Why are Modern Chinese Movies so Bad | Video Essay
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 9 ก.พ. 2025
- Accented Cinema - Episode 9
Chinese movie sucks.
Even your average Chinese would admit, there hasn't been many good Chinese films in recent years. But most of them aren't bad because they are lazy cash grabs. In fact, quite the opposite. Often times, they look expensive.
So what went wrong? In this episode, I'll offer my take on why Chinese films went downhill and how to fix it.
And if you are into GOOD Chinese films, go to your local cinema and watch "Wandering Earth"
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"Suddenly, so many more people could make movies, but not everyone had a story to tell." That is a fantastic quote.
Just because you can doesn't mean you should.
yee exactly.
Its the same with music.
This channel generates memorable quotes like a factory
The Hall of Milieur in Versailles !
"How come American actions heroes can take bullets and keep going but not Chinese ones?"
Training in American public schools
Thats dark lol
Tiananmen Square:You sure about that?
@@AureliusLaurentius1099 but you gotta keep a good training routine.
@@kevinkuang2292 They're making a return in Hong Kong dont worry.
I'm looking forward to T Square 2 which I'm sure wil be happening shortly in the HK airport.
Warning: 90% of the comments are about the inspiration of the Hall of Mirror in Versailles
I guess you could say they were inspired by the hall of mirrors in Versailles.
but what about the droid attack on the wookiees inspired by the hall of mirrors in Versailles
shit actually gave me a fucking headache
@@haden1575 no that was Johnny English inspired by the hall of mirrors in Versailles
Sadly, I wanted thoughtful conversation in the comments too as I love Hong Kong Cinema since I was a kid.......
Inspired by Japanese RPGs, which were inspired by Western Tabletop RPGs, which were inspired by JRR Tolkein, which were inspired by Hall of Mirror in Versailles
Not gonna lie you had me going in the first half xDDD
Ya got me good.
Your comment just made my day XD.
VERRRSAAII
Here I was going to say that JRR Tolkien was inspired by Finnish Mythology...which was inspired by The Mirrored Hall of Versailles!
The moral of the story:
Be inspired by the Hall of Mirror in Versailles
I'm now inspired by the Hall of Mirror in Versailles.
*Ho of miler in vasie*
and Donald Trump's bathroom
HAHA I laughed
Well I have to admit that Versailles is beautiful
In Conclusion:
We were inspired by the Hall of Mirrors in Versaille
Versailles*
You get to watch it again.
Get OUT!
@@boulderbash19700209 Get IN!
We wer inspai by the hor of mirrer in vasai.
*BOOB JIGGLES*
The scene showing Jack Ma beating a trained fighter just showz that money beats everything.
SvRona 762 lmao
Jeezus. I still remember the interview on stage he shared with Elon Musk. Ma was an incredible idiot.
@@yadevk8025 Imagine Elon Musk starred in a film and he beats Triple H.
He would be a bigger meme, in which actually Elon Musk's life essence: money and popular support through meme.
@Duck Cat lol and wtf does being rich have anything to do with it? There are plenty of poeple richer than me, and you, and more than 90 percent of the world. This is no exaggeration.
Either way, Elon thought him an idiot, and was basically dismissive in the interview.
@Duck Cat Also, if you don't understand a topic, then you don't talk about it as if you understand it. It's like anti-vaxers not vaxicinating their kids, and their kids die, makes the parents nothing more than murderers and idiots.
“it’s like a middle schooler trying really hard to impress you.”
what’s worse is that sometimes they are not even trying to impress you, they treat you like a middle schooler and think you’ll be impressed by whatever shxt they present.
-as a chinese audience i am pissed
To grow you have to get the masses onboard, and the masses have terrible tastes. I've seen this "movie" in so many sectors. From the tech industry to the automobile industry. If you don't conform, you'll die. Then there won't be a story for you to tell. I've seen tremendous progress in the viewing standards of the Chinese audience, and thus better script writing and cinematography in Chinese films. Baby steps, one at a time.
@@littledovecitydust that is true. there is definitely growth, as there is the increasing demand for actually good stories/films from Chinese audience, and the sincere, quality stories are starting to get what they deserve (maybe like hi mom that was just released this month...?)
@@aprilvalleysdmt the cultural mentality is also different. Chinese audience are not sitting at home watching love flicks or documentaries, they are looking for high energy action movies to have a blast with. I don't think there's a culture to watch a movie in the theater that doesn't have explosions in them.
@@littledovecitydust that is an interesting point I haven't considered before, not too sure about the accuracy though...? it might just be the general preference of the majority since things like explosions give the most straightforward satisfaction that does not require further processing? and again, I think there are increasing amount of criticism toward the lack of effort in the industry, and the average/overall taste or demand of Chinese audience is an increasingly complicated topic to discuss (which I do not feel like I have the sufficient knowledge for).
@@aprilvalleysdmt it's called the Upstart Syndrome. Give them ten years, they will demand more arty stuff.
My professor made us watch "Raise the Red Lantern" back when we were studying Chinese Architectural history. And it was beautiful. Slow-paced yet nuanced. It kept me at the edge of my seat anticipating what happens next. It's probably my favorite Chinese film I've seen so far.
Sadly it's the same situation in the Philippines. Mainstream cinema is trying so hard to replicate Hollywood and American pop culture that we're forgetting to tell our own stories as a people. That's why I prefer watching indie Filipino movies not only because they're more artistic but they're also relevant narratives.
Indonesian horror industry is a cesspool of trash, the action is pretty good, and the romance is great at best but normally a pile of shit
> That's why I prefer watching indie Filipino movies not only because they're more artistic but they're also relevant narrative.
Same can be said about American indie movies.
i've seen more lav diaz films than i've seen mainstream filipino movies
Mainstream filmmakers trying to make films with their iconic celebrities despite the movie story was really Bad
Making Filipino movie goee looks dumb
Make Filipino Cinema Great Again
This video is inspired by the Hall of Mirror in Versailles
Hall of Mueller
I heard the Whore of miller. There's no L
this is funnier that than joke
@@ericthemadscientist8357 Nah.
“Don’t be Versailles. Be China, because no one can make a better Chinese story”
Damn this one hit me
dude I know, I'm not chinese and it still made me wanna tear up like THAT'S RIGHT, NO ONE ELSE CAN DAMNIT T_T
How many times have you been hit by someone’s quote
And no one has made a better Chinese story. There are plenty of good examples. This video was just trying to point out the bad ones so hopefully they all go away and all we're left with are the good ones.
I remember how the animated movie Kung Fu Panda surprised a lot of Chinese because it was so good and was made by foreigners. I remember reading an article how people asked "why is it people outside of china make better movies of china, than the Chinese?"
Be like Donald trumps bathroom
It's even worse that Chinese cinema is trying to copy Hollywood when most mainstream Hollywood movies seem to be more creatively bankrupt than they used to be. So it's like you're doubling the lack of creativity.
*laughs because reality is funny*
Well many industries have ups and downs. Just cause modern Hollywood is in a slump doesn't mean it will be later. New Ideas and creativity is introduced as time goes on or certain elements replaced. For example. Minority groups have been pushing there own production companies that are slowly working its way into Hollywood. In time many might replace the current ones and then new stories might be introduced. They may however depict a different picture of the United States than the one that's been known for the last 100 years of cinema.
@@Quetzalcoatl_Feathered_Serpent maybe,cartoon saloon has made some good animated movies tho
Of course, nothings ever as good as it used to be. Everything is garbage now and whatever came out when you were 20 is solid gold. These videos are pretty cherry picked, much like people's general critique of anything. People conveniently ignore that the giant blockbuster movies are not the only movies getting made. Two movies highlighted here(exclusively because they have scenes in China) are "Her" and "Looper", not exactly creatively bankrupt. And many of the deeper story lines are better portrayed in TV series. There's garbage now, but there are gems like "Breaking Bad" and "The Americans"
Oh Hollywood has plenty of ideas and a warehouse of read yet unused scripts. The problem is they have to sell what would make the most money to the lowest common denominator. They can make a beautiful movie, but what they think is beautiful is a big return on the investment. That's why movies in the 80's was huge, because the birth of special effects and suspension of reality made it so appealing. It's why we can't replicate the same movies today, because we learned to make better films or we evolved from that standard. China is just trying to copy the image and they're just falling flat worse than whenever we make a long awaited sequel from a movie that aired 20 or 30 years ago.
I'm starting to believe that this video is inspired by the by the Hall of Mirror in Versalles
In Versayy
We were inspired by the Hall of Mirrors in VERsailles
We are Versailles version......
in poor way XD
I actually liked old Chinese films. These new Chinese films are just rich ppl flexing their money. All their movies look like it was made with Final Fantasy in mind.
Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee brought China to Hollywood and that was that hey. Their Kung Fu movies used to be the Shhhiiii
@@Similo wrong. You are talking about Hong Kong movies not China movies. Big difference.
