Last weekend, the Chinese satire from critically acclaimed director Feng Xiaogang, “I Am Not Madame Bovary,” premiered in theaters. The film was a huge financial success; bringing in over $29 million dollars, the film took one of the top spots in the Chinese box office. Despite such a large amount of success, there has been controversy between the director himself, and a chain of mainstream cinemas in China. Feng believes that the chain featuring his film, Wanda Cinemas, purposefully shortened play time in the theaters in order to prevent Feng from having increased profit margins.
Feng aired his grievance towards the owner of Wanda Cinemas, Wang Jianlin, to only hear back from Wang’s son, Wang Sicong. His son replied saying that there was no ill intent in shortening the play time, just that they chose to do so based off of not particularly enjoying the film. Wanda Cinemas are not strangers to controversy. Recently, Wang has been pushing his influence in the world of Hollywood and American production studios, and has even acquired several major productions companies, which hasn’t sit well for some Americans in the industry, as they feel Wang has too much connection with the Chinese government.
Despite not knowing for sure if Feng’s accusations toward Wanda Cinemas are accurate, “I Am Not Madame Bovary” made a huge impact on the Chinese movie world last week, and everyone should make a point to watch this clever piece!
(Source: LATimes)