There were so many stories about the world's second-largest film market in 2018, and there was plenty of evidence that the audience here in China is paying more attention to a film's actual quality rather than the usual hyped elements such as its marketing, budgets or super casts of famous movie stars.
Here's our top ten picks of the year -- these films considered to represent the best performances of Chinese filmmakers.
1. Dying To Survive
New director Wen Muye's "Dying to Survive" is a miracle. It is not just a critically-applauded triumph and a great box office success, but also a realistic drama that has some art power to eventually trigger some changes for Chinese society and government policies. It captures a phenomenal true story reflecting China's medical reform and progress since the early 21st century, using dark humor to portray the struggle for survival of leukemia patients who resort to asking a drug dealer to smuggle unapproved, cheap drugs from India into China. After the tearjerker film debuted, the Chinese government issues new policies and accelerated the process to help lower prices of imported medicines and give patients more hope to survive in a more promising future.
2. Operation Red Sea
It is weird to have a hard-line, and even violent R-rated, military blockbuster in a celebratory season of the Spring Festival; however, "Operation Red Sea" made it and became the highest grossing film in the year and one of the biggest in history. As China's first modern naval film, "Operation Red Sea" is loosely based on the evacuation of the 225 foreign nationals and almost 600 Chinese citizens from Yemen's southern port of Aden during the 2015 Yemeni Civil War. Directed by Dante Lam and starring Zhang Yi, Huang Jingyu, Hai Qing, Du Jiang and Prince Mak, it continues in similar style to that of Lam's "Operation Mekong". However, the reason why it is exceptional is neither related to how violent and exciting the action scenes are, nor about how it aroused the nation's pride and patriotism; rather, it is because the film is made in the way that all the best war films have been made: to make people understand how cruel and bloody a war is and make them reflect on the futility of conflict and the need for peace.
3. Einstein and Einstein
Cao Baoping's "Einstein and Einstein" is an ode to youth, but a cruel one. Five years after it was shot, the family drama film only got a chance for wide release in 2018, offering a glimpse of social issues and Chinese family relations, especially parenting problems. The film reflects many of the generational problems existing that have changed the lives of millions of young people. The film still resonates with many families nowadays even though the film has been waiting for years for release, going beyond the traditionally coming-of-age genre and becoming what a classic should be like.
4. Project Gutenberg
Felix Chong's "Project Gutenberg" brings to the fore a new subject that Chinese film industry has never dared to touch before -- the crime of making counterfeit currency. Felix Chong, the mastermind behind the "Infernal Affairs" trilogy, made the crime film with very delicate and seemingly very realistic instructions and demonstrations of how to make fake money, though the director said the copies they made are a different size than that of real money and were all destroyed after the filming. However, "Project Gutenberg" is not about the making of counterfeit currency, but is rather a smartly structured story to show how a person fights with his inner demons. Hong Kong superstars Aaron Kwok and Chow Yun-fat present one of their best performances in their careers so far, provoking a sense of nostalgia among the audience about the old Hong Kong film classics.
5. Shadow
Chinese film master Zhang Yimou returns with a new masterpiece - the historical period epic "Shadow" using a unique perspective to tell a story built around a puppet double, set in the period of the Three Kingdoms (220-280) in China. Zhang used striking cinematography to mimic Chinese ink-wash-painting, while using many other Chinese elements, which makes "Shadow" a very special Chinese film. The leading actor, Deng Chao, was inspired to break through his previous limits and was so exceptional on screen as he plays two roles in the film -- one as a local military officer, the other as the officer's shadow double -- by increasing his weight by 10 kg and then quickly losing 20 kg. The stunningly beautiful "Shadow" is rather cruel, dark and cold, mixed with political conspiracies and desperate love that Zhang always enjoys portraying in his films.
