If you want to go see a movie with family during Spring Festival,
I highly recommend going to see 《The Wandering Earth》.
(This article may have only mild spoilers.)
The Movie
The movie itself I think is a very successful genre film,
plus with the domestic-product filter and the sci-fi filter,
ranking first in word-of-mouth among Spring Festival movies is imaginable.
The movie’s plot foundation is essentially the same as superhero movies like 《Iron Man》《Superman Returns》:
protagonist’s birth - train self - meet low point - form team - create miracle - save the world.
There have been quite a few such genre films in the past decade,
to stand out among them,
you need to tell the story well.
Big Liu (Liu Cixin) plays a very important role here. (I’m imagining)
Although the movie story is based on a snippet of plot from the original novel,
it’s an independent story originally developed.
But the movie’s opening credits wrote “Full-time Supervisor: Liu Cixin,”
the whole script also reveals a strong flavor of “Liu-style straight-male sci-fi.”
Whether the opening “Chinese-flavor cyberpunk” urban backdrop,
or the mentioned “saturation rescue” methodology,
or even the turning points running through the movie,
all use heavy realism to dilute some of the magical feel inherent in superhero genre films.
This further leads to a very “communist” part of this movie:
the superhero in the movie isn’t an individual,
but humanity as a collective.
Earlier I saw a saying:
foreigners watching Three Kingdoms see heroes flashing in that era,
Chinese watching Three Kingdoms see Uncle Liu (Liu Bei) bringing the people along even when destitute.
《The Wandering Earth》is the same,
although the camera follows the protagonist and his group,
we can clearly perceive:
it’s humanity itself, creating humanity’s own history.
Besides the two points of original-author supervision, communist spirit,
《The Wandering Earth》movie has another thing that makes me smile an “old mother’s” smile:
the story is told completely.
The whole movie planted many foreshadowings,
although some might let audiences guess later plot,
the movie doesn’t give a “what happened to the pangolin in the end?” sense of letdown,
basically all planted foreshadowings were used,
and even seems to pay homage to plot from another of Big Liu’s novels,
mentions an easter egg.
Overall, the movie’s original-author supervision, communist spirit, story told completely,
these three points make it a pretty good genre film.
There are quite a few flaws to mention if going there,
but under my filter buff I won’t mention them.
Additional note, if you’re affected by “Wolf Warrior PTSD” and are a bit afraid of Wu Jing,
this film has little Wu Jing martial action,
you can watch in peace.
Feelings
Let me digress and tell something fun.
I went with family to see the movie,
went to a “4D cinema.”
We all know 3D refers to length, width, height,
so where’s the extra 4D?
When the movie is in ice and snow with strong wind blowing,
the cinema’s armrests blow wind at you;
when the movie protagonist’s car is bumping,
the cinema’s chairs madly bump you;
when things in the movie are smashing down,
the cinema’s chair back also fiercely hits your back…
Felt like going to Happy Valley…
Beijing’s Third District Traffic Committee reminds you:
Thousands of roads, safety is first.
Driving not standard, family two rows of tears.
Back to the topic.
In my eyes there’s another good thing about this movie,
which is the way it promotes great love is very Chinese.
For example superhero movies made by Westerners,
the great love promoted is actually “love can solve everything,”
“anyone through hard work can accomplish anything seemingly impossible.”
What did Guo Fan shoot:
“Chinese people’s love is going home for Chinese New Year.”
Hard to imagine foreigners shooting a “go home for Chinese New Year” plot…
(At the cinema I was also stunned)
Finally after the movie ended (no menu),
the credits played two songs,
one was Liu Huan’s 《Wandering Earth With Me》,
one was Escape Plan’s 《The Brightest Star in the Night Sky》.
Watching the Chinese and English production crew floating by in the end credits,
I was a bit absent-minded.
When I used to watch Marvel/Wonder movies,
Mia and I would wait until the credits ended.
Then together point: “Wow there’s even HR names on there,”
“IT names can be on there too.”
At that time I was thinking:
foreign countries can mass-produce so many genre films,
because they have a strong film industry chain behind them;
when will China also have pioneers shooting some films,
then driving related development of effects, props, scripts, investments,
even if shot a bit poorly,
I’d be willing to be a spiritual shareholder supporting them.After all I really want to see a superhero movie set in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen
Hope the saying “Chinese sci-fi film year zero” can be cemented this year.
Let me make another wish,
hope Big Liu’s 《Village Teacher》《Ball Lightning》can also be made into movies,
when the related industry chain matures,
《Three-Body Problem》trilogy can be shot into seven or eight movies,
ultimately forming the Wu Jing Big Liu cinematic universe!
More
Outside of watching the film there are several fun things.
One is going to Weibo, Douban, Zhihu to see 《The Wandering Earth》’s reputation/box office development.
After all from the box office screening angle,
Little Broken Ball’s early target audience was the broad sci-fi audience,
but reputation and Chinese flavor have hope of bringing the movie a lot of organic promotion.
Tasting public opinion is also fun.
Two is the movie can foreseeably drive sales of Big Liu’s related novels.
Although humans are often kneaded around in his pen,
but his unique way of combining science and humanities,
often gives a sense of “science-religionized.”
If interested, you can also read some of his novels outside 《Three-Body》.
(Like 《Ball Lightning》)
Three is it’s the holiday, when family is together pay attention to safety.
Only movies made by Chinese,
would have such lines added:
Beijing’s Third District Traffic Committee reminds you:
Thousands of roads, safety is first.
Driving not standard, family two rows of tears.
(End)