The rise of female filmmakers in China: the three women breaking ground in a man’s world
Women are behind three of the top 10 grossing movies of 2018, with one pulling in more than 1 billion yuan, becoming the first female Chinese filmmaker to do so
Women, so goes a Chinese revolutionary slogan, hold up half the sky. In the 21st century, they appear quite capable of propping up half of the country’s cinema screens, too.
Well, almost.
According to latest box office statistics, female directors have helmed three of the 10 most popular domestic blockbusters in the country so far this year. It is a significant milestone.
With earnings of 1.36 billion yuan (US$204 million), Taiwanese singer-actor Rene Liu Ruo-ying’s Us and Them comes in at No 5 on the popularity charts. Her directorial debut is a romance drama about the decade-long relationship between a young couple in Beijing, and Liu has written herself into the record books by becoming the first female Chinese filmmaker to take one billion yuan at the box office.
Fellow first-time director Su Lun’s success was more straightforward. A time-travelling romcom about two people living in the same flat but two decades apart, Su’s How Long Will I Love U ranks sixth in earnings for 2018, raking in more than 890 million yuan since May 18. The film topped daily box office charts during the first three weeks of its run (no mean feat given the availability of The Avengers: Infinity War during the same period) and is still screening across the country more than six weeks later.
The success of How Long Will I Love U vindicates Su’s decision to abandon her engineering studies at China Agricultural University to become a production assistant on Feng Xiaogang’s Big Shot’s Funeral (2001) and Cell Phone (2003). In an interview with sohu.com, Su says she returned to school to study film directing at the Central Academy of Drama, and kick-started her career by making commercials. Her big break came with a spell as Xu Zheng’s executive director on Lost in Hong Kong (2015).