Eric Lau wow really?! 🙈😆 okay cool I meant Hong Kong movies from China.
@@Similo the thing you have to understand is that Hong Kong only belongs to China since 1997. It was a British colony before that. Hong Kong movies from that era thus are really not movies from China.
Hey! Final Fantasy games are great. Show some respect.
When I was a kid, whenever a Chinese movie came on the local television channels, the entire family would gather to watch it. As a Korean family, my dad would tell me about all these names of amazing martial arts actors who starred in amazing movies and what kind of skills they used - he grew up with them after all when Korea didn't have anything resembling a movie industry and it was China's unique myriad of movies that took to the screens.
Now when a Chinese movie comes up on the cable Television I have now, we make a grasp for the remote to change the channel. How the great has fallen... I hope they really get their act up soon.
Hey bro, mind me asking you which year you were born?
Chinese movies had so much awe and wonder to them, all with mostly practical effects. The would show amazing architecture of the old cities, tell stories of life in China that somehow felt contemporary and realistic. But, much like Hollywood, Chinese cinema has become plastic and fake.
One of my favourite trilogy was *36th Chamber of Shaolin* which is not a Jackie film but still I like this triology and the story feels like yes it's from China and is telling us about how Wars have been going through China and why Shaolin don't interfere much in it as all 3 movie shows a different generation
@벌주는 사람 thank you for the reply!
I'd rather watch kdramas instead
This Video Essay is proudly sponsored by the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles.
Conclusion: don’t be inspired by hall of mirror in Versailles
Wrong. Conclusion is: BE inspired by the hall of mirrors in Versailles and look at yourself. And be yourself.
@@JaniceHope No. The conclusion is be inspired by your own stories and your own culture and your own experiences. Tell your own stores, and don't just blindly imitate other peoples.
I want to write some comments, but my head just full of "We were inspired by the Hall of Mirror in Versailles". Good job to you...
@Abhijeet Kundu Jinke Ghar Sishe ke hote he, Woh Basement ME Kapde badlte he.
huehuehue
@@jenimarai1906 how much free time do u have , u r every where
"Don't be Versailles, be China, because no one can tell a better China story."
That line hit me aa;slkdjf
I mean didnt the Chinese film industry freak out because Kung Fu Panda was a better Chinese story than China could produce?
@@thenextguy32 I would say it's like a snap in the face for Chinese filmmaker at that time. The same case would be the "Three Kingdoms" game as well, at which I was astonished after hearing a foreign company produces it.
However, it doesn't mean there's no one in China can produce any film better than Kung Fu Panda at that time. The actual shame is there is definitely potential for the Chinese to produce a better film than this already excellent masterpiece. But "so many investors are eager to be the Versailles" should be the reason why there isn't any good Chinese film at that time.
What I interpret "Better" in this case emphasizes "the cultural essence". That's why I appreciate Nezha (2019) so much and dislike Mulan Disney movie this year. Both for the same reason.
Hope this helps explain. Peace:)
To conclude, China wants to be the second Versailles, but they don't even think of being the first Old Summer Palace.
@@supmegatommy8918 Precise.
Theirs a reason why Japan and Korea have more recognizable titles in the movie-making. Because both countries have something to say, rather than going for spectacle over storytelling. (Examples: Old Boy, Memoirs of Murders, The Host, Thirst, etc.)
Don't forget The Handmaiden
Agreed. Korean and Japanese cinema is undefeated. You brought up some phenomenal Korean flicks movies, but I also have to praise Japanese features such as Love Exposure, Still Walking, Eureka, and Linda Linda Linda.
@@riverkonkler3635 You forgot Seven Samurai, Ran, aka all Kurosawa films
@@MichaelMichael-us6wq Oh for sure those are great movies, but I’d like to refer to post-2000 filmmaking in this discussion since Chinese cinema’s downfall happened in the aughts and it wouldn’t be fair to compare masterpieces to corporate garbage.
@@guillermodebaskerville7117 I m frm india..I watched it n was shocked😂. It's a masterpiece
i swear to god,if i hear "We were inspired by the Hall of mirrors in Versaille" again i will make a building jump off a human.
it'a annoying
wE wErE iNsPiReD bY tHe HaLl Of MiRrOrS iN vErSaIlLe
And Donald Trump's bathroom
He really got some mileage out of that clip lmao.
Which building, could it be THA HALL OF MIRROR IN-
It's darkly ironic that the most popular movie about pandas and kung fu was made in Hollywood.
Bruce Lee, would disagree
@@marcusaurelius2147 Bruce Lee was American
@@SenorGuina and black
@@SenorGuina ehh.... yes? How does the actors nationality dictate where a Movie is made? where did Bruce Lee make his movies? Hollywood? No, they where made in Hong Kong. lets try to use your logic again so you can see the error of your ways: Kunal Nayyar stars in The Big Bang Theory, so the show is Indian. Genius
@@marcusaurelius2147 I just said where he was born lol, you just pulled a bunch of things out of your ass
the "hong kong action" genre from the 80s and 90s literally inspired me to study cinema, i have so much respect for the asian cinema, that is why it hurts even more to know the state of things right now
HK wasn't China in the 80s and 90s. They had creative freedom.
mequeimouze sucks that local production gets assimilated by the bad taste but massive Chinese market. Essentially most “Hong Kong films” nowadays are Chinese films stealing the branding by working with a Hong Kong cast. But yeah I have to admit that Hong Kong films were a bit on the bad taste side too.
HK cinema is officially dead now
@TravelerPat Mainland China film and HK film are totally different.... In energy, production value, creativity and originality...... What you are looking for still exist in Mainland China but usually with shitty stories. I think they fired up and made a shitload of them recently for all of those Netflix's clones..... One way to keep 'the world biggest film studio' busy
Hong Kong is not China. They're two entirely different countries.
A friend who used to live in China for years gave me this tip about mainland movies. "Look at the poster. If it looks ridiculous, it probably is. Producers must have spent half their budget on designing what they thought were "cool" poster, and the rest went to stupid CGI"
"We were inspired by the Hall of Mirror in Versailles" line is embedded in my memory now. thanks.
lol jk, Great job man!
You mean the " hol of mille in fursale"?
@@lower_than_furries9727 You mean the "We wer ispier bye da hol um milo n vursai
Yeah, that's not going away anytime soon is it?
I heard "Muller" every time.
I disliked because of that recurring unfunny joke.
WE WERE INSPIRED BY THE HAL..
YES DAMMIT I GET IT
Damn it*
@@ericthemadscientist8357 no it's dammit i think
Don't stop
I believe he got it from the Lindsay Ellis School of Running Catchphrase Gags.
Kind of ruined the whole video for me 😑
It's like in graphics design class where that one kid proclaims "graphic design is my passion" and put every fricking effect into their work
grApHIc deSiGn is mY passIoN
That’s like Bollywood
@@xwah5016 nah, at least bollywood has that sync dancing charm
@@ghivifahmi4252 lmaooo, weird, I’ve been binge watching a lot of cdramas lately. I’m not saying Indian movies r all bad, there def r some good ones just like the Chinese dramas.
In India it has always been the old Hong Kong based martial arts movies that have been a part of many people's childhood. The Big Boss, Fist of Fury, The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, Snake in the Monkey's Shadow, Five Deadly Venoms, The Magnificent Butcher, Drunken Master, Ninja on the Wall, Five Shaolin Masters and Dirty Ho.
Yes i love all these movies! No one can match the action style of jackie chan movies
@XTRA V1CI0US There is a movie called Snake in the Monkey's Shadow in 1980. It was excellent and had classic dubbed lines!
Bhai you forget kung fu hustle .
@@sonofgod793 Fabulous movie no doubt. But I was talking about the 80s and 90s in India. Kung Fu Hustle came out in 2004. The usage of the Fisherman's Song to East China Sea for the final fight is just legendary.
Yes
Bollywood:
We have the most dumb/ overdramatic scenes in the world
China: hold my rice wine.
Er guo tou
The difference is that, while bollywood does (sometimes blatantly) copy Hollywood and other sucessful techniques used in blockbuster films, it ends up being artistic in its own way due to budget and technical constraints. Because of those constraints, Bollywood (as well as Nollywood and Wakaliwood, they're much better examples) ends up creating something unique that has its own enjoyment and critisism from both India and the international film community as a whole. However, since China and Chinese film studios have the capacity and resources to recreate Hollywood, they try, and try hard to replicate (notice the difference from recreate) Hollywood under a Chinese identity.
Chinese Audience:
We want CGI to show technical superiority
We want modern adaptations of classic fables and legends so that it has a Chinese identity
We want humor because we want to be entertained
Chinese Studios:
Shits out a 90-120 minute CGI fest with wide, sweeping shots to create a sense of grandeur for the CGI technique, but everything is still stuck in the uncanny valley and looks like a video game. Costuming looks like the staff had a dispute whether to make tastefully realistic recreations of the characters or to use whatever theater productions use. Humor is forced. Directors have no sense of pacing, and plot points are made to show the (Chinese) audience (who mostly are happy with what they get) the next thing on the field trip (CGI wide shots, the next joke, the next battle, etc). No artistry or good storytelling at all.
