New Chinese movies ready to fuel upcoming movie season
"The Frog Kingdom: Extreme Games" premiered in the city on Sunday followed by interactions with children.
Following the success of the Chinese animated film "New Gods: Yang Jian," another homegrown 3D animated movie, "The Frog Kingdom: Extreme Games," is slated for national release on September 10 when the Mid-Autumn Festival falls.
The film is the third installment of "The Frog Kingdom" franchise that debuted nine years ago and has received several animation awards for its script and visual effects.
It centers on the Frog Princess's efforts to win a skateboarding competition. The never-yielding spirit of extreme sports is highlighted in the movie along with hilarious comedic adventure elements.
Movies screened during the summer have performed well and made more than 9.1 billion yuan (US$1.32 billion) at the box office, a 22.7 percent increase over the same period last year.
This success has rekindled many people's confidence in the industry and heightened expectations for the market in the following weeks as Mid-Autumn Festival and the National Day holiday are traditionally another important season for Chinese cinema.
"In spite of the influence of the pandemic, Chinese cinema still demonstrates a strong vitality and diversity with many inspiring productions," said movie buff Alex Liu, a 20-something engineer.
He also mentioned the ongoing poetic and tragic drama "Return to Dust," a nominee for the main competition at the 72nd Berlin International Film Festival.
"Return to Dust" has received high praise from audiences for its touching story and cinematography.
Set to the backdrop of a rural community, the Chinese film has recently received wide acclaim for its true-to-life portrait of a rural couple in love.
So far, the movie has earned 80 million yuan as a "dark horse," and many movie fans are asking for an extension of its screening.
Hong Kong filmmaker Derek Yee's "In Search of Lost Time," a touching tale based on a real-life historical event, will hit cinemas across China on September 9.
Set in the early 1960s, the film tells the story of 3,000 orphans from southern China who were adopted by nomadic families in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region during a famine.
Yee expressed his wish that audiences will be moved by the virtue and love of ordinary people.
Other films to be released this month include "Her," a joint effort between Sylvia Chang, Li Shaohong and Chen Chong to explore the struggles and plights in life from a female perspective, and Yang Lina's "Song of Spring," a drama about an 85-year-old mother who takes care of her 65-year-old daughter suffering from Alzheimer's disease.
Derek Yee's "In Search of Lost Time" is a touching tale based on a real-life historical event in the early 1960s.
Yang Lina's "Song of Spring" is about an 85-year-old mother who looks after her 65-year-old daughter suffering from Alzheimer's disease.
"Her," shot from a female perspective, depicts ordinary people's struggles and plights.
