China Entertainment King of Science Fiction

Chapter 371 Another Spring Festival

The news that "Gravity" won the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film and that Chen Jingxing won the Best Director almost instantly caused waves on social platforms.

The broadcast time of the Golden Globe Awards ceremony happens to be on the morning of working days in China, so both the media and netizens have enough time to keep up with the heat, participate in topic discussions, and even add fuel to the fire.

It should be said that among the several awards it won, the one that caused the biggest stir was actually Chen Jingxing’s Best Director Award.

After all, "Gravity" is different from "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" seventeen years ago, and the best foreign language film is more of an icing on the cake.

As a science fiction masterpiece with a global box office of over 1 billion U.S. dollars, it has set a box office record for foreign films in North America, holds the box office record for Chinese films, is China’s first space science fiction film, and has won the Golden Globe Award for so many other films.

The Best Foreign Language Film award does not favor "Gravity" much.

Before the awards, the media and netizens would be buzzing and amazed that "Gravity" was nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film, but after it actually won the award, the reaction of public opinion was not that shocking.

Domestic netizens and media are mainly concerned about Chen Jingxing's best director.

This is the second influential international award that Chen Jingxing has won. The first was the Gold Award at the Orlando Fantasy Film Festival.

But obviously in terms of authority and recognition, Orlando cannot compare with the Golden Globe Awards.

And whether you recognize the authority of the Golden Globe Awards or not, it is broadcast in more than 70 countries around the world, and its influence covering billions of viewers cannot be erased.

For a long time, science fiction movies have been outsiders in film awards. Not only comic-book movies have been ignored by film awards for a long time, but even relatively strong science fiction works like Chen Jingxing have found it difficult to win recognition from awards.

Therefore, questions such as "Can Chen Jingxing be ranked among the top ten directors in the world?" arise again.

Even though last year's "Mermaid" depleted Mr. Xing's reputation and accumulated reputation, the theme of "Journey to the West" made up for this loss on the other hand.

Just like in Chen Jingxing's previous life, high-scoring commercial films such as "Operation Red Sea" and "The Wandering Earth" won the Golden Rooster Award and the Hundred Flowers Award for Best Director and Best Picture. Many people gave these two films four or five stars.

It was difficult for them to accept the awards for these two films.

God knows, Feng Xiaogang started his career by relying on "kitsch".

This has nothing to do with whether they like DreamWorks' science fiction works.

Even though DreamWorks is not responsible for the distribution of "Tang Detective II", with the efforts of United Cinemas and Chengya Pictures, Chen Jingxing still agreed to support "Tang Detective II".

Although "The Return of the Great Sage" has created a reputation as a movie, the subject matter of its animated film has still set a ceiling for it, so DreamWorks cannot relax its distribution.

No one will criticize a commercial movie as kitsch after it becomes a huge success.

"Journey to the West: Conquer the Demons" bears the name of Xing Ye, and is promoted to the outside world as a sequel to the 2012 "Journey to the West: Conquer the Demons". Director Xu Laoguai and popular A-list superstar Luo Chen join the cast, which can be said to be a strong alliance.

Of course, this is not to say that screenings have not been effective. DreamWorks has not invested much marketing expenses for this year’s Spring Festival release. If it were not for screenings, I am afraid that there would not be many films scheduled at all.

It is an affirmation of Chen Jingxing’s identity as a science fiction film director and an affirmation of all the science fiction films he has made.

After all, the Spring Festival period, a must-win period for many film companies, is approaching.

In addition to "The Return of the Great Sage", "Tang Detective II" directed by Chen Sicheng also has investment from DreamWorks. Since there is investment, there is no way to be a hands-off shopkeeper.

This idea has changed somewhat after "Gravity". Film is an audio-visual language, and "Gravity" has almost achieved the ultimate in visual and audio.

Chen Jingxing has already won the Golden Globe Award for Best Director. It would be no problem to award domestic film awards to him. Science fiction movies can also explore serious propositions, not just fantasy floating in the air, but also criticism of human society and reality.

Sex will not be weaker than those artistic masterpieces praised by literary and artistic young people.

Do you think a movie like this is artistic?

After "The Matrix" was released, there were even more discussions like this, and many fans even began to "reverse the verdict" on the genre of science fiction movies.

Now, this argument of Chen Jingxing's fans and supporters of science fiction movies has received strong support from reality from the Golden Globe Award for Best Director.

Voices such as "The Golden Rooster Awards have no integrity" and "Chinese film art is finished" are endless.

