“A Bite of China: Celebrating the Chinese New Year,” a feature-length food documentary, hit theaters nationwide on Jan. 7.
The fascinating film is a spinoff of "A Bite of China" series, which portrayed China's delicious regional cuisines. The movie became famous since it was first aired on China Central Television (CCTV) in 2012, according to Women of China.
The film, which is slated for a release ahead of next month's lunar festival, gives an account of Chinese New Year, and the nation's culture and traditions from place to place. The movie has already garnered a positive rating of 8.3 out of 10 on douban.com, a famous social media site where users share reviews.
After watching the movie, most fans indicated their eagerness to eat the featured food.
One of the cinemagoers said, "It is really amazing. It's like you can smell the flavors when the film shows fried pork."
According to the executive art director of the series, Chen Xiaoqing, the film should convey beyond just something to whet the appetite from small screen to theaters, and from daily dinners to the New Year's Eve family feast.
Chen said that there are three standards to select the food in the movie. The first category concerns the heritage. The food has something passed on from one generation to another. Secondly, the food tastes good. The final aspect has something exceptional about a place and people's daily lives.
Chen added, "That's why we don't have dumplings in the film as the food could be found anywhere across the nation."
Chen believes that food has shaped people's lifestyles and traditions. The development team of the film hopes to record the dying customs and conventions with a devout attitude.
Furthermore, the director pointed out that TV programs cannot afford to lose viewers, since "you cannot drag your audience back again" if they change their channel.
Chen said, "The film is more flexible, and you can put emotions into the film and turn something more perceptual to visual effects."