Check out China Wine.
ITS MY LIFE, WHATEVER I WANNA DO.
@@luciansilver4113 lol
*Its not Made in China*
Its inspired by the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles
darkprince, how come the USA allegedly has no culture yet every other nation in the continent does?
darkprince, because I find a statement such as that unbelievable stupid, how can you say all white people don’t have culture? Have you even looked at all those countries in Europe? Just because you refuse to acknowledge something does not mean it’s not there, besides how come everyone else has culture yet white people somehow don’t? It confuses me as to how countries in Latin America somehow have a unique culture yet the USA doesn’t, the reason for me finding this stupid is that there’s no reason for the USA to not have developed its own culture even though it’s been around almost as long as the Latin American countries, so I consider it just a stupid jab at the USA rather than an actual fact, before I finish I must say that I care about such as discussion is because I am a white person from Colombia but according to you I don’t have a culture yet the majority of the people in my country do
@darkprince You obviously haven't watched any European movies. Btw the modern superhero genre is part and parcel of American culture. Also, modern great literatures are literally written by your simplified definition of "white". Lord of The Rings, 1984, A Song of Ice and Fire, Narnia, Sherlock Holmes, Harry Potter, and many others are just the hint of contemporary and modern culture. So you're either ignorant of all of this, or you're just racially biased against "whites", perhaps both.
@darkprince, thanks for enlightening me, I didn’t know my entire existence was a crime to my fellow countrymen, I mean it’s not like you’re spewing hateful rhetoric because you’re mad white people happened to be better at certain things, and besides last I checked whites weren’t the only ones indulging in slavery, or are you going to claim that somehow Arabs and Africans can do it just fine? There’s no reasoning with you given you literally claimed LOTR is part of some Christian conspiracy to steal ideas from pagans, you just hate whites and Christians but try to sound like an intellectual by subjecting different groups to different standards in some wasted attempt at proving a point, nice attempt at ending the argument with “you’re not American so shut up”
Get OUT!
A friend told me to watch a Chinese film called "Still Life" (三峡好人 by Jia Zhangke). Greatest movie I have ever seen. True masterpiece. I wish modern Chinese movies embrace their own history and identity like Still Life instead of running away from it. Nice video.
Jia is brilliant though, one of the best Chinese directors in the last thirty years
That kinda reminds me of this movie night I had with some Chinese exchange students a couple years ago. I bought some classic western movies (none of that superhero fluff) and they bought Chinese movies.
There were a couple wannabe Hollywood knock-offs but so many were these AWESOME 80s and 90s king fu movies, some with great stories of betrayal, love, loss and more interspersed about them.
There is so much potential within Chinese cinema, but it needs to find it's own identity, it was forming one in the 80s and 90s but now there are so many Hollywood knock-offs.
In case you're wondering I showed them the fellowship of the ring, speed and schindler's list. (Not a dry eye in the house on the last one)
Chinese film industry is the same as Hollywood. They had concept go finance go fast make script next time their know, they had a deadline and it went to hell. All good movie in the world made by well plan on first stage long before got finance.
@@rainmanslim4611 1970s and 1980s? Chances are Hongkong or Taiwan. Not China. They were busy making communist propaganda movies back then.
"us and them" is also pretty good
I feel exactly how you feel about modern Chinese films as a Filipino. A lot of the new shows and entertainment from the Philippines isn't "Filipino." Instead it's an inferior copy of American and South Korean films/shows. I was born in the Philippines but never had interest on the shows, because they are all the same and go along the same story. Unless I recognize the actors, I would be invest but for the wrong reasons. A lot of them at least incorporate the unique Filipino setting and life, but nothing more.
Thats exactly how i feel about modern phillipine movies, no unique concepts, no unique plot, just the same shit
@@matty1754 Because ABS-CBN rules the Philippine entertainment industry.
Also, China should have just stuck with their patriotic movies. And we Filipinos should copy China's style of patriotic films to teach history in a digestible way
@@TheMaster4534 Even our patriotic movies like Juan Luna and Goyo have a clear influence of being inspired by Hollywood’s version fo patriotism and bravery. It is impossible to paint history in accurate light because in the end, the final product will always be heavily edited with the goal of painting a specific narrative for the sake of commercial appeal.
Philippine history leading up to the late 19th century is pretty much non-marketable to the public. Cavite Mutiny? The various human crimes of Spanish colonization? How about the typical life of the Filipino under Spanish rule? Even the people we so hold dearly as heroes are part of the 1% of Filipinos that lived under he influence of Spanish bureaucracy. That then leads to the problem that Filipino filmmakers will always encounter when it comes to accurate Philippine history: is the population prepared to be rational with Philippine history? Knowing that fellow countrymen love the idea of glorification, I don’t think so.
Funnily enough, one of the best movies Philippine cinema had to offer are the ones that focused on the ordinary. Manila in the Claws of Light with a humble provinciano making a living in the concrete jungle that is Metro Manila. Or Himala where a woman in the outskirts of Benguet is challenged with her faith. Or some recent Filipino romance movies represent Filipinos better.
More often than not, some of the best movies do not indulge in the grandiose but instead focus on the little things. Take Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Sure, it has sci-fi elements but when you strip it down to its basic premise, it is a movie that questions “Does the pain of love warrant the erasure of its existence if it just hurts in the end?” Because in the end, humans often than not don’t deal with grand dilemmas, it all comes down to the little things.
@@sweettooth9057 filipino film makers only cared about money even on how bad the film they made like Vice Ganda has many worst movies but got more money over great films on Heneral Luna & Goyo
You didn't mention about censorship in China. A huge roadblock stopping Chinese cinemas from great.
"TSAO NI MA, THERE NO CENSORSHIP YOU STUPID, CHINA #1!!!" - CCP, the Tsars of Censorship, and architects of The Great Firewall.
Even in America, where films were always innovative and important, Cinema did not become truly great until censorship died in the 1970's.
this video is basically blaming everyone else for china's problems...
@@kevinkalibar4443 how did you get that out of this video? To me, it said exactly the opposite.
The problem with censorship is not even what you think it is. It’s constantly moving goal posts. No one knows what is allowed and isn’t and when it gets to go through censorship you submit with blind faith hoping they won’t construed anything super strange. Back in the day you could mostly hongbao your way through some of the random stuff that didn’t make sense as long as you weren’t anti China. Now it’s all about guanxi, some Hong bao, a KTV party and the Laowai directing has to know he is lower class citizen, and we laugh at him.
Being Chinese myself I feel that China is trying too hard to westernise when they can be who they were and I really love the culture and moral values. Its like I love them but they dont love themselves.
For me it feels more like the Chinese Filmmakers just want to play with their new VFX toys and forget about the story. Like Hollywood in 2000's.
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is a one of a kind masterpiece because it uses CG in a subtle manner and tells a story, a consistent one with a consistent world and doesn't try to use every gimmick to appeal to the audience. It is the beauty and consistency that drives it. Now Crazy Kung fu or kung Fu by Stephen Chow is batshit crazy from the onset and has a consistent story in this consistently inconsistent world, it is dumb and it plays with it, makes fun through it with the landlady and stuff. My issue with Chinese movies right now: too much CG, cheap gimmicks to appeal to the audience (some serious recycled poop jokes) and some inconsistent world building (the world exists but isn't used properly).
Communists are destroying chinese culture and trying to westernize. They destroying ancient buildings and temples and want to become modernistic.
It's like they don't want western influence but want that western shit at the same time
@@BLstudios CCP are Destroying china
Ironically Crazy Rich Asians is not a film about China. It's about Singapore.
...which is a part of China. Obviously.
David Graves LOL, Singapore is Singapore. We aren’t in China.
@@DavidGravesExists saying Asian country is part of China is like saying French Ireland is a part of England
@@DavidGravesExists there are a lot of Chinese in Singapore but it's not part of china. you're thinking of Hong Kong, which is part of China
@@sidaranesong324 Your comment is truth. But you should have said some other country name instead of IRELAND from europe like Germany or Sweden or Spain because Ireland is part of United Kingdom indeed
I remember the Classics by Stephen Chow. Those were amazing. Now, I don't even want to know any of their movies.
Stephen Chow is GOLD, oh I miss those days.
There were less movies so it was easier to find the good ones, now the market is flooded with movies and unless your heard it from someone you'll probably miss several excellent movies because of it...
As a Chinese growing up with western media, I cringe when watching Chinese movies during CNY while my parents and grandparents love and laugh at the jokes. I appreciate your take on this topic, I agree on every point.
Same
This!
Chinese humour & western humour is different
There are actually better non cringe movies out there
That's cause they have different humour idiot
"Who thought this looked good enough to release?"