In recent years, the Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Awards have frequently awarded the grand prize to Chen Jingxing. In the eyes of many people, the appearance is actually a bit ugly.

In the eyes of many people, the Golden Globe Award for Best Director not only praises Chen Jingxing's work in "Gravity", but also includes "The Matrix", "Source Code", "Fatal Identity" and many other science fiction movies.

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However, Chen Jingxing himself seemed to be very low-key. He did not post any "award speech" on Weibo after winning the award. He also refused many media interviews and quietly returned to China.

Love is love, praise is praise, but this is all within the evaluation system of commercial movies.

However, in terms of public opinion, senior movie fans, professional film critics and the industry have criticized Chen Jingxing's frequent awards at the Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers for his works in the past two years.

The difference is that when Feng Xiaogang first emerged with Feng's comedy, the film and cultural circles, from authorities to mainstream critics, criticized his films for being kitsch and vulgar, insulting the reputation of Chinese directors and destroying the tradition of Chinese film art.

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This is a form that the mainstream literary and art circles in China have rarely seen before, and it has also shocked many people.

It even expresses criticism of reality from a philosophical level without reflecting reality.

That is to say, China's official awards are relatively "open" to the subject matter of movies due to various considerations such as cultural output and main themes, and can be regarded as without any discrimination.

After more than ten years of development of the Chinese film market industry, the debate between art and commerce in the cultural world has not yet decided a winner, but in fact commercial films have won a complete victory.

Such science fiction movies cannot directly reflect reality or criticize reality, but they can explore the philosophical monuments that have been established at the pinnacle of humankind's mind over thousands of years of history.

Absolutely no one at that time, including Feng Xiaogang himself, could have imagined that more than ten years later there would be a day when Feng Xiaogang would bombard the audience with low aesthetic standards.

China only broadcast the event online and it was considered low-key. Japan, South Korea, Siam and other countries all broadcast the entire event on TV stations.

China's cultural circles, including the film and television circles, have been deeply influenced by the European New Wave movement. Even in the past ten years, the government has vigorously promoted the development of commercial films, but the deep-rooted film art evaluation standards have not changed.

However, the top-level art evaluation system has not been shaken. Even senior movie fans who rated Chen Jingxing's movie with a full five-star rating on Douban still adhere to this system.

Not even one or two.

At that time, the debate between film art and commerce was very hot in the literary and art circles, and there were a lot of articles criticizing Feng Xiaogang's kitsch in newspapers and magazines.

It does not mean that a good-looking commercial film should be recognized by awards, and it should be recognized by authoritative awards.

Although "Tang Detective II" has accumulated a good reputation from the first film and explored the film genre of detective comedy, coupled with the support of DreamWorks, it has gained considerable momentum during the Spring Festival.

What are the top three award-winning films in Europe like? Can you imagine a film like "Source Code" winning Cannes and Venice awards?

Just like it's hard to imagine a superhero movie winning the Oscar for Best Picture.

"The Matrix" has very probing philosophical issues buried under its superficially stimulating audio-visual language and action scenes.

But the competitors are not weak either. Cheng Long's kung fu comedy "Kung Fu Yoga" and "Journey to the West: Conquering the Monsters" produced by Xing Ye and directed by Xu Laoguai are both very strong competitors.

Even fans of Chen Jingxing are not without guilty consciences. Even fans who love science fiction movies also have the idea that science fiction movies and film art are indeed incompatible.

Movies with high artistic achievements must at least reflect society and human nature, and be realistic and critical, right? You've been flying around, where's the realism?

It is not reality at all. How can we criticize reality and reflect reality?

Does even the great science fiction movie "Star Wars" have anything to do with reality?

Isn’t this kind of movie without artistry?

Use the form of utopia or dystopia to directly explore grand philosophical propositions, and then impose warnings or criticisms on real human society.

And "Kung Fu Yoga" is the movie that Cheng Long has invested the most in recent years. It claims to reshape Long's kung fu comedy, and many stars have joined the cast. Even the audience who have been a little tired of Cheng Long in recent years mustered up their last courage.

Prepare to support your big brother again.

With such a lineup, even "Tang Detective II" cannot guarantee that it will be ranked first in the film schedule. The media even exclaimed that this year's Spring Festival schedule is even more crowded than last year.

"The strongest Spring Festival show in history" was undoubtedly called out by the media again.

It's no wonder that the animated movie "The Return of the Great Sage" suddenly gained a lot of buzz after being screened, making the producers of several major movies a little nervous. There really wasn't enough meat.

(End of chapter)