MCLC: worst blockbuster ever

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: kirk (denton.2 at osu.edu)
Subject: worst blockbuster ever
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Source: China Real Time, WSJ (3/20/13):
http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2013/06/20/awfully-successful-is-this-ch
inas-worst-blockbuster-ever/

Awfully Successful: Is This China’s Worst Blockbuster Ever?

With movie makers worldwide struggling to discover the formula for success
in China’s lucrative film market, one domestically made spy thriller
appears to have stumbled its way into a winning strategy: just be
ridiculously bad.

“Switch,” the story of a top Chinese secret agent battling multinational
mobsters to recover a precious painting, has only been in theaters for a
little over a week and is already considered by some to be one of the
worst Chinese blockbusters to ever lurch its way across the silver screen.

Yet it has continued to pull in movie-goers, beating out Paramount’s “Star
Trek: Into Darkness” to sit atop the Chinese box office – a result that
has left more than a few in the industry scratching their heads.

Reportedly filmed at a cost of 160 million yuan ($26 million), “Switch”
was among the most hotly anticipated films of the summer. It boasts a
star-studded cast headlined by A-listers Andy Lau and Lin Chi-ling, and
counts state-owned companies China Movie Channel and China Film Group
among its producers. It also features 3D special effects overseen by Chuck
Comisky, famous for his work on “Avatar,” and was shot in luxurious
locations around the globe, including the Burj Al Arab hotel in Dubai.

The hype helped it pull in 46 million yuan ($7.8 million) on its opening
day, the third-highest opening-day total in history for a local film,
according to media research firm Entgroup.

But disappointment in everything from the film’s plot to its casting and
editing has also earned it some of the lowest scores in the history of
online viewer ratings: On Mtime.com and Douban.com, China’s two leading
film review websites, “Switch” had scored user ratings of 2.3 and 2.9
respectively by late Wednesday.

Mtime describes any film with a rating below 3.0 as “incredibly bad,
simply a waste of time.” On a list of the worst-rated Chinese films of all
time compiled by Mtime on a request from China Real Time (in Chinese
<http://movie.mtime.com/list/103.html>), “Switch” finishes at No. 8,
behind a handful of low-budget films so obscure that only one received
more than a thousand ratings (versus nearly 20,000 for “Switch”).

“Cherish your life and keep away from this film,” read one comment
<http://my.mtime.com/1897931/12gqJ/> on Mtime. “Why aren’t we allowed to
give scores below zero here?” asked a Douban user
<http://movie.douban.com/review/6015738/>.

Some of the filmmaking decisions in “Switch” are indeed confusing. At the
end of one action sequence, the film briefly and for no apparent reason
cuts away to show a leather-clad Japanese mobster and his female
subordinate (played by Ms. Lin) acting out a sadomasochistic fantasy.
Later on, Ms. Lin’s character dies in a shower of blood only to appear a
short while later fighting on the side of the Chinese hero, her miraculous
resurrection left unexplained.

“Not all films with high earnings have positive reviews,” said Yue Yang,
director of TV& Film department of China Film Channel, which pre-bought
the online and TV rights to “Switch.” “Different audiences have different
tastes and needs. Some prefer art films while others prefer films with
grand visual impact.”

What has most surprised industry watchers is the fact that the film has
continued to make money even after its first weekend. It earned 236
million yuan ($38.3 million) in its first week and had taken in a total of
271 million yuan as of Tuesday, according to Ent Group .

“Switch” isn’t the first Chinese blockbuster to win at the box office
despite a flood of criticism — though even “The Promise,” a financially
successful but widely reviled 2005 period drama by leading director Chen
Kaige, enjoys ratings above 4.0 on both Douban and Mtime.

Industry figures say the terrible reviews, amplified by social media, are
driving a significant portion of the interest in “Switch” – a sign that
Chinese movie goers have started to embrace the so-bad-it’s-good aesthetic
behind so many Hollywood cult classics.

“After reading so many sharp and funny comments about how terrible this
film is, I cannot wait to go to the cinema and see how bad it really is,”
one Weibo user wrote <http://weibo.com/2015648633/zAYVgxs5q>, in a
sentiment repeated widely online.

“Weibo enables everyone to join in on blasting the film and turns it into
a public carnival.” said Zhao Pengxiao, a film director who teaches in the
Beijing Film Academy. “Many people go to watch the film simply to join the
fun and avoid being regarded as out of fashion.”

Some analysts say “Switch” is benefitting from rising demand in the
world’s second-largest movie market for blockbusters. It also helps, they
say, that the movie was released at a time when “Star Trek” was the only
major Hollywood film playing.

Local media reports
<http://news.xinhuanet.com/newmedia/2013-06/07/c_124826734.htm> say
China’s film regulator pulled DreamWorks Animation’s high-grossing “The
Croods” from theaters one week before the three-day Dragon Boat Festival
holiday – two weeks early than scheduled. The State General Administration
of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television, which has ultimate say
over film release schedules, did not immediately respond to a request for
comment.

– Lilian Lin. Follow her on Twitter @LilianLinyigu
<http://twitter.com/LilianLinyigu>