Somebody's not seen the majesty of Ugandan cinema.
"Commando! Supah kicker! Action packed movie from Uganda!"
@@markusdee6136 **big ben seperates from ground like heat seeking missile**
"help us god!"
**jesus statue in brazil duplicates and stops big ben by flexing**
@@HEXcrimson JESUS KUNG FU
They are great fun
He's actually made a video about on who killed captain alex.
In case you didn't get the line:
We were inspired by the Hall of Mirror in Versailles.
what doesn't it mean?
@@brunowinovski2928 it's a referance to the movie crazy rich asians
Jackie Chan is a good example. He is completely dismissive of Hollywood action movies. Not so much that he thought they were bad, he just wasn't interested in doing things their way. He is a great success because he does it his way.
?
He's about as standard Hollywood action as it comes, what are you talking about? lol
@ nah he does his own stunts
Now he's bowing to those CCP farts and keeps on praising what they did on hongkong despite owing his carrer from hongkong.
...have you seen Dragon Blade... yikes... brutal to watch... although the premise was decent... ancient Chinese soldiers making contact with Roman legions... the story and execution went off the rails...
Pretty sure he was the main lead in a trash knock off terminator, it was bad no matter how you looked at it
that feeling when Kingdom (a Japanese Manga) manages to come up with an entirely original story based on Chinese history :D
well, that's a weirdly good burn.
Oh, yes. Kingdom is a masterpiece of ancient Chinese history plus ficton. But it's Japanese...still amazing, though. Wish to see a good adaptation of it.
and 中華一番 (a Japanese anime) based its entire theme on Chinese gastronomy as well
Japan has always been good at taking advantage of China.
@@cavejohnson4306 I wouldn't call it taking advantage. There are plenty of Chinese games that gone global (honkai, arknight, etc) that borrows hugely from Japanese anime and folklore. As long as we don't pretend what's part of the other's culture is ours I'd say it's cool.
Fun anecdote: I was always marveled by Versailles, and dreamt of visiting the palace. When I finally did, the experience was awful, because of how overpacked and rushed we felt while surrounded by Chinese tourists who just took photos and hardly even payed attention, just wanting to rush through the entire tour.
Imagine being a French king and not knowing that your royal palace would one day be massively visited by Chinese from the other end of the world.
The Chinese have a terrible attitude towards tourism in general. They are very big on "making the most out of the trip" in a checklist manner, with a heavy dependency on guided tours.
@@gurriato Many of the old Chinese tourists you see grew up in a time of poverty. Of course, they're going to be like that. The younger tourists most likely inherited this line of thinking.
@@gurriato They are called locusts in SEA. Can't leave your free samples sign up anymore unless you want to clean up after the blood bath that inevitably ensues when those Chinese tourists step off that bus.
Just pointing out the other side of the argument: a lot of the elderly Chinese tourists who relied on guided tours grew up in times of poverty, and had no chance and no incentives to develop foreign language skills. Group tours with a guide is the only way they can travel. You may not like them but I'm just saying this is the reason why you see them there.
Vietnam and China have never really had an easy relationship, but growing up, strangely enough we got to watch a lot of Chinese television series about the Three Kingdoms period, Emperor Qin, Generals of the Yang Family...and they had phenomenal settings, scenery and costumes - but what we always looked forward to are the battle scenes: zero CGI, full-costumed actors, horses...And then there were the wuxia series, particularly those based on Jin Yong novels (Condor Heroes, Heavenly Sword and Dragon Saber, The Smiling Wanderer...) with goofy martial arts, low-budget makeup, colorful costumes and cartoon-like acting, but with great stories nonetheless. There's a lot of untapped potential, but sadly just sitting there collecting dust while Chinese filmmakers are trying to imitate their contemporaries instead of looking to the uniqueness of their already established history and more.
unlimited budget does not equal quality product.
just compare Star Wars original trilogy to prequels and sequels.
prequels and sequels had tons of budget, CGI technology, but they are inferior movies.
I prefer the wuxia stories to be the old goofy but interesting rather than becoming full cgi but dull movies with no soul in it
@Hoàng Nguyên the red cliff and the andy lau version is still good man...is there another three kingdom movies?
@Hoàng Nguyên but is it as good as red cliff or the andy lau version? Or a flop like dynasty warriors 9?
i guess, stay away from CGI (as much as possible)
It really is a Hall of mirrors now too, with studios like Disney putting a priority on Chinese audiences
Yet they can't please the Chinese audience, they don't pander to them they want to conquer the Chinese market.
China got great line of actors such as Andy lau, Tony leung, Donnie yen etc but films' cringy CGI effects, lame jokes, sexual innuendos made it sucks
Interestingly the actors you mentioned learned their craft in Hong Kong, before 1997. :)
Even the actors are becoming very bad! China is doing the same mistake Hollywood does by always casting the same well known actor/actress.
Andy Lau acts in almost 75% of every Chinese movie I see.
While I love Lois Koo and his amazing work in Flash Point, he too his being cast in almost 50% of every Chinese movie.
They did the same for Simon Yam in the past.
This is why I like Jackie Chan because in New Police Story, he actually used graduates to act in his movies. You see new faces acting in his moves, unlike other Chinese movies that keep casting the same damn faces.
I only hand pick very few Chinese movie I would watch. Everything is so bad and over saturated now.
@@xin0 I agree on your point on Jackie Chan. If it wasn't for Jackie maybe we wouldn't have Daniel Wu...
@@marachen8417 I miss Hong Kong films pre 97!!!
@@kingsouther me too!!!!!!
This explains why the transformers movies do so good in China yet they're a joke here in the US
Rnjebus no. theyre a joke in china as well, and chinese people are sick of them too
Transformers is both a joke in China and a blockbuster (sales wise) in the US, what are you talking about? It's a bad series that keeps making money.
Na the later transformers are criticised in china aswell
China film market change, since rise of middle income.... Go to movie become a habit. I don't go for the story. They just want entertainment while US's ticket price so high. Sometime they had to pre-booking in advance.
@@kevinarriaza1951 Then why are they watching it? How did Venom and Aquaman become such big hits in China despite getting bad reviews?
The way Versailles was pronounced in the film actually has a comedic element to it. Sai (Psy) is actually feces in the dialects, Hokkien and Teochews. People in Singapore would understand
@Johnny Sack no, but the more u know
Host: "Asura" based on hindu mythology
Me a hindu: visible sweating
Now as a hindu I wanna see the film to know how they handled our mythology.
Me as a Buddhist: "But Asuras are real..."
Bhai iss video m phle hi bol diya gya ki...movie inspired h hindu mythology k upar but sara chiz european wala h...aur indian filmakers v to whi kr rha h...hum north walon ke pass acha hindi lang ka base v nhi h...humlog to even vocabulary v western log se rhte h...bollywood south films sala saare film m koi originality nhi h...chinese filmo k trah hum v whi westerns k trah copy kr rhe h...ye video chinese nhi indians k liye v apply hota h
@@ethanmanjhi4007 true but kuch movies achi hoti hai jaise tanhaji, Bahubali, Kesari, Uri aur bahut sari films.
@@ethanmanjhi4007 this happens when one has lot of money but No identity happening to Bollywood that’s why I watch south movies...
2:41: "When was the last time you heard anything good about China?"
Oh man! A year later this question aged a little too well with the Corona virus. :/
That question hit me hard. The overall media coverage of anything China-related (including it's people) is negative - and not just about this Covid-19 situation. So it's not surprising citizens absorb that and start using phrases like "Your country".
Wessie P too be fair they are the only nation where punch of people just standing while a drug addict beating a kid to dead and yah the drug addict just lock up story end
Wessie P it’s well deserved.
@@CITYSCAPE333 no
@@panzwes5993 It's my country, but I can't just take a pocketful of dirt around to claim ownership
Finally, TH-cam recommendation algorithm did something right.
It's been quite awhile since TH-cam's algorithm highlighted an intelligent (okay ... ANY new) film theory/analysis channel. They spend far too much time trying to shove their perceived "trending" video channels and TH-cam Red (or whatever it's called now). I X the suggestion out. TH-cam? "We'll stop recommending these types of videos." In two or three days later? They recommend the exact same videos as before.
I know! I've been extremely disappointed with the TH-cam algorithm recently.
I don't know Zhili, I guess everyone's personal experience with youtube is completely different.
But for me: TH-cams is accurate to a point as if its reading / predicting my thoughts.
In fact it's scarily accurate.
I am fully aware of the many methods the algorithm employs:
+TH-cam history
+Internet search history
+phone speaker Inc private conversations
+Any Streaming viewed by your IP address
+WhatsApp messages
+most likely Facebook (I'm not on it)
Specfic Elements and details of the the above categories immediately turn up on my TH-cam home page (scroll through).
Now I understand the methods used in connection to items appearing on that scroll list.
*However*
I can be thinking of some obscure random undiscussed subject....
