あの年、私は卒業したばかり

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 a turn for the better, finally rewriting Chinese film history. Previously, a few directors would gather and lament, “Chinese directors are divided into Wu Jing directors and other directors.” Soon, it became “Wu Jing directors, Chen Sicheng directors, and other directors.” Then, “Wu Jing, Chen Sicheng, Guo Fan directors, and other directors.” Later, “Wu Jing, Chen Sicheng, Guo Fan, Zhang Yimou, Chen Kaige directors, and other directors…” Fortunately, it has finally returned to the essence of film: Chinese films are now divided into “Ne Zha 2” and “other films.”

Is that acceptable?

Translated by ChatGPT

面白い展開となり、中国映画の歴史は書き換えられました： 過去には、監督たちが集まってため息をつきながら、「中国の映画製作者は、ウー・ジンとそれ以外のすべての監督に分けられる」と言っていました。 やがて、これは次のように進化しました：「中国の映画製作者は、ウー・ジン、チェン・シーチェン、そしてそれ以外のすべての監督に分けられる」。 その後、「ウー・ジン、チェン・シーチェン、グオ・ファン、そしてそれ以外のすべての監督」となりました。 そして最終的には、「ウー・ジン、チェン・シーチェン、グオ・ファン、チャン・イーモウ、チェン・カイゲ、そしてそれ以外のすべての監督」となりました。

幸いなことに、焦点はようやく映画そのものに戻りました：「中国映画は、『哪吒（ナタ）2』とそれ以外のすべての映画に分けられる」。

まあ、それなりに納得です。