China downloaders seeking Hong Kong-set Ten Years get 10 Years, Hollywood rom-com, instead

Channing Tatum film about a high-school reunion mistaken for dystopian movie about Hong Kong in 2025, interest in which spiked after it won the best picture prize at Hong Kong Film Awards

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A still of Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan Tatum in 10 Years - not what Chinese film fans looking for dystopian Hong Kong film Ten Years were expecting when they looked for a download.

Published: 11:15am, 7 Apr 2016Updated: 11:19am, 7 Apr 2016

Film fans in China hoping to watch controversial Hong Kong movie Ten Years have apparently given a little-known US rom-com with the same title an unintentional boost as they mistakenly downloaded it instead.

The bleak portrayal of a future Hong Kong, which has riled China and won the best picture prize at the Hong Kong Film Awards on April 3, is the polar opposite of the other Ten Years – a 2011 school reunion movie starring Hollywood’s Channing Tatum.

It tells the tale of high-school classmates who meet again 10 years on, a far cry from the Hong Kong film, which envisions the city’s streets in 2025 patrolled by children dressed in military uniforms, the erosion of Cantonese and self-immolation becoming a mode of protest.

The US film rose to the top rankings on popular Chinese movie download site zimuzu.tv after interest in the Hong Kong movie intensified following its weekend award success.

Members of a Red Guard-like junior patrol pelt a storefront with eggs for selling banned books. Photo: Andy Wong/Ten Years

“I thought it was the Ten Years that won the best picture at the Hong Kong Film Awards,” a user on zimuzu.tv wrote, according to Hong Kong forum HKGolden, which listed comments taken from the site.

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