It more often than not will swiftly appear in that very long scroll list
It may not be at the top.
But it will be there.
Were talking from Trillions upon Trillions of options and the utterly obscure stuff I was thinking about will appear.
The alogoritms have ascended to the next level.
Some of us are aware.
Most of us are not.
And yes the modern Chinese movies are a bit pants.
I know, right? First time in a long time I've gotten a recommendation for an actual good channel, and not just some whining nazi.
YEAH!
I feel like a very good opposite of this is South Korean movies like train to busan and parasite, completely unique and very thoughtful
Watch Dying to Survive, it has very similar themes to Parasite
Indeed. That's a director who didn't feel the need to follow the American standard and everybody praises him for it.
Which goes back to the theme of the video: why are you settling to be an imitation?
Train to Busan is not particularly thoughtful. You can see that the character driven piece hit was almost haphazard if you take into consideration Peninsula.
@@ignazioacerenza9881 the character developement of train to busan was masterful. Penninsula seems similar, but more action.
@@ethan20559 It's terrible. No social commentary beyond the usual: man is the real monster. Busan had a little bit more bite.
heh, bite.
19th Century Europeans: "We were inspired by the Forbidden Palace in Beijing"
Thank you for mentioning the film industry in China, I use to be an actor Beijing from 2009 to 2014. At that time we didn’t say Chinese movies, we said Shanghai movies Hong Kong movies Taiwan movies and mainland movies (usually Beijing) but nowadays it’s called Chinese movies. And yes I must say it has changed a lot since 2014, before that the mainland industry had their own style different from Hong Kong and Shanghai. Now it’s almost impossible to tell the difference, and technology has improved a lot. My last series Marriage Cuisine was the first tv series in the mainland industry with the new technology, that was because we had people from South Korea who were technicians and now now every series has the new technology since then. I have to subscribed to your channel and look forward to see more videos.
I'm Nigerian and this speaks to me too, I'm interested in making African stories and adventures, love this keep it up man👌🏾
Your competitors from wakaliwood are doing great you guys should put more hard work
I would support that. I find other cultures fascinating. There is only so many ways you can retell King Arthur or the Odyssey before it gets old. In most western countries, we can only find very limited knowledge on mythogies of other continents through very tough to find resources. If you made a movie based on Nigerian mythology or folk lore of reasonable quality, I'm certain it would at least make a small fortune in the west.
Wakaliwood is beating you as you speak. Better be fast and start making some movies.
@@Kydino in term of action definitely but when it come to drama Nigeria and south Africa dominates , if you check neflix for popular Nigerian movies , it will blow your mind. Nigerias nollywood is the 3 largest film industry in the world after Bollywood.
@@pjnoonan1423 now that the black panther movie came out, it has given a lot of people inspiration and an idea on how to make a large scale movie, it will be really cool to see it come to live in the future. Go on Instagram and you'll see wonderful drawings on possible African mythology movies
Watching this made me realizes why I am in love with Japanese movies from Akira Kurosawa and animation movies from Hayao Miyazaki and Makoto Shinkai, even though myself is not Japanese.
The Japanese never even tried to make movies like the US has done up til now. Rather, the Japanese tries to bring their own culture and values.
Rather than trying to make action movies which values personal strength like the US, Akira Kurosawa told us stories about loyalty and tragedy of samurais and daimyos during their struggle. These Akira Kurosawa's movies did not tell us that personal perseverance similar to US movies will win the day, but rather telling us the danger of blind loyalties and its subsequent tragedies for the samurais and daimyos.
Hayao Miyazaki tells us stories about how to live with nature, that nature in itself is valuable and not merely tools for humans. This is Shinto values.
Makoto Shinkai tells us stories about love and tragedy, and youthful optimism.
On the other hand US movies tells us the story of its own values, innovation, cleverness, and believe in oneself, that through those power you will win the day.
Which raises my final question, what values that the Chinese movies tries to depict?
Hong Kong movies tries to depict that good conduct and practice will go back to help you in the end. Those martial artists are taught to be humble even though they are powerful, that from their power they have the responsibility, lest bad karma will comr back at you.
Does the Chinese movies now try to depict the greatness of their own country, like Wolf Warrior? I'm sorry to say that that is not how you depict your cultural superiority. The best way is to draw from your own countries historical values and cultural heritage. Americans did this, Japanese did this, Hong Kongese did this. That is why their movies are great.
To be fair, Kurosawa was greatly influenced by non-japanese filmmakers and the Western genre. Kurosawa's films are still authentic stories, but that is not due to him limiting himself to only Japanese culture. Rather, he takes things from Western cinema and makes them his own. The line between imitation and inspiration is quite thin, but saying a film maker can only draw inspiration from their own culture is pushing it too far. A film can be authentic while still playing around with genres and tropes from other parts of the world.
@ That's a nice way to put it.
Yes, you may be right that drawing inspiration from a nation's culture may not necessarily be exclusive to the directors from that nation,
But, I always thought that it is never a coincidence that a movie is always the most popular to the country where it originates, and I suppose the reason must be because the values and norm shown in that particular movies reflects the values and norms of the society of that particular nations. Directors from other nation may draw inspiration from a foreign movies, but the message will be very different.
Well, it's just my humble opinion. I may very well be wrong.
Edit typo.
@@karellen4913 With the Cultural Revolution and lingering censorship, I am afraid very few people in China know about the essence of Chinese culture nowadays. Even depicting historical events may be viewed as subversive (well, you know, big events hint at unstable times). So they can only make some heavily sugarcoated romance movies, hilariously choreographed action films or hideously extravagant visual spectacles.
@@keithkyli have you seen old Chinese kungfu movies? Hilariously choreographed, but still enjoyable
@@keithkyli I've heard about Cultural Revolution, but I never knew that historical or cultural depiction nowadays could get you prosecuted for subversive behavior.
If the extent of that is far-reaching, I guess PRC will have some kind of identity problem in the future (Communism in itself could not completely change the value of a country I believe).
So Chinese cinema is like the little sibling that wants to follow the older brother, American cinema and when they stop being that little sibling they can become themselves.
I’ve never considered China as a little Diablo of US. US movies suck with the usual scenario. I prefer watching Chinese, Indian and Phillipine movies over US, as long as they have English subtitles. So much better
@@mickjslavin2109 yeah I agree to what you said. Ain’t gunna judge you opinion 👍
@@mickjslavin2109 chinese movies suck
@@arylumbanraja I think you’ve never watched any. So your comment means hack shit to me
@@mickjslavin2109 Question, since some people say that philippine cinema is bad, what made you like watching Filipino movies?
China arguably has the richest cultural history on the planet to draw inspiration from and somehow they can't figure out how.
Well Mao's cultural revolution and killing of educated people kinda ruined everything
With over a billion people and so many regions. You guys gotta have something.
@akshay Viswambharan don't u mean curry?
@@Pub4si Can't drink pure curry it hurts
@@Pub4si,curry is not taken everywhere or by everyone,fellow.Others states have it just for fancy.India Is way more more diverse and complex than that (look at the British Colonial rule?
Funny story, a couple of years back I was asked to translate for a Chinese production team and author in a meeting with Anthony Russo, you know, Avengers. They wanted to pitch him the idea of making a "Chinese Avengers Type Story", using Journey to the West. The movie they were pitching was called 天蓬专， you know, the story of Pigboi in Journey to the West. It was the individual set up movie for the character. They were of course planning on making individual films for each of the main characters culminating in a team up and beginning the Journey as we know it. You know, Avengers style. The team was boasting about the budget and how they wanted to make it "Just like the Avengers Movies", they wanted to use the Hollywood CGI teams to do this. It was hilarious.
The film never ended up getting made because in China you have to submit all prospective scripts to the Culture Ministry for approval and apparently they didn't get it. lol.
Man, China really milks too much from the teat that is Journey to the West.
Actually the collection of novels of Jin Yong(金庸) can really been make into movie or series from the first book to the last with a proper and beautiful staging to produce wuxia vibe. His novel always get remake by different director into movie or series but they never link it all together into a "universe". And many of those director produced really bad take on those novel.
Only Zhang Ji Zhong(張紀中) really produce a well wuxia vibe, beautiful scenery, clothing and coloring, wording, songs and musics, and portrayal from those novel, from Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils(2003)，The Legend of the Condor Heroes(2003), The Return of the Condor Heroes(2006) , Heavenly Sword and Dragon Slaying Sabre(2009) , The Smiling, Proud Wanderer(2001) and Royal Tramp(2008) . Too bad these series are not being produced in the order of those book and didn't really link it all to create an exact same "universe".
Yep, you're need to get rid of Culture Ministry, then you get the story.
Anyway, I like the og journey to the west, no need to change it with massive amount of CGI without any storytelling.
The og is good enough, because the character development is beautiful (even though the majority of it centered in Wu Kong), and that's the good thing.
