44 BEIJING REVIEW FEBRUARY 13, 2020 http://www.bjreview.comCULTURE
F
or a middle-aged man, ac-
companying his mother on
a train trip for six consecu-
tive days with no connection with
the outside world is a challenge.
Chinese director and actor Xu
Zheng presented this bitter-sweet
journey in his latest movie Lost in
Russia screened during the Spring
Festival, which is treated as a rare
opportunity for family gathering in
a year.
“This idea came out of the real-
ity that many Chinese people are
trapped in the controlling love of
their mothers,” the 48-year-old
director said. Mothers tend to in-
terfere in children’s life because of
care and love.
China’s annual migration around the
Spring Festival shows how important families
are, but the weeklong holiday often adds
pressure on kinship, too.
“It’s hard to speak out or fill the gap
which turns family members familiar strang-
ers,” Xu said. He hopes that the movie, which
includes many scenes from daily life, helps
each side relax and think out of the box
about themselves and understand the other.Shift to online release
Compared with the movie itself, its promo-
tion strategy caused more discussion.
The potential theatrical blockbuster
was one of the seven movies to be released
during this Spring Festival, when watching
movies tailored for the Lunar New Year sea-
son has been a tradition since the late 1990s.
However, due to the novel coronavirus out-
break ahead of the festival, the producers
together with cinemas announced to cancel
the release in order to encourage people to
stay at home as a precaution.Huanxi Media, the major producer of Lost
in Russia, announced that the movie would
be first streamed online from January 25,
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could watch it for free on ByteDance-owned
channels including Douyin (also known as
TikTok), Toutiao and Xigua Video.
Huanxi canceled the release agreement
with Hengdian Film which had promoted
the movie for months and cooperated with
ByteDance, which paid Huanxi 630 million
yuan ($90 million) for the streaming right
and other future projects.
This high-profile promotional strat-
egy boosted the volume of downloads of
Toutiao and Douyin apps, extended the
time users spend on those apps, and drew
more advertising revenue. Meanwhile,
people engaged in the movie industry
worried that Huanxi might set a trend of
cooperation between producers and online
streaming websites instead of the tradi-
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release is just a strategic trial and
not enough to overthrow the whole
video industry and even the enter-
tainment industry.”
This change was welcomed by
netizens who expressed gratitude
for the free film. As of January 27,
Lost in Russia was streamed more
than 600 million times.
But the shift, which boosted
Hong Kong-listed Huanxi’s stock
price by 43 percent on the day it
was announced, was opposed by
the movie industry.
Film professionals from Zhejiang
Province in east China where
Hengdian Film is located released a
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industrial regulations and infringed on stake-
holders’ interests.
A letter jointly issued by cinema chains
including Wanda Film alleged the online re-
lease of Lost in Russia intended to destroy
the current movie industry and promo-
tional mechanism and would have a long-
lasting impact, according to ThePaper.cn.
“The cancelations of the release of sev-
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Lost in Russia’s shift is an irresponsible act,”
cinema investor Xi Jia told ThePaper.cn.
“We had increased the number of halls for
the Spring Festival season as well as the
stock of other materials including popcorn
and drinks. We also had agreements with
advertisers for ads to be played ahead of
the movie.”
Some industry insiders however hold the
opposite view. They argue that the move
by Huanxi is a pragmatic decision given the
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follow suit. For the streaming websites, TV orLost in Russia ,
Found on the Internet
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promotional strategy has drawn more attention By Li Fangfang
A poster of Lost in RussiaFILE