The King of Huayu Science Fiction

Chapter 30 The Tangled Dorian
Dorian is a professional film critic. His current job is an associate professor of film studies in the School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder. He also writes reviews for Boulder Weekly's International Film Series.

As a professional film critic, Netflix membership is a must. Although most of the films reviewed by Dorian can be seen in theaters, he usually does film reviews after watching movies in theaters. After all, he is also a A cinema film fundamentalist is extremely disgusted with some streaming media's "cinema is dying" remarks, but the reality is that many foreign films cannot be seen in American theaters, and his column is international film reports.

You must know that there are about 600 to 700 films released in North American theaters a year, most of which are Hollywood films, and foreign films account for a small proportion. After all, Hollywood produces at least 700 films a year, and its own films are not ranked. Finish.

Moreover, Hollywood, as the only film industry in the world, has a crushing advantage over the film industries of other countries. It is not easy for foreign films to get a share of the North American market, especially in the field of commercial films.

However, there are many foreign films in Europe, South America and East Asia. Most of the films cannot meet the audience in North American theaters. Movies outside of North America can also get more exposure here. From this perspective, Dorian’s attitude towards Netflix is ​​somewhat love-hate. It still contributes to the exchange of international films.

At this time, Netflix has a TV program section outside of North America, of which Spanish-language film and television dramas are a separate section, and movies from other regions are all other.

Dorian clicked into other areas with familiar movements, and saw a new face appearing in the row of TV programs under the movie posters on the home page.

A comet with a silver tail streaked across the quiet night sky.

The Night of the Comet
If it is directly translated into Chinese, it is the night of the comet.

The English name of "The Night the Comet Came" was decided by Chen Jingxing a long time ago. Of course, the original version of Coherence was not used. This name was insisted on by the director of the original version. Chen Jingxing and Netflix would use this name after their brains were burnt out. Originally, the overseas influence of Huaguo movies has continued to decline for more than ten years, and you still named the movie Coherence, which is a movie that you don't want people to watch at all.

"Is it still a Huaguo movie?"

In Dorian's impression, Netflix does not yet have Huaguo film and television dramas. It is very likely that this movie is the first Huaguo film and television work to be launched on Netflix.

As a professional film critic and the author of Boulder Weekly's international film series report column, Dorian is no stranger to Chinese films. Recognized by well-known awards, in addition, Huaguo's martial arts and action films have also had a greater influence in the field of commercial films.

But in the past ten years, Dorian has seen a lot less Chinese films. He is not a researcher of the Chinese film industry. His main research fields are European films and Latin American films. The reason for "invisibility" is not well understood, and he has not studied it deeply. After all, he was not a fan of martial arts movies even when the commercial influence of Huaguo movies was the greatest, and he was indifferent to the decline of martial arts trends in the world.

But Dorian himself has no prejudice against Huaguo. He is even an anti-Orientalist. When martial arts movies set off a wave of enthusiasm in North America, he publicly commented that it is inappropriate to pursue a certain martial arts movie. , is overdone, is seriously overrated, and is the result of the Orientalist gaze.

Dorian can become a professional film critic recognized by Rotten Tomatoes, and the authority to comment on overseas films is that he has little orientalism and a curious appreciation of other cultures.

When the plot started to advance, the slightly shaky camera and the chatter of several people in the room made Dorian nod frequently. This is a work under the trend of pseudo-documentary. This shooting style still makes Dorian feel a little novel.

Nine and ten minutes passed quickly.

Dorian put the director's name in the search engine with great interest. He is a film critic who is very good at observing directors. Once he sees a movie that surprises him, he will look up the creator's information and track other people. Subsequent creation is his job as a professional film critic.

Because art usually does not fall from the sky, it must come from life experience and learning from social human beings.

The work created by a filmmaker usually has a context, and the style has development and changes. When a film critic makes a film review, he not only evaluates the film itself, but also combines the thoughts and styles of the director, screenwriter and screenwriter to make a more in-depth analysis. It is also a great pleasure to observe the different works of those outstanding filmmakers in different periods, and to analyze the thinking and transformation of their artistic creation.

Jingxingchen did not find any useful information at all. Thinking that the director was from Huaguo, and his surname was at the top, Dorian changed to Chenjingxing again. There was not much information found, and some were in Chinese. It took about 5 minutes, and finally Found the director's wiki.

This operation is very familiar, and Dorian, who reviews foreign movies, especially the reviews and introductions of many unpopular movies, is already very good at searching for information in different languages ​​​​in different countries on the Internet.

But the fact that the director of this film is only 22 years old still makes him a little shocked and a little stunned.

It is shocking that at the age of 22, anyone can support such a complete and exquisite film structure. Anyone will find it incredible. Dorian himself also tried to make films when he was young. To be precise, they were short films. Of course, he finally realized that he did not have a director. The fact of talent, so he is well aware that shooting a complete feature film is not a simple matter.

Suddenly, only young people of the millennial generation can make such world movies in foreign countries.

Dorian commented on this movie as a world movie without any cultural characteristics and obstacles. Such a movie is not unusual, but the director is a Chinese, which is a bit unusual.

If the weak culture wants to spread film and television works to the dominant culture, the first way is to use the uniqueness of its own culture to produce foreign cultural products. Of course, foreign land is relative to the dominant culture, and use the novelty-seeking aesthetics or orientalism perspective of the dominant culture to gain recognition.

The second is to abandon its own cultural characteristics as much as possible, and use modern and post-modern content to produce universal cultural products. It must have the ability to move the background of film and television dramas to any modern country without violating harmony.

There is no doubt that "Comet" is such a movie, otherwise Netflix would not be able to purchase a movie in Huaguo for the first time and broadcast it on all platforms.

Dorian's feelings are very contradictory. He likes film and television works created by each country and region based on their own unique cultural languages. Cultural export must use universal cultural works as pioneers, and this will weaken the local cultural aesthetics of the works themselves.

For example, the work "Comet" puts the background of the story in New York, London, Tokyo, and Seoul without any sense of disobedience. It is a film based on modern culture, just like skyscrapers in the city generally.

Dorian recorded the names of "Chen Jingxing" and "chenjingxing", one Chinese and one English, in the notepad on his computer. There are hundreds of files in the folder, all of which are directors he is following, mostly foreign directors.

Putting aside his curiosity about the director, Dorian began to write film reviews. With years of viewing experience, he could predict that this film might achieve some success on the Netflix platform. Young Netflix users like this type of film very much , Whether it's science fiction, suspense or horror, they all accurately hit the G-spot of Netflix's user portraits. That's good, maybe he can see the new work of this young director from Huaguo in a short time.

(End of this chapter)