@@coolerdude42 Tbf, it's one of the most popular literary works of all time. Hollywood kind does the same thing with works like Dracula, Frankenstein and Greek Mythology, and now they're catching unto to Journey to the West. lol
@@democard1199 Good luck with that lol. Chicom is not going to give up their iron grips on the people any time soon.
Here's the problem with the thing that the director of Wolf Warrior
said about American movie heroes. The trope about the 'invincible Hollywood Action Hero
' is an outdated concept that has been deconstructed, parodied and lampshaded as a relic of 80's American action blockbuster. Any character that seems 'bulletproof' is because either the justification being under the circumstance of superpowers/misc. advantages or that in context of the movie it's put it, incredibly silly like some kind of 'action clown'.
Ever notice why we call movies like the expendables dumb fun? Cause the concept is actually stupid, but reconstructed in a fun way, like a bullet circus and it's lead actors being the action clowns. It's a trend for action movies or just cinema in general to show it's protagonists as human and grounded that is:- not impervious to failure, showing vulnerabilities, inaptness for certain things, emotionally grounded, questioning authorities etc.
We can see this in mission impossible with Ethan hunt straight up losing fights whiteout help, James bond kidnapped stripped down naked and tortured, John wick loosing most of what he has including his fingers *Yikes*.
Not only is he trying to imitate another form of cinema but an imitation of an outdated concept without understanding it not realizing his characters are clowns, and he is stuck making these poor outdated imitations because trying to understand these concepts requires you to start thinking critically about the genre and ask questions, trope = why? And you know how the government of China feels about critical thinking and asking why :) BIG YIKES
Word, you said exactly what I was thinking. I'm fine with people copying ideas or trope, if it's good, I have no qualms seeing it elsewhere, but the problem is not everyone understands the context where that idea or trope came. They see it in a parody movie, and transplant it wholesale to a serious action genre without actually understanding why people found it fun in the first place. Too many times I see Chinese movies now rely on flashy CG, with laughably shallow antagonists (who are 90% of the time an evil Western dude) and the hero who can do no wrong and always gets the girl.
Exactly. That director's thinking is outdated. I mean think about it. When people look back on the Rambo films, most will say the first one is the best. Rambo only kills one guy. The movie was more about the abuse that returning Vietnam War veterans endured and PTSD. The most powerful and memorable scene was when Rambo had a breakdown and finally opened up on why he cracked. The other Rambo films are seen as a joke now along with the whole one man army movies that were popular in the eighties. Like you said now our action heroes are shown as vulnerable and human which is far better because we can relate better and it's more realistic. That director is such a tool for the CCP and you can tell by watching his cringey Wolf Warrior movies.
Taken or John Wick prove that the concept of an american movie about a killing machine are very much alive, just not used on a geopolitical setting.
@@leonwoo this is a real good take. It even shows in alot of modern popular Chinese ManHua (comics). It usually centers around the same trope of a protagonist who basically has all the advantages no one else has (either coz he got reincarnated, has past life knowledge, or some other contrived reason), and manages to be the OP hero in every situation with no weaknesses. Any foil they might have is a threat to someone else (loved one, friend, etc), never the MC in question. If the situation escalates, it's all good coz the protagonist already "cultivated" past the point for him to overcome it.
It reflects their desire to be seen as invincible all the time without actually understanding character development, struggle, and human vulnerability. It always comes of as shallow. Which is a huge shame, because the setting and world building some of these ManHua's have created are actually interesting and worth getting into.
And the best thing abouth this is how the chinese actor actually so pissed to be asked that question, makes it real fun to watch
As someone from India, I absolutely fell in Love with Chinese Movies (I'm not sure if those were Made in China or Hong Kong). Those old Kung Fu Movies, They were really Good, Despite the bad dialogue. Movies like Once upon a Time in China, Legend of Red Dragon, Kung-Fu Hustle, These were the Good Movies, Very well made.
In India it has always been the old Hong Kong martial arts movies that have been a part of many people's childhood. The Big Boss, Fist of Fury, The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, Snake in the Monkey's Shadow, Five Deadly Venoms, The Magnificent Butcher, Drunken Master, Ninja on the Wall, Five Shaolin Masters and Dirty Ho.
They’re Hong Kong movies
All those movies are made in HK
For me, I lost interest in Chinese movies when the films stopped being made by filmmakers and instead became made by the chinese government. There is no edge left. It's manufactured plastic. A lifeless consumable. And I guess there are still quality filmmaking being done there, but we usually do not get to see it. I hesitate to use a term that probably has lost its meaning... but.. Chinese cinema needs more... uhm... Punk...
THIS!! Seriously they have lost so much. And the constant propaganda (not that western movies don't have it....). But there are still some good ones...(somewhere, i hope, i kind of stopped watching) I don't know how they are gonna do things when the insane bans strike.
Makes me sad...an example of an industry that has sold it's soul to the devil...
Zhang Yimou still makes good Mainland Chinese films. There may be propaganda here and there, but when he has free rein his films are truly marvelous.
@@nightvisiongoggles His movies has far more style than substance. The real Chinese filmmaker with soul is Ang Lee.
I dont care about edge. I just want to see a good story with good actors. Not a brain damaging video game movie with people who look pretty but have the acting skill more appropriate to a kids cartoon show.
"The most personal is the most creative." - Martin Scorcesse. The best Chinese series I've seen is 2010 Three Kingdoms.
Try Longest Day in Chang'an. It's quite good
oh "battle of the red cliffs" was about the three kingdoms era as well, its very enjoyable
@@倪文瑄 Will Confirm, Red cliffs was amazing, Definitely worth the watch if you like 3 kingdoms.
No, its not when compare to the old ones. Especially soldiers and generals of every factions wear the same European knight armors make from "black metal" which can be cut down easily by iron swords (now steel swords).
2010 3K is bad compared to the 1994 ones though
I don't like the answer of that Chinese director at all. Well first he's comparing movies that are over 30 years apart from one another and even then Rambo 2&3 got plenty of criticism for being both unrealistic and being propaganda movies. American movies today would not get that pass, they would be criticized just as Wolf Warrior is. I think the whole "if they do it, why can't we?" argument is both unproductive and childish used by anyone anywhere.
Captain America??? "If they do it, why can't we" is not unproductive. It is empowering. Why can't Chinese heroes save the world? Why can't Chinese soldiers be strong and righteous? This is our story. We are sick of being told that our people can't be heroes, our people can't be strong and our people can't be righteous.
@@theamazingballroom5712 it is unproductive. Be better than they are. If they make shit movies is your response going to be " why shouldn't we make shitty movies too?"
You can be strong and righteous. It just doesn't need to follow the American standard. And yes, Rambo is basically a propoganda movie from 30 years ago.
@@silverdragon122 Yet Rambo is a very successful propaganda movie and the propaganda still goes on with 007, Captain America. I for one enjoy seeing Chinese soldiers be righteous with Western villains.
@@theamazingballroom5712 James Bond is not propaganda. He gets captured in all his movies and in Casino Royale he gets tortured. In some James bond movies he gets information from the american CIA.
Captain America may have started as propaganda(it did). But if you actually watch the MCU he turns his back on america. That's what Civil War was all about.
Yes Rambo was successful for it's time. But nobody with sense would say it's NOT a propaganda movie. You can find a bunch of critics saying that it's propoganda (and it is). If you make movies like Rambo, then don't be surprised if people call it a propaganda film.
Look at Parasite. People praise that movie for originality. That's what you should look up to. Not a propaganda film from 30 years ago.
@@silverdragon122 James Bond is not propaganda? Avengers are not propaganda? Those who has been oppressed dare not to agree. The bottomline is the Chinese, which is 20% of the world's population, has been longing to see Chinese being righteous, Chinese being strong, Chinese being heroic and Chinese telling the Imperialistic West, enough is enough, we are not taking your shit anymore, and this is a good enough story to tell, and the box office agrees. Expect more Wolf warrior success with the relentless American persecution of Chinese enterprise.
The mid to late 2000s had such a good wave of indie filmmakers from China. I still love Betelnut. The audience at the HK film festival thought it was too slow but I loved it.
We were inspired by the Hall of Mirror in Versailles
I do agree with your assessment. But telling your own story with Big Brother looking over your shoulder and trying to propagandize movies to portray China as strong and powerful tends to suppress creativity. Small films are still where Chinese directors like Jia Zhangke do best.
that 1984 reference tho
In the US we have our own kind of govt interference in films, especially in the Marvel movies and in the Transformer series. The US army paid big $$$ to add in parts that glorify the military
There is still much to say and present without touching sensitive issues of politics. Most Chinese movies are just bad at telling stories, and you can not even blame communist party for that.
