Sir Ian McKellen and Chinese actor Jiao Huang perform a scene from one of Shakespeare's works at the opening of SIFF. photos provided to china daily

Unbridled growth and the resulting problems

New cinemas have sprouted across China at a rapid pace in the past few years, and according to statistics from SIFF, an average of 22 new film screens are introduced to the country every day.

As such, big film production companies in China have been quick to pay significant fees for film adaptation copyrights to fill these screens and experts say this has resulted in the major players such as Wanda and Bona Film Group “hoarding” IPs (intellectual property).

Much investments have also been pouring into China’s film industry as a result of this rapid development. Yu Dong, founder of the Bona Film Group, one of the largest film distributors in China, said that while huge investments can help filmmakers produce better movies, they can at times become a problem.

“Some people don’t want to make money from the film itself. Instead, they look to build complicated financial tools in the name of filmmaking, so as to absorb individual investors’ capital,” said Yu.

For example, the first installment of the Ip Man film series, which stars Hong Kong actor Donnie Yen, was such a success that executives from the show ended up approaching ordinary people to buy shares for the third installment with promises of high profits. Ip Man 3 failed to live up to expectations, resulting in angry investors demanding their money back.

The fast growth of the domestic movie industry has also expanded to the Internet, which is gaining prominence as a broadcasting platform. Sites like iQIYI, one of the largest online streaming sites in China, have made authorized films and TV series more accessible than ever.

Paid users can watch most of Hollywood’s major productions with a year-long membership that costs no more than 198 yuan. The company has also announced the launch of its new application iQIYI Cartoon Home for children, which provides cartoon content for free to iQIYI paid subscribers.

iQIYI announced during the SIFF that it had 20 million paid subscribers as of June 1. Gong Yu, founder and CEO of iQIYI, said that it took the company almost four years to gain its first 5 million paid subscribers. However, the number of users surged to 10 million just six months after reaching that milestone, an indication of the growing popularity of online content.

Oscar-winning Taiwan director Ang Lee said while the overall Chinese film industry has closed the gap with its US counterparts over the years, having become more experienced in areas such as logistics and technical abilities, he noted that too fast a development could prove to be unhealthy in the long run. Lee — best known for his movies Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Lust, Caution — also said that the over-reliance on big-name stars may inevitably compromise the quality of a film.

zhangkun@chinadaily.com.cn