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
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.
The comments page on zimuzu.tv for the US film is now closed.
As of Wednesday afternoon, the American film was at number two in the rankings – local media had screenshots of it earlier ranking number one.
The film’s directors have also said they believe political pressure was behind the difficulty in getting it shown in Hong Kong cinemas, where it received a short run despite full houses.
Ten Years taps into those fears, with some audience members moved to tears over its take on the city’s future.