Metro Australia – July 2019

FOCUSONASIAAND

THE MIDDLE EAST

Wouldit surpriseyou to learn that the third-biggestfilm
in the world so far this year grossedover A$1.5 million
in Australia,^1 andyetit hashardlybeenreviewedin the
English-languagepress here? Meet the Chinesesci-fi
phenomenonthat isTheWanderingEarth(FrantGwo,
2019).And there is some urgencyto familiarisingourselves
with this film, becauseit looks like the face of the future.
ReleasedovertheChineseNewYearperiod,it hasgrossed
over US$690millionin China,makingit the second-largest
grosserof all time in that country.^2 At the time of writing,
the film had a worldwidegross approachingUS$700million,
makingit third on 2019’sinternationalbox-officecharts,
behindAvengers:Endgame(Anthony& JoeRusso) and
CaptainMarvel(Anna Boden& Ryan Fleck).^3
In world cinema,as in worldanythingrightnow,China
is the big news.Its cinema-exhibitionrevenuecontinues
to grow at a furiousrate (9 per cent last year), with a
box office totallingUS$8.9billionin 2018 – on pace to
overtakethe North Americanfigure of US$11.9billion
within the next three years.^4 Theadventin thiscountryof
an effects-driven genre such as sci-fi shows that some

Chinesefilmmakersare intent on integratingthe most

successfulelementsof the Hollywoodblockbuster.

Severalquestionsarise: How is the sci-fi blockbuster

inflectedfor the Chinesemarket?What are the pros­

pects of it creatingfilms with genuineinternational

appeal?And, crucially,what might all this mean for

Australia,nowandin thefuture?

TheWanderingEarthhasbeenwidelyhailedasthe

first in a wave of sciencefictionblockbustersin Chinese

cinema;CrazyAlien(NingHao,2019)wasreleasedat

the same time, whileShanghaiFortress(TengHuatao)

andPathfinder(ZhangXiaobei)aresettofollowlater

thisyear.^5 The sci-fi genre – heavilylardedwith CGI

effects– is, of course,a crucialpart of the currencyof

globalscreenculture.Attemptsto sellTheWandering

Earthinternationallyhave largelyfocusedon Liu Cixin,

the award-winningChinesewriter of the sci-fi novellaon

which the film is based.Netflix,eager to bolsterits local

contentofferingsasit strivestoconsolidateitsinterna­

tional position,rose to the bait and quickly made the

film a high-profile acquisition.^6

This spread, clockwise from left:Wang Lei (Li Guangjie); Wang Lei with Yi Ge (Lei Jiayin); Peiqiang (Wu Jing)

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