The Fifth Shanghai International Film Festival was not only a feast for movie-goers
but also turned out to be a huge gathering for Chinese movie enthusiasts to talk about
the Chinese film business. The nine-day film festival, which ended on Sunday, drew many
domestic and international filmmakers, stars and critics. An audience of 17,000 flocked
daily to cinemas in China's most international metropolis. At discussion in and outside
cinemas, critics and audience blame an increasing competitive entertainment market, poor
production quality and monopolized distribution channels for losing appeal of most Chinese
films. The Chinese film industry enjoyed its best days during the past few decades but
has suffered hugely in recent years. Today, people enjoy much more freedom in choosing
the way they spend their leisure time. Films are no longer the major pastime for Chinese
people to kill their time. But rather, it is TV programmes that dominate their leisure hours.
No wonder that movie audiences have been shrinking; box office revenues, especially those of
home-grown low budget films, have gone down in recent years. Bad film quality, unsatisfactory
services in movie theatres and rampant film piracy on Video Compact Disc and Digital Video Disc
also keep people from going to the cinema.Some think the biggest problem of the Chinese film
industry is not competition from other forms of entertainment or overseas box office hits but
their poor quality due to various reasons. In this Internet era, some Chinese film directors
still cling to the old tricks of film-making they learnt ages ago. They ignore the changing
tastes of newer generations of audiences who are more emotionally attached to the small screen
of the TV and personal computer than the big screen at movie theatres. They have beautifully
packaged soap operas and music videos with cute, flashy teen icons to watch and look up to on
the tube; and they find much more fun playing electronic games and surfing the Internet than
sitting through a boring film in an uncomfortably furnished, poorly equipped cinema.
But, there are signs that the government has been stepping up efforts over the past few years
to crack down on copyright infringement. And measures have been taken to strengthen
intellectual property rights legislation and law enforcement. Some young, talented
filmmakers are bringing out films, though in a limited number, with novel shooting
approaches and more intriguing storytelling devices. With this, they are trying to draw
Chinese movie buffs back to theatres. To boost the development of the Chinese film industry,
the government should take more effective measures in breaking up the monopolies in the film
import, film distribution and film screening sectors.