One hundred years ago, the first self-made movie, a documentary about the Peking opera Conquering Jun Mountain appeared in China. Since then, great changes have taken place in the country's film industry, which has maintained a robust momentum in both the domestic and international film stage in the past years.

 

China's film industry produced 260 movies creating a total US$600 million in revenue in 2005, up US$150 million from last year.

 

The two latest movies—The Promise, a martial arts epic directed by mainland director Chen Kaige and Riding Alone For Thousands of Miles, a family film directed by Zhang Yimou that puts emphasis on artistic merit—are currently screening throughout the country.

 

Tong Gang, director of the Film Bureau of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, said that these two films have significantly boosted the domestic film market.    

 

"Both of them not only arouse movie fans' enthusiasm about domestically produced movies, but they also have greatly boosted the film market as well. They show a robust productive capacity and reveal the influence of the Chinese movie industry; these two movies have brought great confidence and precious experience to Chinese film industry," Tong said. 

 

Chinese film has been following the trends of the world movie industry ever since the emergence of its first movie one hundred years ago. However, it has been in downwards phase for decades due to various reasons.

 

The year 2002 signals the beginning of the government's efforts to open and rejuvenate the market. Meanwhile, state-owned and domestic and international privately-owned investment has also been introduced to Chinese film production.

 

Last year's Hero, directed by world-renowned filmmaker Zhang Yimou, profited from the new policy and achieved huge success in 2002, earning the largest total box office revenue in Chinese film history of more than US$31 million.

 

China has produced many films in cooperation with foreign film agencies this year, including The Myth, Seven Swords, Seoul Raiders and others.

 

Nevertheless, experts say the lack of good screenplays, shortage of funds, unnecessary modifications as well as high ticket prices and other issues still remain the bottleneck for China's movie industry.

 

Ge Cunzhuang, a veteran actor in China, said he is quite optimistic about the future of China's movie industry although it has been in stagnation for years.

 

Ge said: "It has been a tough period in China's film history. However, the Chinese government at all levels attaches great importance to the development of the industry. So I am very optimistic about the future of film in our country."

 

(CRI December 28, 2005)