Screen Time: Killer Mermaids Take Chinese Cinema to the World

There’s not much to report this week in terms of indie screenings around town, but who needs earnest arthouse when you have Greek warriors, pirates, underwater kingdoms and mermaids who specialize in killing men during sex? All this and more is promised by China’s latest blockbuster, Empires of the Deep, currently in production north of Beijing.

There’s been a lot of talk in recent years about China building itself into a filmmaking powerhouse to rival Hollywood, and local real estate magnate Jon Jiang has now set out to make this dream a reality. With a budget of US$ 100 million, Empires of the Deep is on track to become the most expensive mainland production in history according to the New York Times.

This site says the film “tells about a young man’s adventure in the undersea mermaid kingdom in order to save his father, while encountering ferocious sea monsters and gets involved in large-scale battles in the seabed between mermaids, monsters and demons.”

Sounds truly remarkable.

Actors have flown in from all over the world for the production, including such luminous talent as Olga Kurylenko, a Ukrainian actress who appeared in the last James Bond flick, Quantum of Solace. Kurylenko looks set to follow in the footsteps of a string of Bond girls who have gone on to long, illustrious careers following appearances in the 007 series. According to the New York Times, Jiang originally wanted Monica Bellucci or Sharon Stone but they declined.

Shoring up the on-screen talent, Jiang has gone through not one, but four different directors. One of them, Michael French, claimed in the New York Times that “the producers had not paid him for some of his work and expenses and that many cast and crew members… were paid late or not at all.” The article also quoted French as saying, “The manner in which this film had been run was unlike any movie I had ever been involved in.”

With its multiple directors, fantastic storyline and blown budget (it was originally supposed to cost US$ 50 million), Empires of the Deep looks set to be the greatest screen entertainment since Marlon Brando’s The Island of Dr. Moreau. If nothing else I’ll be watching to find out exactly how you have sex with a mermaid.

While we’re talking blockbusters, Russell Crowe’s Robin Hood is currently playing around town, as is Shanghai, a thriller set in wartime China starring John Cusack, Chow Yun-Fat and Gong Li. Both films are playing in English with Chinese subtitles at Mega Box in the Village and BC MOMA.

At the other end of the filmmaking scale, Trainspotting Café in Fangjia Hutong is screening The Village Elementary at 2pm on Sunday (June 20), a local documentary about life in an impoverished village school shaken by the Sichuan earthquake. The film is in Chinese with English subtitles, and the screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Huang Mei. Entry is free.

Also free are three new short films by Beijing-based filmmakers on display in the lobby of the Opposite House (at 11 Sanlitun Lu) until Sunday, June 20. The three films were commissioned by, and filmed within, the hotel, “as an extension of their commitment to support emerging local artists in every medium,” according to an article about the project on the degenerate Films site.

The films are by Liu Jiayin (the director of Oxhide, who I interviewed for theBeijinger.com earlier this year), Peng Lei (who as well as being the director of Peking Monster and The Panda Candy, is the lead singer of Beijing band New Pants), and Zhao Ye (director of Jalainur).

Down south, the Shanghai International Film Festival winds up this weekend. The Global Times reported on a verbal spat between heavyweight US producer Harvey Weinstein and local star director Feng Xiaogang at the festival’s industry summit earlier this week. Although Feng has worked with American backing on films like Big Shot's Funeral, Cell Phone and A World Without Thieves, he railed against China’s obsession with competing with Hollywood globally, and labeled Weinstein a “fraud.” Unfortunately the article didn't mention Feng's views on Empires of the Deep.

Feng did point out, however, that China’s “Chollywood” aspirations are somewhat hamstrung by the country’s censorship regime, which incidentally also doesn’t help the Shanghai Film Festival’s desire to be taken seriously. Why bother with Shanghai when Hong Kong can show whatever it wants with a much more serious program earlier in the year? To read about just how ordinary the Shanghai festival can be, check out this damning little piece published by the Shanghaiist yesterday.

Speaking of festivals, don’t forget the Beijing International Movie Festival is on until June 30 at various venues around the city – see here for the full schedule.