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Thursday, January 31, 2019, 10:00
Chinese film faces final frontier
By Xu Fan
Thursday, January 31, 2019, 10:00 By Xu Fan

Still images of The Wandering Earth, featuring teenage actress Zhao Jinmai. (PHOTO / CHINA DAILY)

Despite holding its own as the world's second-largest film market for seven years, China has yet to shape a functional system to produce sci-fi blockbusters, a genre that has been led by Hollywood for more than half a century.

"Sci-fi stories have been popular in China since 1905. Over the past century, Chinese sci-fi authors and enthusiasts have been caught in pursuit of an effective way to create localized works" 

Yan An, sci-fi author and director

However, some industry insiders and critics hope that The Wandering Earth, an upcoming epic adapted from Liu Cixin's novella of the same title, will become the game changer in this regard.

Starring Wolf Warrior franchise actor, Wu Jing, alongside veterans Ng Man-tat, Li Guangjie and emerging talents Qu Chuxiao and Zhao Jinmai, the film will open across the Chinese mainland on Feb 5, the first day of the Year of the Pig. As the first of its kind, the movie has been added to the collection of the China Science and Technology Museum.

The novel published in 2000 won Liu a special China Science Fiction Galaxy Award, the country's top honor that recognizes sci-fi masterpieces.

Set in the near future, it is the story of an epic project to move the Earth and its 3.5 billion people to a remote star system 4.2 light years away in order to escape the catastrophe of a dying sun.

The project involves the building of 10,000 giant thrusters to propel the planet on its 2,500-year trek, while the population is relocated to live underground, as the surface-with the temperatures as low as -78 C-is blanketed with snow.

Wu stars as an astronaut who works aboard an international space station and has to be separated from his son-played by Qu-for more than a decade, but an unexpected peril unites the father and son to fight for not only their own survival, but that of the Earth and the entire human race.

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From left: Actor Wu Jing, director Guo Fan and sci-fi novelist Liu Cixin promote the upcoming film, The Wandering Earth, adapted from Liu's eponymous novella, in Beijing on Jan 28. (PHOTO / CHINA DAILY)

Aside from the spectacular visuals, the film also features typical Chinese elements, such as Spring Festival celebrations in the underground city, and typical examples of Chinese parenting.

"This film is a very good start for Chinese sci-fi films. It's not inferior to Hollywood sci-fi blockbusters. Instead, it features a unique Chinese flavor," said Liu, during the Beijing premiere on Monday.

Liu added that the boom of sci-fi stories is bonded tightly with the strength of a nation, exemplified by the fact that sci-fi literature was first prosperous in the United Kingdom, but overtaken by the United States. He believes China's rise has created a sound environment for sci-fi works.

Although Liu's most renowned novel, the Hugo Award-winning Three-Body Problem, has already been adapted into a film, it has yet to be screened. This means that The Wandering Earth will be the first time that Liu's spectacular imagination will be brought to life on the silver screen.

Another film that set to open on Feb 5, Crazy Alien, is loosely inspired by Liu's short story, The Rural Teacher. However, the feature, directed by Ning Hao, tells a completely different story, seemingly more a black comedy in keeping with the director's typical style.

The Wandering Earth is directed by Guo Fan, a sci-fi aficionado, whose favorite movies include Stanley Kubrick's 1968 classic 2001: A Space Odyssey, James Cameron's Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Christopher Nolan's Interstellar.

"It is a dream come true for me to direct a sci-fi film," says Guo, adding that his previous efforts have all been driven by this ambition.

A-list star Wu Jing. (PHOTO / CHINA DAILY)

Before launching the new film, since mid-2015, Guo has directed two romances, Lee's Adventures (2011) and My Old Classmate (2014), which garnered him enough of a reputation to convince investors to back his foray into the genre.

However, he soon found his dream turning into an unexpectedly larger-scale project than he initially anticipated-his crew expanded from the scheduled 700 to 4,000 members, making 10,000 props and 8,000 art pieces to help bring his vision to life.

Guo had spent more than eight months pulling together elements of the futuristic world, including its geographical landscape, education and political systems and its social environment.

"It (the filming procedure) was like running a marathon, but I couldn't see the end point," recalls Guo.

With less than one week to go before the film hits theaters, some scientists and sci-fi critics who have watched advanced screenings have praised it.

"I was pleasantly shocked by the film, from its grand theme to its cast, which signals a breakout for Chinese sci-fi films," says Zhou Zhonghe, an academician with the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Zhou also says the film testifies that Chinese talent does not lack in imagination, and that quality domestic sci-fi films like this one will raise public interest in the sciences.

Actor Qu Chuxiao. (PHOTO / CHINA DAILY)

"Sci-fi stories have been popular in China since 1905. Over the past century, Chinese sci-fi authors and enthusiasts have been caught in pursuit of an effective way to create localized works," says Yan An, a sci-fi author and director.

READ MORE: Chinese animation One Small Step gets Oscar nod

"Now, The Wandering Earth sets a good example," he adds.

Later in the year, Chinese theaters will screen more highly-anticipated domestic sci-fi films, such as the Shu Qi-led Shanghai Fortress, about Shanghai becoming humanity's last hope to resist an alien invasion, and Virtus, starring Louis Koo, which is set in 2055 and depicts an elite force's fight against alien creatures.

Contact the writer at xufan@chinadaily.com.cn

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