Chow Yun-fat’s ‘Project Gutenberg’ Projected to Lead Holiday Box Office
Yesterday was the first day of China’s lucrative National Day holiday season. The daily box office totaled 371 million yuan, a slight decline compared to last year’s 384 million yuan. Mahua FunAge’s Hello Mrs. Money opened on September 30 and managed to top the charts at the beginning. However, the film is having a hard time maintaining its position due to negative reviews. Chow Yun-fat’s Project Gutenberg overtook Hello Mrs. Money on October 1 to become the daily box office winner with 144 million yuan. Hello Mrs. Money made 110 million yuan and Zhang Yimou’s Shadow made 83 million yuan. It’s projected that Project Gutenberg will likely become the final winner of this year’s National Day holiday season. It remains to be seen if Shadow will eventually beat Hello Mrs. Money. Read more on Mtime
Jack Ma Reduces His Control of Business Licenses in China
Last month, Alibaba’s Jack Ma announced that he would step down as the company’s executive chairman in September 2019. It’s recently reported that Jack Ma had gave up his control of Alibaba’s VIEs (Variable-Interest Entities) two months before he announced his retirement. The VIEs hold Alibaba’s business licenses to operate websites in China. According to Alibaba’s explanation, this move will reduce risks for the company’s key figures during this time of transition. Read more on Sina
Mainland Films Dominate This Year’s Taipei Golden Horse Awards
The 55th Taipei Golden Horse Awards announced this year’s nominations. Zhang Yimou’s Shadow leads the race with 12 nominations. Dying to Survive received 7 nominations. Hu Bo’s An Elephant Sitting Still received 6 nominations. And Bi Gan’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night received 5 nominations. These frontrunners have one thing in common: they are all from mainland China. While mainland China became the center for producing Chinese-language films a few years ago thanks to its rapidly growing film market, mainland films were unable to win over the prestigious Golden Horse Awards until this year. This demonstrates the festival’s efforts in being fair and inclusive as well as the fact that the overall quality of mainland films are improving. Read more on yuemuchina
