'Shallow' Chinese movie Tiny Times rouses critics and fans of writer Guo Jingming
Ignoring the critics, millions of Guo’s fans swarmed into cinemas in robust defence of their idol. Guo’s works, including The City of Fantasies and the Tiny Times series, feature matinee idol-like characters who are extremely good-looking, talented and rich.
When China’s richest writer Guo Jingming released his debut film, Tiny Times, he managed to provoke two extreme reactions.
On one hand, the film smashed box-office records by pulling in 360 million yuan (HK$450 million) in the week after its opening on June 27.
But on the other hand, Tiny Times was panned by mainstream film critics, who blasted the film for its shallow and materialistic script, arguing that it could corrupt young Chinese people with its “twisted value of worshipping money”.
Even the 30-year-old director’s diminutive 1.5-metre height has come in for ridicule and sarcasm.
Popular film critic Zhou Liming commented: “Tiny Times reflects ‘undisguised desire’.” He called the setting of Guo's film "ugly": the main character only had a voice in China when he had become wealthy and was living in a magnificent glass house in downtown Shanghai, draped in Fendi carpets and Hermes blankets. A drinking cup was featured that cost 3,800 yuan.
The film follows four college girls who have been best friends since high school. One girl, the assistant of an ill-tempered editor-in-chief of a famed fashion magazine, is helped by her friends in facing challenges at work while they support one another’s dreams and pursuits of love.