Headlines from China: Alibaba’s Youku Announces 58 TV Drama Series

Alibaba’s Youku Announces 58 TV Drama Series

Over the past one year, Chinese internet giant Alibaba saw rapid growth of its streaming site Youku. According to Guduo Media, major Chinese streaming sites, such as Youku, iQiyi, and Tencent Video, produced over 60 TV shows for this past summer season, and Youku produced about half of them. Recently, Youku hosted the 2017 fall edition of its semi-annual forum where executives from various streaming companies share insights and exchange ideas. At this fall forum, Youku also announced 58 upcoming TV series. Last year in October, Youku was integrated into Alibaba’s media and entertainment ecosystem. “Alibaba will continue to heavily invest in Youku and support its expansion.” Says Yu Yongfu, CEO of Alibaba Digital Media and Entertainment Group. Read more on yingshidushe

A Master Class at the Pingyao International Film Festival Will be Led by John Woo

Yesterday, the organizing committee of the Pingyao International Film Festival announced four special events, including panel discussions and master classes, to be held during the festival. Internationally acclaimed filmmakers, including director John Woo, cinematographer Eric Gautier, and screenwriter Yves Nilly, will join these events as speakers and mentors. Hong Kong filmmaker John Woo will lead a master class and give a keynote speech during the festival to share his filmmaking journey. The inaugural Pingyao International Film Festival will raise its curtain this Friday (October 28) in ancient Chinese city Pingyao. Read more on People.com

Wanda to Take Over New LeShi from Sunac?

Since last November, there have been countless news about LeEco and its listed arm LeShi. Some of them have been proven to be true while some of them are not accurate. On October 27 (Beijing Time), a news came out on the internet, reporting that Chinese real estate giants Wanda Group and Evergrande Group may invest in LeEco’s listed arm LeShi. A few hours later, Evergrande Group clarified that the company didn’t have such a plan. Then The Economic Observer reported that Wanda did intend to make such an investment and Wang Jianlin was the one who brought up this idea to Sunac, according to sources familiar with the matter. Read more on Entertainment Capital

Sylvia Chang’s Heartwarming Drama ‘Love Education’ to Open across China on Nov. 3

Taiwanese filmmaker Sylvia Chang’s ‘Love Education,’ a heartwarming drama focusing on three generations of women in China’s Hunan province, has scheduled to open in Chinese theaters on November 3. On October 26, a premiere screening of the film took in Beijing. In addition to the film’s cast and crew members, many Chinese celebrities, such as director Feng Xiaogang, actress Fan Bingbing, and actor Liao Fan, also attended the premiere event to support the film. Read more on Mtime

Three Buy-out Films Conquer China Box Office with Highest ROI

As of now, China’s total box office in 2017 has reached 46.9 billion yuan, greatly exceeding  China’s total box office in 2016. In addition to domestic productions, such as ‘Wolf Warrior 2‘ and ‘Never Say Die,’ a few imported buy-out films also contributed to such a result. Among the buy-out titles, three films, including Indian film ‘Dangal,’ Thai film ‘Bad Genius,’ and Spanish suspense film ‘The Invisible Guest,’ impressed the market with the highest returns on investments. As several more highly anticipated films have scheduled to open during the last two months of 2017, there is still substantial room for this year’s total box office to grow, and it’s very likely that China’s total box office will surpass 50 billion yuan at the end of 2017. Read more on People.com