那一年，我刚毕业

那一年，我刚毕业，阿凡达上映。那是一种什么状态呢？葱省虾市一个土了吧唧的三线城市大家人传人纷纷要去看阿凡达，甚至导致很多人根本不知道要看3D大部分看了2D，但依然不影响阿凡达席卷全球。

席卷全球是人传人的仰慕，没有任何政治与民族因素，更没有自卑心理。自卑心理就是我发财了牛逼了要让全世界都服我。

我是陪客户喝完酒去看的3D，在半醒半梦间，我被震撼到连酒都醒了。那时我就想，电影行业能人太多，我可能连第五编剧都混不上。

而且简中大家戏谑道：牛逼啊，钉子户大战城管拍这么好！ 没有控评没有删除没有管控。

可见，那会儿人们对于新技术的渴望多么热衷。那完全是一种“卧槽这世界牛逼到什么地步了我得赶紧去看看看完了想人家如此牛逼我们还在用他妈的诺基亚”…… 没有任何东西方偏见。 我看完第一反应就是去买了iPhone3。

也没有任何部门发过什么通知要求组织观影。那是一种完全基于想见见世面的观影。然而，2009年过去14年了，连阿凡达的一半震撼都没做到，现在居然要掀翻世界影史了。

放过电影吧，一年票房不到一百亿美元。去年才425亿人民币…电影真的很渺小不值得老爷们关注。

但它又很伟大，它是各种艺术的汇集之和。

事到如今也蛮好，终于改写了中国影史：过去几个导演们聚在一起感叹，中国导演分为吴京导演及其他导演。 很快变成了吴京导演陈思诚导演及其他导演。又变成了吴京陈思诚郭帆导演及其他导演，又变成吴京陈思诚郭帆张艺谋陈凯歌导演及其他导演…好在总算回到了电影：中国电分为哪吒2及其他电影。

也行吧？

Translated by ChatGPT

That year, I had just graduated, and Avatar was released.

What was the atmosphere like back then? In a third-tier city in Hunan Province, a rather backward place, word spread from person to person that everyone had to see Avatar. This craze led to many people not even realizing they needed to watch it in 3D—most ended up watching the 2D version. Yet, that didn’t stop Avatar from sweeping the world.

Its global success was fueled by admiration spreading from person to person, without any political or nationalistic factors, and certainly without any sense of inferiority. An inferiority complex is when someone gets rich and powerful and then desperately wants the whole world to acknowledge them.

I went to see Avatar in 3D after drinking with a client. In my half-drunken, half-dreamy state, I was so amazed that I instantly sobered up. At that moment, I thought: “There are so many geniuses in the film industry. I probably wouldn’t even qualify to be the fifth screenwriter.”

Moreover, in the Chinese internet slang of the time, people joked: “Amazing! A blockbuster about nail-house residents fighting against urban management officers!” There was no censorship, no deleted posts, no strict control.

This shows just how eager people were for new technology back then. It was purely a reaction of: “Holy crap, the world is getting insanely advanced! I have to see this! And after watching, I feel like, damn, they are so incredible while we’re still using Nokia phones…” There was no East vs. West bias. My first instinct after watching was to go buy an iPhone 3.

No government department ever issued any notice urging people to go watch it. It was purely driven by curiosity and the desire to see what the world had to offer.

However, 14 years have passed since 2009, and not a single film has managed to deliver even half the impact Avatar did. Yet now, some are claiming that Chinese films are overturning global cinema history.

Just let movies be. The entire annual global box office barely reaches $10 billion. Last year, China’s total box office revenue was just 42.5 billion RMB (~$6 billion). Movies are too insignificant to warrant attention from the authorities.

But at the same time, movies are also great, as they are the ultimate fusion of multiple forms of art.

At this point, things have taken an amusing turn, and Chinese cinema history has been rewritten: In the past, directors would gather and sigh, saying, “Chinese filmmakers can be divided into Wu Jing and all other directors.” Soon, this evolved into: “Chinese filmmakers can be divided into Wu Jing, Chen Sicheng, and all other directors.” Then, it became: “Wu Jing, Chen Sicheng, Guo Fan, and all other directors.” And eventually: “Wu Jing, Chen Sicheng, Guo Fan, Zhang Yimou, Chen Kaige, and all other directors.”

Fortunately, the focus has finally returned to movies themselves: “Chinese films can be divided into Ne Zha 2 and all other movies.”

Well, fair enough.