Kung Fu Panda
I read that many Chinese criticize this movie, even on CCTV 9 they had a debate, and I am wondering why considering that it basically brings free of charge advertisement to China and olyimpic games. My thoughts:1) somebody believes that being Panda the symbol of China, nobody should have the right to use it for commercial purposes.
2) some chinese directors are jeaolus of the success of this movie cause they didn't have the same idea and could not produce such a great blockbuster themselves
3) somebody says that the message behind that is wrong but I couldn't understand why (maybe you can enlight me)
4).... My Chinese friends and I all enjoyed this movie. Actually, we thought highly of Kung Fu Panda. As the director says, this movie is a "Love Letter" he wrote to Chinese people. He prepared it for 15 years before he finally began to make this movie. His passion and sincerity really moves me.
We had discussion why it was a US director who could make good use of Chinese culture ; but a native Chinese director couldn't make it.
Best Wishes and Regards Where did you read that Chinese people don't like the movie? From what I've read, it's pretty positive in China. There was a joke that American movies make better Chinese movies than, well, Chinese movies, but that's about as far as it went.
In China, Jeers and Cheers for ‘Kung Fu Panda’
There was a "Dialogue" program on CCTV 9 regarding it. Besides that:"From NYT",
Sometimes it is important to take a political stand. And sometimes it is just fun to watch a cartoon panda trying to do kung fu.
Despite calls in China to boycott “Kung Fu Panda,” the animated movie about a panda with a passion for martial arts has become a huge box office hit.
The film, from [url=http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/dreamworks-animation-skg-inc/index.html?inline=nyt-org][color=#004276]DreamWorks[/color][/url] Animation and Paramount Pictures, has already grossed over $12 million after less than two weeks in release, making the film’s opening one of the strongest in China in recent years.
Globally, the movie has brought in $275 million, Paramount said Sunday.
Some Chinese critics had asked consumers to protest the film because [url=http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/s/steven_spielberg/index.html?inline=nyt-per][color=#004276]Steven Spielberg[/color][/url], a top executive at DreamWorks, resigned last February as artistic adviser to the 2008 Beijing Olympics after failing to persuade Chinese officials to do more in the Darfur region of Sudan.
Another group, backed by the Chinese artist Zhao Bandi, who uses pandas as an inspiration for his work, also called for a boycott, saying the animated film is exploiting a national symbol.
But on June 21 the film opened to huge crowds in Beijing, Shanghai and other big cities. Chinese audiences have praised the quality of the film’s animation and its colorful and clever depiction of various aspects of ancient Chinese culture, architecture and scenery.
The release of the film was postponed in Sichuan Province, the country’s largest panda-breeding center and the site of a devastating [url=http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/science/topics/earthquakes/sichuan_province_china/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier][color=#004276]earthquake[/color][/url] that killed over 69,000 people last month. One reason for the delay was the sensitivities involved in a region that is still in mourning.
But after the film opened there last week, theater operators said their houses were packed.
“It is the most successful animation movie in our cinema history,” said Li Jiqing, general manager at Wangfujing Cinema in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province. “The box office has done as well as the ‘Matrix,’ ‘Lord of the Rings’ and ‘Pirates of the Caribbean.’ ”
In China, a film that earns more than $15 million is generally considered a blockbuster, since ticket prices are often just $4 and film piracy is rampant.
One of the highest grossing films ever in China was “Transformers,” which earned about $42 million last year. But each year, only a handful of films earn over $15 million.
The American producers of “Kung Fu Panda,” which is set in the Li River Valley in the Guangxi Province of southwestern China, have called the movie a salute to Chinese culture and to Hong Kong martial arts films.
News shows and Internet bloggers in China are now debating the merits of the film and asking why Chinese filmmakers and animators are being outdone by foreign producers, who have created compelling images of ancient Chinese palaces and temples and turned their cuddly national icon into a Hollywood darling. [b]DAVID BARBOZA [/b] I know Chinese pople loved it, but I am surprised that this movie has become for some people a political symbol.
I am just wondering why a director who never been to China and never saw a real Panda, could understand so well chinese culture Kung Fu Panda isn't really something that "understands Chinese culture". It's just a movie that's designed for people who want a good laugh, which it was successful in doing so.
Edit: I moved the thread to "Echoes of China", because it doesn't belong in "Comments and Suggestions"
[[i] Last edited by Anthrophobia at 30-6-2008 23:05 [/i]] Kung Fu Panda is a movie which is not worthy to discuss in this thread.
Reply 7# ilovebeijing's post
This thread is about the movie. If you can't discuss it in here, where are you to discuss it? I usually talk to my ferinds that not to criticize anything happened ever, the most important thing is to draw lessons from the loss, and to take some some actions to avoid the similar happens again. It is obvious that we fail to utilize and demonstrate our brilliant natural and cultural fortune, the movie Kongfu Panda is just one example. If we always blame and censure others, we are the cowards who don't think of how to do better. Suanla,The article you refer to just shows the normal comment you get on every movie. There are always people complaining. When you make a movie about the titanic fans will say you did a bad job when you make the last samurai people will complain...
This is just human nature not something that really needs to be questioned.
As for the movie... I liked it. It doesn't show very deep Chinese culture it is just a nice movie with the normal stereotype a movie has.
Yanyan,
Chinese director can't make such good movie? There have been many good movies from Chinese directors. I think Chinese are more critical to their own directors then to foreign directors. Also I think the trend of Chinese directors is to be more commercial these days so they can get big bucks. Normal comment? is the request to boycott a cartoon a normal comment? Well, maybe in China it is, but I never heard in any other (civilized) country the request to boycott mickey mouse.
kukkaukkonen, your rating to me means nothing, zero, o, ....is that clear? Suanla,
In Germany a politician tried to ban Valley of the Wolves. A movie who showed the bad side of western invasion in Iraq.... Great movie by the way you should watch it.
A guy in the US got arrested because he made a movie from a computer game where he was attacking US soldiers. I believe they wanted to delete the video but don't know if they did it not.
So you where saying? first: boycott a political movie is rather different than boycot a cartoon: in China you can't even talk openly about politics on the street so don't mix things. Second, where are the evidences of this boycot or attempt to boycott.
Waiting with hope... It was not a political movie it was the same as every American war movie just this time the Americans where the bad guys.
here is the proof:
[url]http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0[/url],2144,1909933,00.html
German Calls to Ban Controversial Turkish Movie on Iraq
German political leaders and Jewish community representatives have demanded the boycott of a hit Turkish action movie that casts US soldiers in Iraq as villains.
Bavarian Premier Edmund Stoiber and the Central Council of Jews blasted "Valley of the Wolves -- Iraq" (Kurtlar Vadisi -- Irak) as anti-American and anti-Semitic and called on German cinemas to stop showing the picture.
"This irresponsible film does not encourage integration but sows hate and mistrust against the West," Stoiber told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper in a reference to the film's popularity among Germany's large Turkish immigrant community.
"I urge the cinema owners in Germany to pull this racist and anti-Western hate film immediately," he said, adding that "EU candidate Turkey should take a clear stand."
Charlotte Knobloch, vice president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, told the daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung the movie stoked anti-Semitic sentiment....
article continues...
Now where is your proof that political people tried to boycott the cartoon movie? I can only read civilians who oppose the movie because Mr. Spielberg made it or because they feel a panda should not be used in a movie. Nowhere did you give any evidence that the Chinese government or even a government official was against the movie.
This is ridiculous.
I guess in Asia they take their cartoons seriously.Page:
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