China's movie market has been expanding for some time now. A year ago, people were feeling slightly regrettable when total annual box office income failed to pass the 30 billion yuan threshold. This year by December 3rd, a 40 billion yuan record has been set and China's home-made movies account for nearly 60% of the total. Above all, China's 3D fantasy adventure film "Monster Hunt" became the country's highest-grossing film in July, beating international box office powerhouse "Furious 7".In the year 2015, China's movie industry not only achieved gratifying income figures, they've also made progress in an all-around manner.First and foremost, infrastructure building continues to generate exciting results, bringing the total number of cinema screens in the country to somewhere near 31,000. Currently the overall attendance rate stays around 15%, but the surplus seats stand ready to accommodate box office explosions, which are happening on a more regular basis in recent years.Most of the new facilities are being built in smaller cities or townships, where a new cinema attracts more moviegoers on average than a new cineplex in downtown Beijing. The increase in their number is also tipping the balance in China's movie market. While previously the urban dwellers footed almost all the bills, now small town young adults are empowered to change the way movies are made in this country.A typical example is how youth-centric stories are giving way to comedies. Suddenly China's storywriters have waken up to the possibility that maybe in the small cities, not every young man has lost the love of his life when the girl immigrate to a foreign country, and not every woman can bask in the favor of her young, handsome billionaire of a boss - when that does happen it is usually a middle-aged man, short and rotund and married with kids. Petty sentiment and fake melancholy have no currency among the small city dwellers, who simply want to enjoy some hearty laugher after a day's hard work.For that reason, comedy is the safest of all genres in which filmmakers are willing to invest their resources. Actor-turned-director Xu Zheng, who has kept impeccable track records in both roles, staged an ambitious comeback in "Lost in Hong Kong," which made the list of Top 3 earners, despite fierce competition from another comedy film and this year's No. 5 earner "Goodbye Mr. Loser."The favor of small town young adults propelled more titles to make headlines which otherwise could have remained obscure among the hundreds of low-budget stories cobbled up by amateur filmmakers. Chief among them is "Wolf Warriors," directed by actor Wu Jing. Mr. Wu is a talented martial artist and has a face not half bad, somehow his career as an actor never seem to take off. His first film in the director's chair depicts a hunt for foreign spies and features note-worthy action sequences, but the film's undisguised demonstration of patriotism follows the narrative of the past century. The stylish young men loitering in Beijing's Sanlitun will frown upon it, but they couldn't stop the film from causing a moderately big bang in the market.The potential and appetite of small town young adults therefore appeared on the radar of Chinese filmmakers, who didn't bother to figure out what this sizable group of consumers want the most. Their standard approach is to build on something that has already stood the test. "Dior's Man" is a popular show inspired by Germany sketch comedy "Knallerfrauen" and is streamed exclusively on China's video portals. Despite content that some may consider vulgar, it is nonetheless a well executed and creative show. So when the same crew came up with a film project "Jian Bing Man," they rocked the market by grossing more than 1.1 billion yuan.The source of inspiration is not limited to video content. Best-selling cartoon novel "Go Away Mr. Tumor" about a cartoonist's fight against cancer has warmed many hearts over the years, now a movie of the same name has been made starring actress Bai Baihe and actor Daniel Wu. Strictly speaking, the engineered story is not perfect, but it carries every bit of the late cartoonist's creative genius and optimistic spirit and should be considered a worthy tribute to the girl who offered a valuable message to every willing listener.Perhaps the most convincing example is to be found in the novel "Ghost Blows out the Light," a story about tomb-raiders so popular among Chinese internet users that two film adaptations have been made and screened this year. "Mojin - The Lost Legend" premiered in late December and is still going strong in the box office towards the end of the year. This adaptation boasts an A-list cast and spectacular setting that recreates the mysterious atmosphere described in the original story. While this adaption by Director Wuershan is considered the more successful of the two in narrative and in box office income, Director Lu Chuan's interpretation is more monumental in a different sense.Indeed, Lu Chuan's "Chronicles of the Ghostly Tribe" represents the highest grade of visual effect in Chinese films, up to the standard of Hollywood blockbuster films. The long shots bring up the striking beauty of a desert setting, much like "Mad Max: Fury Road." And the animated beasts would have been even more "flawless" if only the actors and actresses he hired were less green.The level of visually enhanced spectacle in "Chronicles of the Ghostly Tribe" is only matched by that in Tsui Hark's "The Taking of Tiger Mountain," where a Chinese soldier in the 1940s braved the same amount of make-believe bullets and explosions as Steve Rogers in Marvel's Captain America. Behold, it is China's own superhero story!And we have to talk about the animation film "Monkey King: Hero is back" when we talk about special effects. This tight-budget animation was only possible to achieve a 956 million yuan income because director Tian Xiaopeng insisted on quality control. Throughout the meagerly-funded seven-year project many crew members turned their backs and walked away, but the director's persistence led to the birth of the best Chinese animation film in decades. Many moviegoers, overwhelmed by its lively imagery, volunteered to promote the film in their friendly circles, but its portrayal of a fierce warrior who has it powers in check is the most impressive interpretation of the classic text.But the year 2015 is not just about the small city young adults, the market demand and the box office ranking. Filmmakers focused on expressing their own ideas are also getting their voices heard. Taiwan director Hou Hsiao-hsien's martial arts film “The Assassin” was honored with a Best Director title at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival. His efforts created a chance for willing viewers to live a story written by Tang Dynasty novelists. There is no way of knowing if the film speaks the truth about Tang Dynasty people's lives, but it certainly feels like reading the novels.Another director devoted to self-expression is Jia Zhangke, who seems quite obsessed with the place he was born, most of his stories happen in a small town named Fenyang in Central China's Shanxi Province. In "Mountains May Depart," Mr. Jia ventured outside his familiar territory into a wider space-time reality and sought to capture the unspeakable loneliness that haunts people unblessed with love. Jia's command of every single element in his narrative is unmatched by hardly any of his Chinese peers, but his step outside familiar terrain did not land as smoothly as one would expect from someone of his talent and calibre.The last entry is my personal favorite. "The Master" is Xu Haofeng's third attempt at self-expression. The lost world of martial artists is a recurring theme in Xu Haofeng's stories, Wang Kar Wai tried to adapt it in "The Grand Master" and ended up showing off his cinematographer's skills, Chen Kaige tried to adapt it in "Monk Comes Down the Mountain" and ended up discrediting himself and his cast members, no one understands the quaint mindset of Xu Haofeng's characters better than Xu Haofeng himself, and this time he's learnt some new tricks to avoid boring his viewers. The realist fighting style and snappy pacing proved an effective formula on modern moviegoers.Movies such as "The Assassin," "Mountains May Depart" and "The Master" don't get a lot of time slots in the schedule books, because they are much too quiet to induce laughter. A pessimist would loath the dominance of small town young adults and a rampant profit-seeking culture in the movie industry, but in 2015 Chinese filmmakers have come a long way to improve their products in various aspects, in time the viewers will surely follow suit and cultivate their own tastes, we only need to take it one step at a time.
