Cinema Roundup

For Chinese cinema, 2007 was a year characterized by outstanding performance on the foreign festival circuit. If the events of the first months of 2008 are anything to go by, we can expect more of the same.

Hoping to get in on some of that action is director Wang Xiaoshuai. His new movie, In Love We Trust, is in competition at the 58th Berlin International Film Festival later this month. The story focuses on a distraught mother who goes to unusual lengths to try and save her child who is suffering from cancer. The film will face tough competition from Paul Thomas Anderson’s already critically acclaimed There Will Be Blood, but it would be great to see Wang go one better than his movie Beijing Bicycle did, which won the Silver Bear at the same festival back in 2000. Also screening at Berlin (those Germans just can’t get enough of Chinese films) is Johnnie To’s Sparrow. To has suggested that his new film will have more romance and a kind of child-like innocence – quite a change from his shockingly brutal triad movies Election and Election II. The film follows the fortunes of a pickpocket, played by Hong Kong heartthrob Ren Dahua who also starred as the ruthless mob boss in the Election movies.

Someone well used to basking in the accolades of film festivals is Wong Kar Wai, but his most recent cinematic effort received lukewarm reviews from critics. Part of the reason, as the director recently suggested, might have been that he instructed first-time actress Norah Jones not to undertake acting lessons so that he could “capitalize on her inexperience.” After watching her performance you’ll probably agree that she should stick with singing.

But it’s not awards that make a film successful, as Peter Chan is well aware. With a distinct lack of American blockbusters to compete with, heroic action flick The Warlords was able to rake in a hefty RMB 260 million (USD 35.7 million) in ticket sales from December to early January, making it the highest grossing Chinese film for 2007 and only the second film ever to gross over RMB 200 million domestically.

Another homegrown talent looking to make a pretty penny at the box office is Stephen Chow. The Kung Fu Hustle and Shaolin Soccer actor-director is set to release his latest film, CJ7, over the Spring Festival period. The film is a departure from Chow’s usual cinematic fare, with trademark kung fu-slapstick style being replaced with a sci-fi flavor, to tell the tale of a down-on-his-luck dad who discovers a strange toy from another planet ... Expect big laughs, and huge box office takings from Chow’s homage to Stephen Spielberg.