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Apocalyptic movie with a Chinese role draws cheers and jeers
By Savannah Aepli (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-12-02 09:08
The latest end-of-the-world movie, 2012, has drawn big audiences worldwide, including in China and the United States.
The movie, released Nov 13, presents a story based on the Mayan prophecy that the world will end on Dec 21, 2012. World leaders discover the Earth's fate at start of the movie and then build several arks to house select people from the destruction, which will save the human race so they can repopulate the earth once the crisis has subsided.
The plot follows an embittered writer, his two children and his former wife as they discover the world's fate and attempt to find the exclusive arks, leading them to China.
Led by disaster-genre director Roland Emmerich, the film is filled with visual effects showing major earthquakes and entire cities being engulfed in water.
The movie, with a $200 million budget, grossed more than $65 million in the US on its opening weekend, held the No 1 position for a week and has so far earned more than $458 million worldwide. In China, the film has grossed more than $10 million.
But regardless of the movie's success across the globe, Americans and Chinese viewers seem to be taking different meanings from the movie.
According to a number of blogs and various responses from Chinese netizens, 2012 has captivated Chinese viewers not only for its China factor but also for its apocalyptic messages.
Chinese netizens have emphasized numerous scenes pointing to China's eminence, for instance when a group of People's Liberation Army (PLA) officers suddenly appear in the sky to offer help to the American main characters stuck in the mountains and when, the US refuses to let the stranded refugees onto the arks and China instead opens the gates.
Moreover, the life-saving arks are constructed in China and a US military officer remarks, as the arks are being completed, that China was put in charge of construction "because the task would be impossible if given to any other nation."
In China, 2012 is also seen by many as the first in some time to portray China in positive light.
John Landers, a graduate student at the Ohio State University Chinese Flagship Program, said that because many movies show China negatively, even a slightly positive portrayal is welcomed strongly by Chinese viewers.
However, He Liangliang, a commentator with Hong Kong-based Phoenix Television, said that the China factor in 2012 is just a tool to win a greater share of the film market in China.
"Hollywood can no longer distort, or even satirize, the Chinese as it did before (if it wants a bigger slice of the pie)," He said.
But many Chinese bloggers were more impressed by the film's effectiveness in presenting the end of the world than in its China-related content.
"It is not just a visual representation of natural disaster but a warning against breaking the harmony between humans and nature," Lu Guoping, a critic, wrote in Nanfang Weekend.
One Chinese moviegoer said the film's depiction of the end of the world was so terrifying he regretted bringing his child and suggested it be banned.
In contrast, American critics and bloggers have responded to the movie's dramatic lines and death-defying action scenes with humor and sarcasm.
The movie had only a 37 percent positive rating on popular film review site Rotten Tomatoes, which aggregates reviews from top film critics. Many critics acknowledged the thrill and spectacle of the film, but most remarked that the storyline and characters left much to be desired.
Screenwriter Evan Clar said he believes American audiences not only don't expect a lot from the movie, but also don't read much meaning into any messages it may convey either about China or about the end of the world.
It exists simply to impress and bring in profits, he said.
"To Americans, this is popcorn fluff, a chance to escape for two hours. It's a time filler until the next big blockbuster gets here," Clar added.
