Laughing matter
Contemporary and romantic comedies have struck a chord with mainland audience, writes Vivian Chen
Abe Kwong Man-wai does not get an exciting film pitch every day. The vice-president of Beijing Enlight Pictures, however, was sold on the spot when actor-turned-filmmaker Xu Zheng knocked on his door with the script of Lost In Thailand.
"I was already touched when Xu Zheng, a professional actor, told the story in our meeting room - his gestures animated, his eyes blinking with excitement," says Kwong, whose private film company invests in and distributes popular contemporary Chinese films. "I knew the story would sell because the audience could really use a comedy that would give them a good laugh."
The wacky farce, often dubbed China's answer to The Hangover and starring Xu, Wang Baoqiang and Huang Bo, follows three men's journey in Thailand. It broke every box-office record in China, with domestic gross income exceeding HK$1.6 billion.
"We were aiming at half the amount. We never thought it would go on to be the first Chinese film to surpass the 1 billion yuan [HK$1.25 billion] mark," Kwong says.
Following Lost In Thailand's jaw-dropping box-office success, a string of contemporary movies, especially romantic comedies set in modern-day China, joined the club. Those films shared similar traits - starring top Chinese
actors and portraying a modern Chinese lifestyle - and have taken the industry by storm.
The mainland movie scene, which for the past decade had been saturated with high-budget sci-fi, fantasy or action blockbusters and the so-called "main melody" propaganda flicks, is welcoming a refreshing genre that touches upon the audience's everyday life.
In Finding Mr. Right, for example, actress Tang Wei, of Lust, Caution fame, plays a materialistic woman expecting her first-born in Seattle. The film grossed about HK$660 million in the domestic box office.
That record was surpassed by So Young, actress Zhao Wei's directorial debut. The romantic comedy, which addresses the post-1980s generation's bitter adolescent years, grossed more than HK$860 million on the mainland.
Among the many factors that contributed to the trend, the popularity of cinemas spread across the mainland is one that's often overlooked.