@@zhaohuideng8836 Well there were recent problems of actors taking huge amounts of pay that diverted money going into the rest of the production. Too many movies and dramas were relying on star power. The government recently restricted the overall pay for actors to no more than 40% of the production cost I think, which is good. Also mainland China has problems with ticket inflation as well which the government is trying to crack down on. At the end of the day, China's film industry is still maturing. As per Sturgeon's Law, you still have gems like the Elephant Stands Still or Dying to Survive among a sea of crap. Just have to foster a better environment for budding directors in theaters and shows like Phantacity.
Yeah no. There are plenty of Chinese films these days try to criticise Chinese society, some even market on that. But the problem of bad writing and bad acting still exist so the movies are just objectively bad.
That said, these movies that criticise China still showed in China and even got praised for the criticism before they realised how bad the movies are.
you have a very interesting outlook on Chinese cinema. as a foreigner observing your country's films, it frustrates me that Chinese films are becoming grand with effects and becoming hollywood-like while Filipino ones are becoming comic tropes with no substantial plots and only one kind of genre is being used.
you hit the point about cultural identity (man, i'm trying to concretized the abstract ideas in my head but cannot capture it, so gotta stop here)
At least or at least maybe out there, there is a good modern film
made by filipinos
Aca en argentina tenemos una gran y buena línea de actores y escritores,el problema es que no tratamos de ser nosotros y/o simplemente nos inspiramos o copiamos de mala manera,como china,y aun así cuando hacemos algo original con buena inspiración o repensamientó siempre nos falta la plata y/o el apoyo y la confianza.
As a Filipino, I can agree to this. Most of the films (or soap operas) are recycled plots. The popular ones are romantic genres that cater to those fans of certain loveteam. Some of it are parodies to the popular franchise made it seem like they have no story left to tell. Just slap a title that is familiar to a famous existing IP and put some unfunny jokes because that's how dumb the general audiences are.
The only good movies in the Philippines are the dramatic ones that centers in Family, war and culture. Unfortunately, Filipinos prefer to laugh than face the truth. See the revenue of Vice films vs, Mindanao, but look at the number of their awards.
Filipino only focus on comedy.
While Thai only focuses on Horror and Comedy. But thanks to Tony Jai, Thai are starting to explore more in Martial Arts genre.
The ending statement is the most important part of this video. "Be yourself" is the key to greatness, for people and nations.
“A middle schooler trying very hard to impress you” hahahah good one
"We were inspired by the Hall of Mirror in Versailles"
That's painfully well put.
But they’re older and wealthier Chinese adults. So what he’s saying is that Chinese adults have the mentality of a middle schooler. Is that correct?
@@ThomasFoolery8 Being older and wealthier doesn't mean that you're more proficient in the film industry than others tho.
Stephen Chow movies were the best from China till now.. people will never forget ' Kung Fu Hustle '..' Shaolin Soccer '..' Journey to the West '..' God of Gamblers '..' CJ7 ' etc..He is a legendary actor and director 🔥
Those are HK films, not mainland Chinese films. Two completely separate industries.
*"We were inspired by the Hall of Mirror in Versailles"*
Derp it's stuck in my head now....
and i want to kill myself because of it
Aoko Aozaki was inspired by the hall of mirror in versailles
I don't understand that quote, can you described to me?
Don't be the Palace of Versailles, be the Forbidden City!
Heresy! The Hall of Mirror in Versailles is the only actual source of inspiration!
Don’t be Montesquieu, be Confucius !
@@loufresco2180 To be fair Montesquieu > Confucius
i love this comment
@@ZenobiaofPalmyra personal peferences.
The fact some use "your country" when speaking about their own homeland is pretty depressing.
Cuz the country never belong to its people, it belongs to the 1%, which is the communist party of China
@@tristanlau1213 Actually less than 10% of the entire PRC population.
gotta distance yourself from the overproud nationalist
Just look at it in a positive way, It just like your majesty and your excellence in English, a kind of honorific.
Russians name their country "this country" and USSR "that country", west is called "after the hills"
Believe me the same shit happens in Bollywood too but ever since Netflix and Amazon prime came ,many more people started to experiment and now the web series are top level (it has many indian political reference so maybe people outside india may not understand that) but most indians love it
OTT shows are extremely good but I don’t like them inserting political views in the show.
@@nine9605 yep . They ruined many great shows
One of the biggest weaknesses of Indian web series is that the content is always presented for a certain age group niche from 16 to the early 30s. The traditional film industry is considerably wholesome and family friendly and you can relax and enjoy them.
Web series has an added depth but when all popular web series give the same feeling it brings the same staleness that traditional cinema has.
@@someonejustsomeone1469 Agreed. Like he said in the video, " Everyone can make a movie now, but not all of them have a story to tell". I remember when Sacred Games released on Netflix. it kinda gave hope that we would get a lot more content driven movies/series. But alas, looking at the condition of original Indian content on Netflix now, hardly 10% of that is actually good :(
I guess Amazon is doing better these days though ....
Most otts think they're so cool and hip by being vulgar. I hate it
Party Game: Take a shot for every hall of mirrors in Versailles
Gets liver cancer
I am honestly learning a lot from Accented Cinema. Seeing a channel understanding so much and write an essay so seriously, makes me feel that China is not really that hard to understand for the world but ashamed at the same time.
The Opium Wars really did a number on the culture. Imagine thinking you are the greatest culture in the world and warships with guns show up and force you open up so they can sell drugs to your people. And now they are back to being one of the top dogs on the world stage economically. How to tell everyone they are strong now while being ashamed of the past? Awkwardly through bad imitation as it turns out.
@@Gooong Is that really what comes to mind when people talk about Chinese culture?
@@charless3108 While its over exaggerated, every time anything Chinese is brought up its usually about being cheap knockoffs, lower quality, cheap materials, etc.
Its a little hard to make good unique films in China with their cencorship laws
cameron austin that sums it up
cameron austin Bingo
Just like the ones that will be passed in the United States in the future
Film makers have been getting around censorship since almost the beginning. With a little bit of creativity you can get around almost any amount of censorship. Although, in China it can be harder because they’re past acting unbiased.
So kinda like America until the 1960's
Hey, I really appreciate you nailing in that quote from Crazy Rich Asians. It was relevant every time for a different reason. It made the line feel WAY deeper than it felt the first time I heard it. I need to rewatch that whole movie now.
Wow, Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba stars in his own film? I thought here in Malaysia we're the ones who'd do that. Recently a CEO of a cosmetics company stars in his own movie too, but it flopped SO HARD. Many people criticized the crap story, and bad cinematography.
You mean Aliff Syukri?....
Badang ke tu
The best Chinese movies? Those 1980-1990 Hong Kong movies....
Hong Kong is not China back in the 80s 90s. We had freedom of speech back then. Kind of sad right now.
@@ericlau2950 Yet so many Hong Kongers are flocking to Shanghai to get that money!
There's many other good movies. "Hero" is on of the big greats! I also enjoyed the 2016 "I Am Not Madame Bovary", its framing makes it unique.
i used to watch that, looking back i ask myself i watched that crap
@@ericlau2950 what are the things you can't say in Hk?
WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM WITH BEING INSPIRED BY THE HALL OF MIRRORS IN VERSAILLES?
It's just a problem if you have no idea what the hall of mirrors in Versailles is about. How that kind of architecture works. What makes it work, what you need to imitate, what you need to adapt. You need to know how to be inspired by it properly without transgressing into citchyness!
@@YassoKuhl okay I guess. Like it was just a joke about the video and u have to be IGNORANT to not know the why and how the hall of mirror works PERIDOT so go and teach someone else
@@absolutedave Actually it doesn't seem to be trivial, considering how often people try to imitate the grandeur of European architecture and failing miserably in the process...
@@absolutedave There's a difference between being inspired and being a cheap knock off
It's not Chinese.
For real, a Chinese movie I enjoyed recently was Chongqing Hot Pot. It showed the culture of Chongqing and was kind of low budget. But the story was good, and it showed actual life. Chinese TV series, especially Wuxia have also fallen into the no creativity set. How many wuxia fight scenes still to this day will do the 360 degree view like in the matrix? How many will have a fight scene where a dude a flying forward pointing their sword at a guys face, while they are flying backwards trying to avoid the sword? It is in pretty much every single wuxia tv series.
You know what makes really good movies - freedom of expression.
The West has plenty of shitty movies. What makes a good movie are writers and directors with a story to tell, not corporate assholes chasing trends for a buck. You can fuck off with that shit.
@@KhayJayArt Some of the greatest films in Western movie history are films that are critical of the cultural or government in some aspect or another. When your government doesn't allow you to tell certain stories or tells you how to represent your country it is extremely limiting in the way a filmmaker is allowed to express him- or herself.
naaa.... Hall of Mirror in Versailles is make real good movies..
@@GermanLeftist Hong Kong has plenty of freedoms (well...at least prior to 1997). Were their kungfu movies great because they were anti-establishment? India has plenty of freedoms. Is Bollywood great because they were anti-establishment?
