那一年，我剛畢業

那一年，我剛畢業，阿凡達上映。那是一種什麼狀態呢？蔥省蝦市一個土了吧唧的三線城市大家人傳人紛紛要去看阿凡達，甚至導致很多人根本不知道要看3D大部分看了2D，但依然不影響阿凡達席捲全球。

席捲全球是人傳人的仰慕，沒有任何政治與民族因素，更沒有自卑心理。自卑心理就是我發財了牛逼了要讓全世界都服我。

我是陪客戶喝完酒去看的3D，在半醒半夢間，我被震撼到連酒都醒了。那時我就想，電影行業能人太多，我可能連第五編劇都混不上。

而且簡中大家戲謔道：牛逼啊，釘子戶大戰城管拍這麼好！ 沒有控評沒有刪除沒有管控。

可見，那會兒人們對於新技術的渴望多麼熱衷。那完全是一種“臥槽這世界牛逼到什麼地步了我得趕緊去看看看完了想人家如此牛逼我們還在用他媽的諾基亞”…… 沒有任何東西方偏見。 我看完第一反應就是去買了iPhone3。

也沒有任何部門發過什麼通知要求組織觀影。那是一種完全基於想見見世面的觀影。然而，2009年過去14年了，連阿凡達的一半震撼都沒做到，現在居然要掀翻世界影史了。

放過電影吧，一年票房不到一百億美元。去年才425億人民幣…電影真的很渺小不值得老爺們關注。

但它又很偉大，它是各種藝術的彙集之和。

事到如今也蠻好，終於改寫了中國影史：過去幾個導演們聚在一起感嘆，中國導演分為吳京導演及其他導演。 很快變成了吳京導演陳思誠導演及其他導演。又變成了吳京陳思誠郭帆導演及其他導演，又變成吳京陳思誠郭帆張藝謀陳凱歌導演及其他導演…好在總算回到了電影：中國電分為哪吒2及其他電影。

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.