patriotic movie, “The Battle at Lake Changjin”, (we talked about it in our newsletter 10 ), it was the Americans.
The second reaction is that people are lashing out at Qin Hui, the chancellor of Song that killed Yue Fei. Apparently, there are a few statues of Qin Hui kneeling down in various locations in China. People lined up in front of the statues to beat him up. One video went viral. This reminded many people that during the cultural revolution Qin Hui and Yue Fei’s statues were all destroyed. History repeats itself in China.
Wandering Earth 2 is a sequel to Wandering Earth, which was also a box-office winner. The movies were based on science fiction novel by Liu Cixin, who also wrote the Three Body Problem, which was recently made into TV series (see Newsletter 113 ).
Wandering Earth series is about an imagined crisis a few decades in the future. Earth was about to be destroyed. China led the world out of the crisis. The main strategy is: abandon half of the population, in both movies. And of course, only China can achieve that.
The special effects are admired by fans. The cast is also stellar. The lead actor of the Wandering Earth series is Wu Jing. He is the lead actor and director of Wolf Warrior and Wolf Warrior 2, both are about how the Chinese government saved Chinese citizens outside China.
Wu Jing is now the human face of peak patriotism in China.
Li Xuejian is a veteran actor who used to play revolutionary hero in Chinese cinema. In this movie, he played a wise old senior leader of China. His image is eerily similar to Zhou Enlai, the premier of China in Mao’s era:
And a very famous and popular Hong Kong actor, Andy Lau, played the scientist.
You can watch the trailer on YouTube.
Boonie Bears: Guardian Code is an animated science fiction comedy film, it is the ninth movie coming out from the Boonie Bears franchise, a very popular TV series starting in 2012. They were my children’s favourites when they were toddlers. People predicted that the box-office has potential to grow because families will come back to watch it as days pass.
You can watch the trailer.
Hidden Blade is an espionage thriller featuring famous Hong Kong actor Tony Leung and popular singer/actor Wang Yibo. The film was praised for the authentic Shanghai dialogue of its characters and good acting.
The story is in the Sino-Japanese war era. The trailer is on YouTube.
Deep Sea is a 3-D fantasy animation movie with a little girl as the main character. The directer, Tian Xiaopeng spent 7 years to make this movie. So far all the reviews I saw about the movie are positive.
A comedy about a boy who got a machine that can make any of his wishes come true. He wished to be the boyfriend of his favourite girl. And as he wished, his life was exchanged with the girl’s boyfriend, a middle aged man.
On Feb 2nd, the local authority gave a press conference describing the details of the scene where Hu’s body was found and announced that Hu indeed died of suicide.
Chinese internet would not accept it. People cast doubt on whether a shoe lace can withstand Hu’s weight. Some explained why the clothes was backwards - because it was put on after Hu died.
Some commented: a country that can not save the woman in chain or a 15 year old boy, boasted that it can save the earth (movies Wandering Earth).