About 86 percent Chinese of audiences have given a high rating
to the new year blockbuster Assembly, which is
unprecedented among the country's holiday hits, according to a
survey by the China Film Association.
The previous best-liked film was the Hollywood action hit
King Kong with a 73.5 percent approval rating in the
association's annual survey. The latest survey is the fourth.
The survey, the core of an in-depth report on China's film
market, sent 1,000 questionnaires to 20 large cinemas nationwide
starting on Dec. 20.
Unlike previous holiday hits, which ranged from joyous cliches
to the dark humor of Assembly director Feng Xiaogang's
other films, Assembly is a human drama about a soldier of
a People's Liberation Army unit during the civil war in the 1940s.
The soldier, once a company commander, devoted his entire life to
redeeming the honor of fellow soldiers who are declared missing in
action.
Some 73.5 percent of respondents said it was a heart-warming
film, and 99 percent said they were not disappointed by Feng's new
project.
"All the characters were hardly acting. Everything in the film
seemed so real," said filmgoer Dang Guohui, mentioning a friend's
father who was a soldier at that time and who broke into tears when
the company commander in the film started speaking.
"He kept saying, 'it was all so real ... their clothes ... their
words ... even the company commander's bad temper was exactly the
same.'"
Professor Yin Hong of Tsinghua University said:
"Assembly has set an example for all the country's
mainstream blockbusters."
Rao Shuguang, with the China Film Art Research Center, agreed,
saying that Assembly could set a direction for Chinese
movies.
Besides the overwhelming praise from fans and critics,
Assembly has also done great box office. In its first nine
days, the film has raked in more than 130 million yuan (16 million
U.S. dollars), which was the total gross of Feng's last ambitious
ancient epic, The Banquet.
The survey results, released on Thursday, are preliminary and a
more comprehensive result is expected in February. The survey
included Wong Kar Wai's star-studded My Blueberry Night
and others.
The previous masterpieces of the bankable 50-year-old Feng
include Big Shot's Funeral (2001), Cell Phone
(2003), A World without Thieves (2004) and The
Banquet (2007).
(Xinhua News Agency December 31, 2007)