The Localized Development of Science Fiction Film in China – Taking The Wandering Earth as an Example
Xinran Li
Introduction
There was hardly a good science fiction film in China in history until The Wandering Earth appeared. The attempt of this film opened a new era of science fiction film in China. With a very charming narrative style and realistic visual effects, the film produces the cruel scene of mankind’s fantasy of doomsday, shows mankind’s spirit of survival in the harsh natural environment.
The Wandering Earth has inspired the innovation of Chinese sci-fi film. Compared with previous sci-fi films in China, the reason for its success is that the film involves advantages in foreign sci-fi films and combines with Chinese concept, instead of simply imitating, which formed the Chinese-style of sci-fi.
This report is going to explore how this film promoted the development of Chinese sci-fi film from aspects of imitation and innovation, discuss the future of Chinese sci-fic film.
Critical Review & Appraisal
“As a global disaster film, The Wandering Earth feels both familiar and unfamiliar,” by Petrus Liu (MCLC Resource Center, 2020). The Wandering Earth borrows film-making techniques and skills from Hollywood to some extent, it is a simulation and learning of American sci-fi films.
However, apart from the reference from American sci-fi films, culturally, it spreads completely different values from American Hollywood films. “It translates familiar Hollywood tropes—seen in works such as Armageddon, The Day After Tomorrow, Interstellar, and Sunshine—into a visually dynamic, emotionally engaging, and decidedly apolitical work of escapist entertainment,” Petrus said (MCLC Resource Center, 2020). “Politicians, bureaucrats, and army brass are nowhere to be seen. There’s barely a Chinese flag in sight, nor any chest-beating about Chinese ingenuity and leadership.” Instead, what’s presented is a traditional tale of nations and people pulling together to save the planet, which made the film much more accessible for international audiences.
Although the film is lack of nationalism and propaganda, we still can find Chinses unique spiritual core through the film. In the following section, this report will compare what aspects of The Wandering Earth learns from Hollywood films, how the film combines Chinese spirit and concept with sci-fi film, and how the film realizes Chinese style of sci-fi.
Investigation
The Wandering Earth mainly learns from American Hollywood sci-fi films and disaster films from two aspects.
Multiple Narrative
Take Interstellar as an example, in this film, Cooper left his daughter Murphy and was sent out to the universe on a mission of saving mankind. From then on, the film began multiple narrative. Cooper was on mission in space, while Murphy was also working hard for human survival on earth. At the end of the film, their mission became one, and Cooper chose to sacrifice himself to find the final answer for human survival.
Similarly, in The Wandering Earth, the father was also on mission in space, while the son on earth experienced leaving home—saving home—returning home—defending home, inheriting his father’s sense of mission and responsibility, growing from a little man to a human hero and becoming a hero like his father. The film uses multiple narrative, compares the earth and the space station as a father and son, adopts the parallel editing and ends the film with the father and son working together, combining their two stories into one.
Visual expression of the plot
In The Wandering Earth, the aging of the sun, doomsday, and the frozen city buildings are referenced from Hollywood films with apocalyptic backgrounds such as The Day After Tomorrow, 2012.
The Day After Womorrow(2004)
2012(2009)
In 2012, there is a scene of a pilot flying a plane escaping from the volcanic ash. Behind the plane are constantly erupting volcanic ash and flying rocks. Just when the plane was about to be engulfed by the ash, it rushed out of the smoke. In this clip, the camera quickly switches between the characters and the plane, with fast-paced music, finally, the plane rushed out of the ash from an overhead perspective.
2012(2009)
The Wandering Earth(2019)
For the shots which include characters, the film mainly adopts medium close-up and medium shot, combined with the wide shot of the plane.
In The Wandering Earth, there is a clip that a truck drives quickly through a road where the rocks fall. Similar shooting techniques were used in this clip. The clip ends up with the truck rushing out of the dust when it was about to be engulfed.
So, how The Wandering Earth innovate and realize the Chinese style of sci-fi? This report is going to introduce two main reasons.
The concept of “Home”
In Interstellar, human leave the Earth behind and move to the stars aboard spaceships, with DNA maps and digital libraries of all human civilizations. However, in The Wandering Earth, they did not abandon the Earth, but flee with it. They treat the Earth as the spaceship, push it away from the Sun.
The Wandering Earth(2019)
The narrow underground city and the frozen Earth are not places to be abandoned, but the place where to build a new home. This is not only related to the agricultural culture, which contains the adherence of to home and motherland, but also closely related to the history of modern China.
For Westerners, people tend to view home in terms of relationships, such as family and friend for most of times. “The Chinese notion of home emphasizes a return to a geographical homeland, regardless of what—or who—is left there.” Said by Gwo, the director of The Wandering Earth. Gwo explains that this difference is rooted in the fact that the West, historically, has been a maritime civilization, continuously expanding by oceanic voyages, while “for thousands of years, the Chinese people have faced the Earth,” and have tended to associate “home” with the land itself (Chen, 2019).
Visual style based on Chinese Aesthetics
Any kind of visual style grows in a specific cultural environment, and they have their own historical and cultural context. If people just copy the western style to a Chinese film, it will not make sense. That is why some of the previous sci-if blockbusters in China cannot be accepted by the audience.
In the film, there are huge trucks with sharp edges and corners, covered by frost. Rough and powerful mechanical transmission. In addition, Chinese-style urban architecture, natural scenery, frozen Shanghai, Beijing and other landmark buildings which are familiar to Chinese people are presented.
The Wandering Earth(2019)
Director Gwo talked about this kind of style, “Our starting point was actually based on the visual style of Soviet heavy industry, because the Chinese have a certain feeling for that, including feelings for Soviet buildings. There are still many bell towers of this kind on Changan Street in Beijing.”
On top of that, the underground city shows more Chinese characteristics. Even if it is cold outside, the underground city still retains the temperature of the Chinese people’s life. The film uses warms colors and highly saturated lights to present the messy but warm feeling of the underground city.
Conclusion
The Wandering Earth combines the advantages of excellent Hollywood sci-fi films and incorporates Chinese unique spiritual core. It is a successful attempt and breakthrough in the field of sci-fi films in China. This film creates a unique Chinese-style of sci-if, integrates Chinese aesthetics and native land emotion into sci-if films, which can easily resonate with Chinese audiences.
The Wandering Earth establishes a new system and a new style, which pointed out the direction for the future development of Chinese sci-if films. We should be positive towards the plight of the development of sci-f films in China, strive to break the deadlock and create
Chinese-style sci-fi films. Under the background of Chinese increasingly completed industrialization, large number of costumers and huge capital chain provide effective help for Chinese sci-if films, it is the best time to develop Chinese sci-if films right now.
Discussion
Although The Wandering Earth still has received a lot of praise, there are still many shortcomings to be improved. For example, one of the most obvious shortcomings is that the film lacks rigorous scientific logic. Additionally, the actors’ lines in the film are kind of simple, the rhythm of the story is slightly chaotic, and the shaping of the characters are not well completed.
On to of that, in terms of the box-office, The Wandering Earth has achieved great success. However, “Of The Wandering Earth’s formidable profits, some 99 per cent came from its local market of China,” by Dave(2020). How to make Chinese sci-if films accepted by the world will be the direction that Chinese teams need to work hard in the future. But all in all,
The Wandering Earth has shown great sincerity to produce a good Chinese-style sci-if film to the audiences.
Reference
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