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Chinese after-party for Oscar champion

By Liu Wei ( China Daily ) Updated: 2009-03-26 09:38:59

Chinese after-party for Oscar champion

"I hope this is a universal story that connects nations," says Danny Boyle, director of Slumdog Millionaire when he was in Beijing on Tuesday to promote the film.

Having swept the 81st Academy Awards with eight wins including that of the Best Picture and Best Director, the film hits Chinese mainland theaters today.

Boyle is optimistic about the film's reception in China, a country often compared with India in terms of its locations, population and speedy economic development.

"China and India both have huge populations," he said. "In both countries there is a huge mass of ordinary people, who will find that the character's life story could be theirs, too. Everybody's life story is worth something - that's one of the reasons this film works all over the world."

Boyle was delighted about the film's success in South Africa, where it debuted in the same week as The Watchman. It was only shown in half as many screens as the blockbuster but took twice as much money.

As one of 20 foreign films annually screened on the Chinese mainland, the rags-to-riches tale will hit some 2,000 theaters across the country.

"The film shows a concern for the grass roots, is inspirational and has a special artistic beauty," said Weng Li, a spokesman for China Film Group, which handles the importing of foreign films to Daily Variety. Weng also revealed CFG is considering importing more Oscar films to China this year.

Slumdog Millionaire premiered in Hong Kong on Feb 26 and raked in HK$1 million ($128,899), dwarfing previous first-day takings there by Oscar winners like Million Dollar Baby (HK$138,863) in 2005 and Crash (HK$114,922) in 2006.

It has generated widespread controversy in India, however. Some people criticized Boyle for depicting their country as poor, dirty and backward, while others cheered its revelation of the country's true nature.

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