Only Western critics favour anti-establishment works and overrate them. Just look at the kind of movies which tends to win the Oscars, as opposed to those which tends to be true blockbusters. Similarly therefore, the rest of the world do not necessarily judge their works of art, including movies, on that basis.
@Drake Tian Zhuangzhuang got black listed and banned from making movie for 15 years because he made a film about cultural revolution.
"We were inspired by the Hall of Mirror in Versailles" popped up so much it doesn't sound like a real sentence anymore
.
1 close your eyes
2 hold your breath
3 free your mind
4 release your breath
5 repeat this word again and again
"We were inspired by the Hall of Mirror in Versailles"
😂
*The only Chinese movie*
That can get away with all of these effects is *"Kung Fu Hustle"*
Kung Fu Hustle was AWESOME!
Which is not Chinese. It was Hongkong movie.
It's a Hongkong movie
@@salamisalamemo5939 these people doesn't know history. that hongkong was sold to the british forcefully because china lost the opium war. and the purpose of that is that british gov want to continue selling illegal drugs without regulations. hongkong become wealthy thanks to opium.. and it is funny why they decided to put a flower on hongkong flag... coz people who knows the history thinks that can be misunderstood as opium. LOL
and yes.. hongkong is a chinese country deal with it.
@@ChibiKeruchan Opium and cocaine were 100% legal in the 19th century
4:20 it's stated in Gary Gygax's biography that DnD's medieval fantasy adventure scenario was heavily based upon the works of Robert E. Howard, even more than of J. R. R. Tolkien. Mainly the Conan and Kull stories that were published in pulp fiction magazines during the 1930s :)
It breaks my heart that Chen Kaige went from 'Farewell my Concubine' to 'The Promise'. I tried to like 'The Promise', but...ugh...
I was confused why Zhang Yimou (director of Raise the Red Lantern, on of my favorite movies ever) started doing 'epics' in the early 2000s like Hero and House of Flying Daggers. They were very well done but I missed his old style of depicting average Chinese people. Is the Cultural Revolution a no go for films in China now?
Because of movie auditing, talking something bad about China is nearly impossible, obviously. Thus, yes, CR is a no go. But Chinese movie auditing is not as simple as "you can not criticize". Basically it's very hard for Chinese films to talk about China or Chinese no matter it's good or bad.
The auditing process will send the movie to ALL concerned government departments or national institutions to examine, if you mentioned them in the movie. It will take at least months if not years to receive the results. AND the process doesn't provide suggestions. If you get a no, you still have no idea how to make it a yes. During the process, you can make zero profit out of your film. So most film makers choose to not take the chances.
bruh Mao is rolling in his grave rn
The last time I saw a minor Cultural Revolution hint from Chinese films is Red Amnesia(2014), or Coming Home(2014). Can't recall any from recent years.
@@leoliu9810 By auditing you mean censoring?
@@dickiewongtk Yes. Sorry I'm not a native speaker, couldn't choose the proper word sometimes XD
6:30 I just so loved your running gag (Versailles) - and the very very subtle cutting which only allowed me understand the whispered response in the last one. I could not hold myself back anymore.
Donald Trump’s bathroom? O_o
5:26 Typical rich Chinese acting all high and mighty. This guy was asked a question and answered in a rude way while implying that American movies shouldn't be special. Sad to say however that what makes the Chinese movies great is now gone by trying to imitate Hollywood.
have you scene Spl killzone from 2005 ?
@@19megamustaine85 what that SPL? i think i heard when i was in middle school
Western exposure to eastern (especially Chinese) culture is so limited. This channel is a hidden gem, I am so glad I found it, and I wish there were more like it. Please keep making videos, man, and don't be afraid to branch out into aspects other than film. It might be small, but there is definitely a western audience for this kind of thing!
Thanks for the support. I'm glad you find these topics interesting.
I've been spending the night reading through comments, and it's quite an experience. With so much support, I'll for sure keep on going.
Eastern culture is not primarily Chinese culture.
Indian culture has had more influence throughout Asia ( South to SouthEast ), even East Asia, than any other
I agree to a certain extent, Japanese and Korean media are frequently imported to the west and commonly picked up by big name corporations such as Netflix. The big difference between Japan and South Korea, and China is our relationship with those countries. And its important to mention the massive amount of censorship and interference the Chinese government forces on their media as well. But I do agree, there is a western audience for Eastern media.
Manga and anime are mostly eastern, or france. That is quite the exposure. And there are cartoons who are inspired by it like avatar as well. And believe it or not, the western audience loves it. Partly because japan has no dictatorship other than their conservatism. And china has a one party rule with high censorship.
They even had a system that is eary similar to the one in psychopass, the anime , which they undoubtly banned. If you dont find that creepy, watch the critically acclaimed cult anime season 1.
The south korean manga are quite good as well, and liked. Their adaptations arent great, but they are often high quality, or rom-coms.
*wE wERe iNsPried bY tHe hALL of * ok I get it.
Ya this pissed me off I cant watch anymore thanks for sharing my pain
Speaking As Someone From Singapore, It's Kinda Sad That They Used The Rich Singaporean Stereotype Instead Of Representing Singapore And It's Majority Of People As Not Rich But Also Not Poor Either.
I Also Think That The Local Films In Singapore Are Using Mostly Comedy And Put Almost Nothing When It Comes To Portraying Actual Relatable Singaporean Families.
@@frankie.s___ dude your average singaporean earns more money than ten average families from my country.
@@frankie.s___ As a Malaysian, I noticed it as well.
Tries to tell a real chinese story
:gets arrested the next day for treason:
Zhang Yi Mou directed quite a few movies related to Cultural Revolution/Great Leap Forward and he's still doing fine though.
@@leezhieng How about a movie about the Tiananmen Square Massa--*gets sent to a re-education camp*
@@ABowlofPho why not americans make movies about black people getting killed by police?
@@ABowlofPho or making movies about destroying middle east countries?
@@leezhieng There are a LOT of movies talking about these topics. A LOT.
Me an Indian who love old jackie chan and bruce lee movies from 1980s and 90s and also some other movies from 2000s.
P.S --> I am a teenager.
It's Hong Kong cinema diff from Chinese cinema
I am not saying its chinese but many actors were chinese.
The setting and beauty! No city life drama in these movies! Just simple setting with a beautiful story. I love Jackie chan but sadly the new jackie chan movies are turning out to be a mediocre
Kung Fu Hustle and Shaolin Soccer are the most popular Chinese movies in India. Almost every Indian has watched them.
@@sumanpanday474 I think all these kungfu movies are Hong Kong ones and not Chinese films..
As a Chinese, as I much as I want to disagree I wholeheartedly have to agree with you.
Generally our movies are shit, but there are occasionally some gems like what you said, "I am not a drug god"
Did you mean as much as you want to disagree??
thanks @@Legalmind2
Jia Zhangke's 'Touch of Sin' is also great. Only problem is it's banned in China....
Your credit card has been charged via the social credit system. Your picture will be posted on all public screens along woth other criminals
@@voskoff7 u a man city supporter? cuz I thought they had a shit ton of money to waste in the prem
That's impossible. Cause there is an elephant in the room.
Talking about the human condition in China is not exactly "Politically Suitable".
Huh?
@@robertstan298 chinese government will [REDACTED] the citizens from making any comments or criticism that might make the country look [REDACTED] . Even in the form of art.
Not to mention they'd shut down anybody wanting to portray the life of a single mother or about gender equality.... even despite *COUGH COUGH* China supposedly is gender equal (*rolls eyes*)
@@virusguy5611 wait what? Really?
@@xaviersun6044 or about human trafficking in rural areas in China or about migrant workers who work in illegal coal mines.
"Cause no one else can tell a better Chinese story."
" 'Cept Taiwan."
I WILL REIGN Movie industry is growing in taiwan
so proud
And south Korea.
Barry Bend and North Korea 😎😎
That's because Taiwan is China and the Mainland is just the Soviet Union desperately trying to be America.
黑龍 - Hắc Long what...?
2:42 Same for India brother, I know we are at war but our countries have same soul. I can easily relate this with India.
I like to think only our politicians are at war with one another. The ordinary Chinese and the ordinary Indian man on the street just have zero feelings of animosity towards each other. These two countries have a long ancient history of cultural exchange with each other. News of war, rumours of war, threats of war are heartbreaking.
Take a look at old FILIPINO films
It aged like wine even through we only had a few resources at that time
The Fool you can say the same for a lot of Chinese classics as well, at least the ones that aren’t propaganda.
yeah those were good, now its all about love, cheating and being able to move on. So fucking repetitive.
@@aurelian2668 yeeees, literally no one in my family can name a novella that isn’t some milked dry love story In the last 30 years. With exception to stuff like FPJ, but thats boring now too
@@aurelian2668 I agree
old films look more appealing to me but newer movies that ABSCBN or GMA created these years are not that good. heck I dont watch local tv anymore bec. novelas or shows here are plain damn boring. Just watch youtube and you have lot more entertainment.