Battling for box-office gold

A bunch of new blockbusters are gearing up to contend for China's most lucrative box-office season surrounding the New Year and Spring Festival periods.

The latest statistics from Beacon, the movie-data tracker affiliated with tech giant Alibaba Group, shows that up to 81 new movies are due to be released between Thursday and the first day of the upcoming Spring Festival, which will fall on Jan 25.

During the recently concluded 28th China Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Festival, which was held in Xiamen, Fujian province, a string of forthcoming blockbusters gathered their stellar casts together in a bid to grab the headlines.

An early runner in this most competitive of movie seasons, director Diao Yinan's latest offering, The Wild Goose Lake－which is due to open on Dec 6－was one of the most sought-after films at the Rooster festival.

Starring actor Hu Ge and actress Kwai Lun-mei, the story follows a fugitive gangster, who crosses paths with an innocent-looking woman hiding a big secret.

Seeking breakthroughs in their acting careers, Hu and Kwai both prepared extensively for their roles. Hu endured tough training sessions in close-quarters combat, while Kwai lived in a shabby apartment building in a low-income area of Wuhan, Hubei province, to better understand her character, a struggling native of the city.

Diao reveals he found inspiration for his character from a news story about a criminal who called his closest relative and asked her to turn him in to the police.

Recalling the two years it took to write the script, Diao says the movie－which takes on a dark tone with most of the scenes taking place at night－aims to offer an in-depth look at people struggling on the edge of society and their efforts to find dignity and meaning in their lives.

Perhaps its most powerful rival, The Whistleblower, an action-packed thriller that sees actress Tang Wei team up with actor Lei Jiayin, will also be released across mainland theaters on Dec 6.

Featuring a twisting plot, the 139-minute film depicts a Chinese employee of an Australian energy company having a one-night stand with the wife of a Chinese mining tycoon. After the fateful night, the woman is scheduled to board a plane that later crashes into the sea. But the woman miraculously survives, and her secret draws the man into a cross-continent adventure to unravel a thrilling crime involving bribery and the security of an entire city.

The movie is the latest drama with director Xue Xiaolu at the helm, as she shifts from lighthearted romances to big-budget action flicks.

Shooting to fame after directing Ocean Heaven, starring Jet Li, Xue has solidified her position on the A-list through box-office hits like Finding Mr Right, Book of Love and My People, My Country, which she codirected with six other directors.

Xue told an audience at a special screening at the Golden Rooster festival that a news story about a Chinese Australian arrested in a bribery case in 2009 provided her with the inspiration for the film.

Actor and filmmaker Xu Zheng, who's best known for his blockbuster Lost franchise, is also entering the fiercely competitive market with two widely anticipated comedies: Lost in Russia and Adoring.

As the third installment of the Lost series, Lost in Russia－which sees Xu team up with actress Yuan Quan and actor Shen Teng－turns to the theme of family tensions, recounting the story of a businessman trying to patch up his relationship with his mother on a train trip to Russia. The movie will be released on Jan 25.

With Xu serving as the executive producer, the pet-themed film Adoring, which will debut on Dec 31, has gained a lot of attention thanks to its unlikely "stars"－a pig, and several cats and dogs.

The film consists of six short stories, depicting actors of different ages re-examining their lives accompanied by their beloved pets. Its stellar cast includes Wu Lei, Zhang Zifeng, Wallace Chung, Yang Zishan, Zhong Chuxi and William Chan.

An anticipated sequel set to open on the first day of Spring Festival, Detective Chinatown 3 reprises the roles played by actors Wang Baoqiang, Liu Haoran and Tsumabuki Satoshi, as well as fresh faces like Thai action star Tony Jaa.

Following the protagonist detectives' adventures in Bangkok and New York depicted in the first and second installments, the new film is set in Tokyo and shot using Alexa Imax cameras, ensuring high-standard visual quality.

Director Chen Sicheng reveals there will be more comedic scenarios in the new film. It will feature several landmark locations in Japan, including Akihabara and Shinjuku.

Figures from box-office tracker Maoyan show that Chinese cinema grossed over 59 billion yuan ($8.39 billion) from the start of January to late November.

Most industry insiders and observers expect the box-office haul in 2019 will surpass that of 2018, which stood at 61 billion yuan, given the large number of blockbusters due for release.

"I have witnessed the development of the Chinese film industry for more than a decade. I know many Chinese directors who are passionate about and devoted to cinema. The country will see an explosion in the number of excellent works, which will fuel the expansion of the industry over the next one or two decades on an unprecedented scale," says director Peter Chan at a forum during the Golden Rooster festival.

Chan's forthcoming sports film, Leap, about China's national women's volleyball team, is also one of the most anticipated blockbusters of the Spring Festival period. It'll open on Jan 25.