Sino Silver Screen: Film Fest Online Screening, Mr. Rogers Film Comes to China, and a War Epic Becomes First Hit of the Year

This post comes courtesy of our content partners China Film Insider.

Beijing Film Fest tickets sold out too fast? Check out the online screenings

Tickets for movie screenings at the 10th annual Beijing International Film Festival (BJIFF) went on sale at noon last Wednesday, however, much to the dismay of Beijing's cinephiles 72 percent of tickets sold out in the first ten minutes, with a variety of offerings including Akira, War and Peace, Wet Season, Cinema Paradiso, The Elephant Man, The Matrix trilogy, and Apocalypse Now selling out the quickest. If you happen to be among those who were unable to snag a seat at your favorite flick, there is a small consolation prize in that a selection of the festival's films are now streaming on iQIYI as part of an ongoing collaboration between the Chinese streaming giant and the festival. Let's be real though, it's not exactly the theatre-going experience you were probably hoping for. To stream the films on iQIYI, click here.

Film starring Tom Hanks as Mr. Rogers sets China release date

Tom Hanks’A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood has confirmed a Sep 18 theatrical release date in China. The film will join a thickening crowd of domestic and international films hitting Chinese big screens in the following six weeks. The film, about beloved US television host Mr. Rogers, received investment from China's Tencent Pictures in the early part of last year. Tencent originally planned to release the film in February after the Oscars ceremony, for which Hanks was nominated as a supporting actor, but the plan was upended by the coronavirus outbreak and the closure of cinemas beginning Jan 23.

War-epic on course to become the year's first blockbuster

The war-epic, The Eight Hundred, from well-established Chinese director Guan Hu is on its way to becoming the first blockbuster film of the year in China after its prevailing weekend, bolstered by audience enthusiasm during a Monday preview. According to data collected by Ent Group, the film has racked up close to RMB 50 million from 172,000 screenings on Monday, along with a sum of RMB 13 million earned from a smaller prescreening during the weekend.

Urban women-themed TV drama gets 5.6 billion views

Nothing But Thirty, a Chinese television drama about urban women, has racked up more than 5.6 billion views online since its Jul 17 release. It has topped the daily online video view chart for Chinese TV dramas, which is compiled by Maoyan, a platform that provides film and TV drama data, for the past 23 consecutive days. The show revolves around three vastly different women who take matters into their own hands as they come across different life challenges. Featuring a fresh narrative that centers on independent women who tackle their own problems, Nothing But Thirty is a rare, high-quality domestic TV show that seeks to tell realistic tales of struggles for women living in the city. 

Long-awaited animation film Legend of Deification to release on National Day Holiday

Legend of Deification, a long-awaited animated feature from the same studio behind last year's box office sensation Ne Zha, is set to hit the big screens on Oct 1, the National Day Holiday. Originally scheduled for a Chinese Lunar New Year release but postponed due to the COVID-19 outbreak, Legend of Deification has been sitting on many people's watchlist for months. The film recounts the story of Jiang Ziya, a genius strategist from the novel Fengshen Yanyi, or The Investiture of the Gods, a Ming Dynasty book that inspired Ne Zha – the animation film that grossed more than RMB 5 billion in 2019. 

Peter Chan's volleyball biographical film sets release for Oct 1

Hong Kong director Peter Chan's biographical sports drama Leap, is set to hit the big screens on Sep 30, joining the aforementioned animation film Legend of Deification to open one of the busiest movie-going weeks every year – the National Day Holiday. Starring Gong Li and Huang Bo, Leap is based on the Chinese women's national volleyball team's stories spread over more than 40 years.

READ: iQIYI's "The Bad Kids" Gets Subtitles in Eight Languages

Images: China Film Insider