Headlines from China: Box Office Hit ‘Us and Them’ Sued for Unfair Competition

a still from “Us and Them”

Box Office Hit ‘Us and Them’ Sued for Unfair Competition

While an official conclusion has not been reached regarding the ticket-refund controversy surrounded romantic drama ‘Us and Them,’ the film has recently been sued by producers of Screaming Live, a comedy film that also opened in China on Saturday April 29. In an official statement, the Screaming Live team accused Us and Them and ticketing platform Maoyan, which is also a producer and distributor of Us and Them, of inflating presale figures in order to get larger screen share for the film. As a result, Screaming Live didn’t get its fair share of screens. It’s also said in the statement that Screaming Live had high attendance yet was given a very small number of screenings. Some people who wanted to see the film were unable to get tickets due to lack of showtimes. Read more on Mtime

Drama Film on China’s One-Child Generation Set for May 25 Release

Emerging Chinese director Zhou Quan’s feature debut, End of Summer, is slated to open in theater on May 25. This family drama is set in 1998, telling the intertwining, coming of-age stories of a fifth-grade boy, a middle-aged Chinese teacher and an old man in a Chinese small town. It stars Zhang Songwen, Tan Zhuo, Gu Baoming, and Dong Jing. Director Zhou Quan said, “The idea of the entire film originated from the life experience of our one-child generation. I wanted to record my life in 1998’s Shaoxing through moving images and share it with more people.” End of Summer has been screened at various international film festivals and received international recognition. Read more on 163.com

Filmmaker Ding Sheng Expresses Mistrust of Distributor on Social Media

On May 2, Chinese filmmaker Ding Sheng, who recently directed A Better Tomorrow 2018, a remake of John Woo’s 1986 classic, published a long post on Chinese social media to question the film’s distributor Beijing Enlight Media. According to Ding, Beijing Enlight Media claimed to have spent about 27 million yuan on marketing and 10 million yuan on ticket subsidy for the film, yet the total box office of the film only reached 63 million yuan. In the post, Ding requested Enlight Media to show record of expenses to prove that the 37 million was indeed spent on the promotion of the film. In an official response, Beijing Enlight Media stated that the company was not obligated to reveal any record to the filmmaker, and also indicated that the poor box office was mainly a reflection of the film’s quality. Read more on Mtime

Film Adaptation of Classical Novel ‘Dream of The Red Chamber’ Starts Filming in May

A new cinematic adaptation of China’s classical novel Dream of The Red Chamber will start filming at the end of May. Directed by Hu Mei, the film’s budget is estimated to exceed 200 million yuan (US$31.4 million). Among over 20000 actors, the director selected three emerging actors to play the story’s main characters Baoyu, Daiyu and Baochai. While the original novel contains a large number of characters and complex plots, this new film adaptation, as a celebration of youth, will focus on young characters’ lives. Read more on ynet.com