The rise of Chinese movies

I got totally emotional when I walked out from the cinema after watching "let the bullets fly". Not that its a 10 out of 10 (I think its a 8.5, adjusting for my sky high expectation). But I am flooded with pride now that Chinese directors can make movies like this one. It will not be just a Hollywood game anymore!

"Let the bullets fly" is fast pace, full of witty lines, and has amazing, amazing acting from Jiang Wen and Ge You. They put up a Oscar-worthy best actor level performance - BTW HK's Chow Yun Fat paled in comparison completely.

In 3 weeks, "let the bullets fly" has been watched by 15m moviegoers in China, and already grossed RMB500m (it is said its cost RMB140m to make the movie). It took 40% of all box office on New Year day in China!

This is the kind of blockbusters that will take China's box office to blow over the RMB10bn mark set last year, and attract more investors to build cinemas on top of the over 5,600 screens in 1,800 cinemas nationwide.

Its probably an overstatement, but I think "let the bullets fly" will be the turning point of the movie industry in China - capital inflow will accelerate, both for production and infrastructure. The winning formula will remain big star-driven for a good while (cant see a market for independents or smaller productions to hit it big any time soon). But hopefully over time, there will be quality mid-size productions funded by movie studios looking to spread their bets across a portfolio. When that happens, a thousand flower will bloom that grows volume, talent, capital; and of course audience - and a new Hollywood of the East.

PS - in comparison, I find the other highly anticipated Feng Xiaogang movie "if you are the one2" only so-so!