Nostalgic rerelease of Stephen Chow's classic

A poster of the film "A Chinese Odyssey"

A movie company rereleased Stephen Chow's 20-year-old cult classic comedy "A Chinese Odyssey" (1994), hoping to cash in on a generation's nostalgia.

On Thursday, China.org.cn learned that "A Chinese Odyssey Part One - Pandora's Box" has grossed 8.7 million yuan and "A Chinese Odyssey Part Two - Cinderella" has grossed 11.6 million yuan on the Chinese market since Oct. 24, a disappointing box office performance compared to 3D rerelease of "Titanic," which grossed astronomical nearly 1 billion yuan in China in 2012.

But the disappointing returns are not due to the quality of the films, but rather are due to limited showing schedules, release in a smaller number of theaters and low-key promotion. According to statistics compiled by Mtime.com, the two parts of the movie, loosely adapted from China's ancient classic "Journey to the West," are only being shown in less than 5 percent of theaters nationwide, and most screenings of the film are not scheduled during prime time.

But China.org.cn has found that audiences have responded positively to the film; the seats in a theater in Beijing on a Monday morning in a normal week were almost full. Statistics have shown that the average occupancy rate at a screening of one of the films is more than 50 percent, higher than that of many other films currently in theaters.

"A Chinese Odyssey," directed by Jeffrey Lau and starring Stephen Chow, Ng Man Tat, Karen Mok and Athena Chu, was a coproduction by Stephen Chow's own Hong Kong movie company (now bankrupted) and the mainland's Xi'an Film Studios (now known as West Movie Group).

The two films, which cost 60 million HKD to make, didn't perform well at box offices in 1994-1995, earning only 45 million HKD in Hong Kong and 20 million yuan on the Chinese mainland. But they later found a new life, ironically, on TV, VHS, VCD and mostly in pirated copies and illegal online downloads after 1996. The films are now regarded as a timeless classic since a new generation of young people has found resonance with the movie's characters and its story of lost love. Many lines from the movie became catchy phrases on the Internet later in the 2000s, defining new generations' vocabulary.

Thus, Huaxia Film Distribution Company, which acquired the release rights of the movie, launched a rerelease program to screen old classics. "A Chinese Odyssey" is their choice for the second season of this program, entitled "The Good Movies We Missed Out on in Those Years." The promotional slogan for the rerelease campaign is, "We must compensate Stephen Chow for the missed ticket money."

However, Chow will not see any of the proceeds since the rights to release the film on the Chinese mainland are solely owned by West Movie Group, while the Hong Kong release rights are owned by Chow.

"A Chinese Odyssey" provoked heady nostalgia from young and middle-aged audiences, many of whom cried before the screen or used mobile cell phone cameras to capture classic scenes onscreen inside a theater, our reporter observed.

"We are trying to bring those movies with high artistic value back to audiences, in order to raise people's artistic tastes and find something solemn and ceremonial back on the big screen," Fu Ruoqing, the executive board chairman of Huaxia, said. But "A Chinese Odyssey" still doesn't get extra show times and is not promoted as a big rereleased blockbuster like "Titanic 3D." But Huang Qunfei, the vice general manager of Huaxia Film Distribution Company, said this is "hunger marketing."

According to a popular poll by Sina.com, 74.7 percent of voters said they wanted to view the film again in theaters. 50.9 percent confessed they first viewed the film via illegal downloads or pirated tapes or disks, and only 3.6 percent first saw it in cinema.

Another Stephen Chow adaption of the Chinese classic, "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons," released in 2013, directed by Chow and starring Wen Zhang, Shu Qi, and Huang Bo, grossed 1.244 billion yuan (US$203.5 million) on the Chinese mainland alone and ranked as the second-biggest-grossing Chinese film ever. The film somewhat continued Chow's tragicomic style and kept the tune of the ever-familiar classic "Love in a Life Time" by Lowell Lo, who composed the song and scores for "A Chinese Odyssey."