Chinese film master Zhang Yimou returns with a new masterpiece - the historical period epic "Shadow" using a unique perspective to tell a story built around a puppet double, set in the period of the Three Kingdoms (220-280) in China. Zhang used striking cinematography to mimic Chinese ink-wash-painting, while using many other Chinese elements, which makes "Shadow" a very special Chinese film. The leading actor, Deng Chao, was inspired to break through his previous limits and was so exceptional on screen as he plays two roles in the film -- one as a local military officer, the other as the officer's shadow double -- by increasing his weight by 10 kg and then quickly losing 20 kg. The stunningly beautiful "Shadow" is rather cruel, dark and cold, mixed with political conspiracies and desperate love that Zhang always enjoys portraying in his films.
6. Ala Changso
Sonthar Gyal's psychological road drama "Ala Changso" tells the story of a woman, concealing her illness and the secret between her and her ex-husband, who decides to go on a religious pilgrimage to Lhasa. The title of "Ala Changso" refers to a Tibetan folk song title meaning "cheers and have this good wine". The film demonstrates the spectacular landscape and culture of the Tibetan region and the lives of its people. Rather than other filmmaking efforts trying to offer exotic or documentary-like views on Tibet, Sonthar Gyal pays more attention to interpersonal relations, exploring Tibetan people's daily interactions, their emotions and philosophy of life and death.
7. Wrath Of Silence
As a hopeful young director, Xin Yukun presents his second directorial feature, "Wrath of Silence," with a dark tone after the success of "The Coffin in the Mountain". Inspired by real-life stories about the mining industry in Baotou, Inner Mongolia, the crime thriller interweaves the destinies of three seemingly unrelated people from three social levels: a lawyer, a mine owner and a mute villager, with many suspenseful twists and turns looking deep into the complexity of humanity and the struggles of lower-class people in China.
As a hopeful young director, Xin Yukun presents his second directorial feature, "Wrath of Silence," with a dark tone after the success of "The Coffin in the Mountain". Inspired by real-life stories about the mining industry in Baotou, Inner Mongolia, the crime thriller interweaves the destinies of three seemingly unrelated people from three social levels: a lawyer, a mine owner and a mute villager, with many suspenseful twists and turns looking deep into the complexity of humanity and the struggles of lower-class people in China.
8. Long Day's Journey Into Night
After his critically acclaimed directorial debut "Kaili Blues," 29-year-old director Bi Gan managed to get a bigger budget to upgrade his artistic dream into a mysterious and poetic journey. Starring Tang Wei, Huang Jue, Sylvia Chang and Li Hongqi, the film is about memory and love with a magical realist portrayal, following a man who has returned to his hometown in Guizhou 12 years after his good friend was murdered, to begin the search for a woman who could be the lover of the murderer still at large. The film contains a nearly hour-long, nearly surreal long take shot entirely in 3D during the second half of the film. It is a bold visual experiment and an innovative way to create the memorable experience, while being a necessary approach to help the audience understand and become immersed in the young director's vision and his unique dream-like world.
9. Ash Is Purest White
Jia Zhangke revisits familiar themes with his empathetic eyes in his gang crime love flick, "Ash Is Purest White," which follows a couple of one-time lovers through the big transformation of modern China. The tale tells a woman who gets sentenced to five years imprisonment for protecting her gang-leader boyfriend in a gang fight, but only to find betrayal and struggles after she leaves prison. It actually is a nostalgic epic romance spread over the period from 2001 until 2018 with complex characters and Jia's routine small-town setting, while using old songs and documentary-style shots to record and observe ever-changing Chinese society.
10. Hidden Man
Jiang Wen's "Hidden Man" is violent, tense, exotic, romantic and sexy. Based on the major characters and plotline of Zhang Beihai's novel, it relates a special agent's revenge amid romance and various conspiracies set in 1937 Beijing, when Japanese invaders sought to take over China. The film differs greatly from the original novel and is a unique wild and imaginative adaptation with Jiang's own perspective and characteristics. You can constantly feel Jiang's passion burning in this complicated and intertwined maze he pieced together while throwing out witty historical innuendos to fascinate analysts and historians.
Source: china.org by zhang rui