"Even some movies with strong indie traits and artistic temperament — types that were previously believed to be impossible to achieve commercial success — have also performed well in the recovering market. With more movie events to be held this year, it's encouraging to see signs of growth in the industry," says Huang.
He further explains that director Cheng Er's espionage tale, Hidden Blade, which interweaves multiple timelines to revisit the turbulence of wartime Shanghai between the late 1930s and mid-1940s, is a prime example. Despite the story being somewhat difficult to understand due to Cheng's directorial intention of creating implicit and vague elements, Hidden Blade has managed to earn an impressive 931 million yuan, a remarkable achievement for this type of film.
An iconic figure among China's "fifth-generation directors", Zhang Yimou took the annual outstanding director award due to his recent two blockbusters, the military hero-themed Snipers and Full River Red, the latter set in the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279).The two movies have attracted a total of 100 million theatergoers, boosting the films' ratings on the M-Chart to both surpass 9.1 points out of 10.
Widely considered a huge commercial breakthrough in his directorial career spanning over 35 years, Full River Red unexpectedly beat its major rivals like the sequel of The Wandering Earth, China's highest-grossing sci-fi movie of all time, to top the Spring Festival box-office charts in the Year of the Rabbit.
