Source: China Real Time, WSJ (1/17/17)
Bad Reviews for China’s Film Critics
By Lilian Lin
Matt Damon in ‘Great Wall.’ PHOTO: UNIVERSAL PICTURES
In China, the critics now have critics.
Amid a surge in film and TV critics working exclusively online, the state-backed China Film Critics Association has named a 19-member committee to guide “the healthy development of online film and TV critics.”
The association, comprised primarily of established critics and academics, said it was not trying to censor the work of online colleagues, some of whom have gained large followings.
The new group was empaneled after negative reviews of two new films, “Great Wall” and “See You Tomorrow,” which have powerful Chinese backers. The state-sponsored People’s Daily recently opined in an online edition that “malicious bad reviews” could devastate “the ecosystem for Chinese films.”
In one instance, an online critic who goes by the name “Profaning Film” said “Great Wall” was marred by weak characters, “a bad story and lack for imagination” and that its director was washed up.
A scene from the film ‘See You Tomorrow.’
After the review ran, the state-sponsored China Film News criticized Profaning Film, saying the critic was “treading the bottom.”
Profaning Film has about 960,000 followers on the Twitter-like Weibo platform. Profaning Film did not respond to requests for comment, and the critic’s actual identity could not be determined.
“Great Wall” is a China-U.S. co-production whose backers include the state-supported China Film Group, Dalian Wanda Group’s Legendary Entertainment and Le Vision Pictures, a unit of the internet company LeEco.
People’s Daily and China Film News have also criticized the credibility of online film site Douban.com, after its aggregate of consumer reviews gave “See You Tomorrow” a measly one star out of a possible five. The film was produced by Alibaba Pictures, the film arm of the internet giant Alibaba Group.
A Bei, the founder of Douban.com, said in a response posted onlinethat the company would accept “conducive criticism” and would continue to work on providing fair star ratings.
Reports of the new critics panel in Chinese news media have led to a backlash on social media, with one commentator saying that it could hinder Chinese film development by shielding it from critiques that could help filmmakers improve their art.
“Negative reviews would not hinder films from developing, but not allowing negative reviews would,” said one user on Weibo.
In response to the dustup, online film critic Mu Weier resigned from the panel, saying he was tired of being vilified by, well, critics. He apologized to his readers.
“Writing film critics should be responsible to no individual or institution,” he said in a statement he posted online.
The committee’s director, Peking University professor Zhang Yiwu, said in a written response to The Wall Street Journal that the new group was not trying to influence opinions, and would not seek to punish critics whose opinions it doesn’t like. The goal, he said, is to “make online critics more objective, more true to facts and more diversified.”
Yan Peng, a veteran film critic, questioned how criticism—a subjective art—could be held to a standard of truthfulness.
“Movies are not science, so how can you define ‘to the facts’?” Mr. Yan said on his verified Weibo account. “Setting boundaries for speeches can be very dangerous.”