Are Chinese viewers so enamored with Hollywood movies like “Captain America: Civil War” that they would rather watch the film about a foreign superhero than the last masterpiece of an acclaimed Chinese director?
That director is Wu Tianming who died in 2014. His last film was "Song of the Phoenix" which earned less than 2 million yuan is four days of exhibition. CRIEnglish attributed the bloodbath partly to the “massive clash” from “Captain America: Civil War.”
To support the late director, acclaimed Chinese director Ang Lee – who directed “Brokeback Mountain” and “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” - released a video to support “Song of the Phoenix.” Ang Lee hopes his video would help attract more audience to Wu Tianming’s last film.
The movie is about You Tianming, a boy who was assigned as apprentice to Jiaosan, a suona master. The boy is gradually initiated into the art of playing the suona, a Chinese musical instrument used at weddings, funerals and other important occasions.
The suona is a double-reed horn which has a falling popularity in modern China. The musical instrument and the film’s director appear to suffer the same fate as younger generation Chinese prefer music they could download from music streaming services and films produced in Hollywood over local music and movies.
When Wu Tianming died at 74, he was head of the Xi’an Film Studio – a position he held since 1983 – and helped many young Chinese filmmakers, such as Zhang Yimou and Cheng Kaige, now flourish and thrive.
In throwing his support for Wu Tianming’s last movie, Ang Lee recalled talking to the director in New York years ago. He considers their conversation to be enlightening. “He was truly a great man in Chinese film society. Without him there were no fifth generation directors. Without the fifth generation directors, there won’t be such a prosperous film market in China.”