Chinese video-streaming giant Youku Tudou recently announced its film lineup for 2015. But with the surprising absence of big stars and fancy subjects, the six films announced appear more like a collection of popular culture symbols.

Gardenia Blossom, for instance, takes its name from the one-time hit song sung by entertainment host He Jiong in sweet memory of his college life. Now, a feature film on the same subject will be directed by He himself. The next film, Absolutely Unexpected, is adapted from an online video series, which is now in its second season.

Another two films in this year's lineup are based on a popular drama and a hit comedy series, respectively.

The most ready-to-sell production in this lineup is Let's Get Married, a remake of the namesake TV serial, starring fashion idol Gao Yuanyuan.

Youku entered the business by creating its own film company Heyi Pictures last year and became the second major video website, after iQiyi, to officially launch a movie-making unit. It planned to work with China's major film companies by jointly investing in at least eight feature films a year. Its advantage in online marketing has made it a popular partner.

In 2014, Heyi jointly invested in 11 movies that grossed a total 3.3 billion yuan ($529 million). Three such films made it to the top 10 grossers last year, including writer-director Han Han's debut The Continent and a 3-D adaptation of Peking Opera classic The Taking of the Tiger Mountain. Both films made more than 600 million yuan.

"We use the influence of the Internet to help our partners do better marketing and produce better contents," says Zhu Huilong, CEO of Heyi Pictures.

Zhu attributes the success of Fleet of Time, a once underestimated school romance that eventually grossed a surprising 580 million yuan last year, in part to their effective marketing strategies that mainly included a series of nostalgic videos. The best example of their online marketing expertise is the hugely successful Little Apple song that they used to promote the movie Old Boy: Way of the Dragon.

But Youku is now trying to shift its attention from marketing to the preliminary development of film projects in line with what the Chinese film industry loosely refers to as "intellectual property".

The Chinese movie business regards IP as the main concept behind a movie. For example, if a song is capable of becoming a hit online, Youku may up the marketing strategy by making a video or a cartoon series based on it.

The idea is further enhanced, depending on its popularity, by turning it into a full-length feature film.

More than 200,000 videos are uploaded on Youku each day from different parts of the world, and they are also seen as sources for potential film ideas. As Youku's first movie attempt, Old Boy: Way of the Dragon, was adapted from a short Chinese online video Old Boy in 2009. The most popular themes for that video were found to be music, dreams and youth.

"Movie creation has become an interactive process in which we get to know the audiences' needs and have them fulfilled," says Liu Kailuo, president of Heyi Pictures.

The most successfully developed IP last year was Where Are We Going, Dad?, the Chinese version of a South Korean reality TV show. A hit Chinese movie on the show by the same name has done box-office wonders. Its sequel is on its way to cash in on the present festival season.

But this new model of movie-making has irked traditional producers and directors.

Dad reportedly took only five days to finish. It was thus mocked as "an extended version of the TV show". While participating in a TV show recently, film director Feng Xiaogang said that such movies were "poisoning" Chinese cinema because no investor was willing to finance "serious" films any longer.

Popular IPs are truly effective in "drawing investments and simplifying the distribution and promotion efforts", Li Yaping, producer of the movie Running Man that's also based on a TV show, told a gathering at a Tencent event.

Popular IPs, like big stars and directors, are a reason to convince audiences to go to the cinemas, says Liu Kailuo from Heyi Pictures." We need a balance between art and business."

hanbingbin@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily USA 02/12/2015 page8)