Spring festival earnings give film market shot in the arm(2)

Roaring success

Ji Shaoting, head of Future Affairs Administration, a company that deals with sci-fi publications, consulting and filmmaking, said in a podcast program that only movies that offer a novel plot and stunning spectacles can top the box office during Spring Festival, such as The Wandering Earth (2019) by Guo Fan and Mermaid (2016) by Stephen Chow.

That's why YOLO has been a roaring success, Ji said. "We have never seen such a strong Chinese woman, who is muscular, throws punches for real and says 'no' to a man so directly. We have never seen a woman who makes sharp remarks and feels so free and delighted after reconditioning herself."

Deng Yun, who also works at Future Affairs Administration, echoed Dan and said that YOLO is very different from its Japanese predecessor. "It does a great job in localization, adding a lot of vivid scenes and conversations that can only happen in China, especially those involving men's attitudes toward women," she said.

"The movie is amazing also because it has created and will continue to create intertextuality and interpretations. You can't excise Jia Ling's real life, her roles as a female director and the leading actress, and the diverse voices from male audiences from the movie's 'overflowing text'. That's why it is so interesting and is China's Barbie," Deng added.

According to box-office tracker Dengta Data, women accounted for 63 percent of the total moviegoers during Spring Festival.

YOLO is just one of the movies that scored success during the eight-day holiday, when the total box-office revenue in China surpassed 8 billion yuan, and more than 163 million people walked into cinemas, setting a new record for the Spring Festival season, according to the China Film Administration, the country's top industry regulator.