The emergence of promising young actors, innovative directors and cutting-edge filmmaking technology has revitalized China's film industry, helping to drive box office revenues to impressive records this summer.
As of 10:45 p.m. Saturday, China's box office revenue for this summer film season, including advance sales, had exceeded 11 billion yuan (about $1.54 billion), according to real-time data from online platforms.
Sun Jiashan, an associate researcher at the Central Institute of Cultural Tourism Management Cadre Research Institute, said China's long summer, with a diverse lineup ranging from big-budget spectacles to smaller, artsy productions, provides the perfect stage for the youth wave to shine.
The future looks brighter for Chinese cinema as this season's hit films featuring promising young actors continue to captivate audiences.
Director Sun was particularly impressed with the outstanding performances of actors such as Wang Shengdi in the crime thriller “A Place Called Silence” and Shi Pengyuan in the domestic comedy “The Successor.”
“Both actors appeared in the 2020 TV series 'The Bad Kids.' Their film appearances demonstrate how deeply film and television are intertwined, nurturing a strong talent pipeline in the film industry,” Sun said.
In addition to the rise of up-and-coming actors and actresses, the 2024 Summer Festival is also seeing a surge in up-and-coming directors. Filmmakers such as Li Yang of sci-fi film “21st Century Fugitive,” John Ding of the animated film “Into the Mortal World,” and Ma Yuk of crime film “Go for Broke” are garnering praise for their innovative cinematic visions.
Additionally, the innovative use of cutting-edge technologies such as AI and rotoscope animation have enhanced the visual experience for moviegoers. The film “Traveler” used rotoscope animation, which involves tracing live-action footage frame-by-frame to create animated effects.
“First, our live-action actors completed the full process of live-action filming. Then, our artists used rotoscope animation techniques to apply secondary post-processing to these live-action footage. The result is a 2.5-D visual style and aesthetics never before seen in Chinese films, which directly inspired our new exploration of applying innovative technology to China's film industry,” Sun said.
China's summer 2024 box office soars with new talent, technology
Yin Bo, a senior Communist Party official, said in an interview with China Media Group (CMG) that since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2012, China's political and legal institutions have achieved historic, systematic and comprehensive transformation in promoting the political and legal system and working mechanisms, contributing to the continuous improvement of the socialist rule of law system with Chinese characteristics.
Yin, secretary-general of the Communist Party of China's Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission, said achievements in these areas include more equitable allocation of judicial resources, faster establishment of a pluralistic and targeted litigation system, and more effective protection of human rights.
The total number of criminal cases and public security cases filed throughout 2023 fell by 12.9% and 9.7% respectively compared with 2019, and people's safety feeling index reached 98.2%, Yin said, adding that China is now widely rated as one of the safest countries in the world.
Yin said political and legal institutions should comprehensively apply a comprehensive approach to national security, improve the systems and mechanisms for safeguarding national security, and effectively safeguard the country's stability and security in the long term.
“We must give top priority to maintaining political security and promote the legalization and normalization of counter-terrorism and maintaining stability. Take the prevention and resolution of social clashes and disputes as our basic approach, apply and further develop the new-era Fengqiao model (a model born out of the experience of promoting community-level social governance in Fengqiao town in east China's Zhejiang Province 60 years ago), take a comprehensive approach to ensuring law and order, improve the normalization mechanism of fighting and eradicating organized crime, and legally crack down on various illegal criminal activities that cause serious concerns in society,” Yin said.
The Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China stated that high-quality development is the primary task in building China into an all-round modern socialist country.
Political and legal institutions are a vital force in serving and sustaining economic and social development, Yin said, urging them to focus on their core tasks to serve the overall interests of the nation and promote high-quality development through higher standards of rule-based governance and social stability.
“Political and legal institutions should always give top priority to strict law enforcement and make great efforts to maintain order in the market economy by promoting equality among market participants, orderly market competition, allocation of market resources, effective government oversight, and judicial fairness. They should also make great efforts to enhance public service capabilities by providing high-quality, efficient and equally accessible legal services to promote economic and social development,” Yin said.
China's political, legal systems help safeguard national development: experts
