Xinhua Insight: China's big-name directors lose game to small fish

Chinese film is exiting a period ruled by a scattering of big-name directors, a change evident this summer as the movie industry's big fish floundered.

Their ticket sales were dwarfed as newcomers like "Monster Hunt" and "Monkey King: Hero is Back", directed by lesser known artists, made history in the world's second largest movie market.

THE SUCCESS OF THE OBSCURE

"Monster Hunt", a domestic live action animated film, is already the highest-grossing Chinese film of all time. Its total box office earnings stood at 2.3 billion yuan (about 362 million U.S. dollars) on Aug. 23 since its debut on July 16.

It outperformed all competitors along the way. For instance, "The Crossing Part 2", directed by John Woo, took in no more than 50 million yuan in the first ten days after opening, while "Monster Hunt" earned nearly 1.3 billion yuan in the same period of time.

Similar to the situation with Woo, Chen Kaige, another iconic figure in China's film industry, also failed to impress the audience with his new film titled "Monk Comes Down the Mountain", which pulled in a mediocre 400 million yuan in 20 days since its release.

The huge box office success of "Monster Hunt" was accompanied by an animated feature "Monkey King: Hero is Back," a 3D animated adaption of the classical epic "Journey to the West," which raked in about 900 million yuan in one month's run after opening on July 10. Also directed by a newcomer, the latter become the most successful domestic animation of all time.

SMALL CITIES COUNT

The success of the lesser known directors was not achieved by a stroke of luck, according to Rao Shuguang, secretary of the China Film Association. He said it indicated a delicate change in the industry.

Rao attributed the change partly to the spreading of theaters from big cities to small cities and townships.

"People in those places do not grow up seeing the films of big name directors like Feng and Chen."

"Small town audiences do not have a personal touch with big name directors because they rarely have the chance to attend the promotional activities by renowned directors or shake hands with the famed actors or actress featuring in their works."

As many of the cinemas in small cities or townships were closed due to fierce competition from television and reforms within the film industry in the 1990s, most of the moviegoers were urbanites in big cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou in the past one to two decades.

However, the picture has changed. According to a report published by China Film News, by the end of 2014, the total box office of small cities and township had surpassed that of big cities for the first time.

YOUNG AUDIENCE IS THE KEY

Rao also believes big name directors failed to win young audiences because youngsters who grew up with the Internet were not natural fans of the renowned directors.

Zhang Yiwu, a film critic who is also a professor with Peking University, agrees. Zhang said the younger generation of directors rose because their works cater to the taste of younger audiences who are more likely to enjoy real-life stories, comedies in particular.

"The generational shift in China's film industry has been completed," Zhang said, adding the changing times mean more opportunities for new directors and movie stars.

China Film News also revealed that almost 85 percent of film audiences are aged between 18 and 35, with the group between 18 and 25 taking up 35.77 percent of the total.

"The market had been taken over by young people, who might not be interested in the narrative of older generation of directors," said Rao.

He said films made by big name directors like Woo are still of high quality, but they might not fit in with current trends.

However, the change does not necessarily meant the future for reputed directors is grim. If they adapt to the trend, they can still grab big success, according to Rao.

He suggested reputed directors try to blend their personal styles with real-life stories to meet the demand of youngsters. Endi