China’s Film Industry Finally Joins the Space Race中國電影產業加入太空競賽

史蒂文·李·邁爾斯 英士

The country’s first blockbuster set in space， The Wandering Earth， opens amid grandiose expectations that it will represent the dawning of a new era in Chinese filmmaking.

It is one in a series of ambitious， big-budget films tackling a genre that， until now， has been beyond the reach of most filmmakers here—technically and financially. Those movies include Shanghai Fortress， about an alien attack on Earth， and Pathfinder， about a spaceship that crashes on a desert planet.

“Filmmakers in China see science fiction as a holy grail，” said Raymond Zhou， an independent critic， who noted that Hollywood had set the technological standards， and thus audience expectations， very high. The Wandering Earth， shown in 3-D， takes place in a distant future in which the sun is about to expand into a red giant and devour the Earth. The impending peril forces the world’s engineers to devise a plan to move the planet to a new solar system using giant thrusters. Things go very badly when Earth has to pass Jupiter， setting off a desperate scramble to save humanity from annihilation.

The special effects—like the apocalyptic climatic changes that would occur if Earth suddenly moved out of its cozy orbit—are certain to be measured against Hollywood’s， as ever here. And the preliminary reviews have been positive. “It’s like the coming-of-age of the industry，” Zhou said.

The Wandering Earth opens with the Lunar New Year， the beginning of an official， weeklong holiday that is traditionally a peak box-office period in China. It has a limited release in the United States， Canada， Australia and New Zealand. At home， it will compete with Crazy Alien， a comedy inspired by E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial about two brothers hoping to capitalize on the arrival of a visitor from outer space.

Both The Wandering Earth and Crazy Alien are adapted from works by Liu Cixin， the writer who has led a renaissance in science fiction here， becoming the first Chinese winner of the Hugo Award for the genre in 2015. His novels are sprawling epics and deeply researched. That makes them plausible fantasies about humanity’s encounters with a dangerous universe. Translating them into movies would challenge any filmmaker， as the director of The Wandering Earth， Guo Fan， acknowledged during a screening in Beijing.

That has made the film， produced by Beijing Jingxi Culture & Tourism Company and the state-owned China Film Group Corp.， a test for the industry. Guo， who uses the name Frant Gwo in English， noted that Chinese audiences have responded coolly to many of Hollywood’s previous sci-fi blockbusters. Studios， therefore， have been wary of investing the resources required to make convincing sci-fi.

The film’s budget reportedly reached nearly $50 million， modest by Hollywood standards but still significant here in China. More than 7，000 people were involved in the production. Much of it was filmed in the new Oriental Movie Metropolis， an $8 billion studio in the coast city of Qingdao， built by the real estate and entertainment giant Dalian Wanda.

“I really hope that this movie will not lose money at least，” said Guo， whose previous film， My Old Classmate， was a romantic comedy. “As long as this one does not lose money， we can continue to make science-fiction films.” The popularity of Liu’s novels could help. So could two recent Hollywood films， Gravity and The Martian. Both included important plot twists that， not incidentally， cast China’s space program in a positive light， and both were huge hits here.

The openings also come as China reached a milestone in space： the landing of a probe on the far side of the moon in January. Although decades behind Russia and the United States， China has now put astronauts in orbit and has ambitious plans to join—or even lead—a new age of space exploration.

“I think there is a very close connection between Chinese cinema and the nation’s fortunes，” said Sha Dan， a curator at the China Film Archive， who moderated a discussion with Guo. He cited the most popular film in China last year： Operation Red Sea， an action drama loosely based on the Chinese rescue of several hundred civilians from Yemen when war erupted there in 2015. “When we have the ability to go to war， we can make movies like Operation Red Sea，” he said， alluding to China’s military modernization in recent years. “Only when China can enter the space era can we make works like The Wandering Earth.”

Unlike Operation Red Sea or the two Wolf Warrior movies， which featured a Rambo-like hero battling Western villains， The Wandering Earth is not jingoistic， though it does star Wu Jing， the hero of the Wolf Warrior films， who put up his own investment in the project. He plays an astronaut aboard an international space station.

Guo said he consciously avoided making Wu’s character a do-it-alone superhero. The fight to save Earth is fought instead by an ensemble， including an affable Russian cosmonaut.

The Wandering Earth takes for granted China’s central role in future space exploration， but it also has a vision of the international collaboration necessary to cope with the threats facing the planet， a theme that runs deeply through Liu’s fiction. Liu， who attended a screening， noted that science-fiction films in China dated as far back as the 1930s， when the director Yang Xiaozhong made ones like Exchanged and Visiting Shanghai After 60 Years. “There were not the conditions for science-fiction movies to have an impact at the time.”

A film project based on Liu’s best-known work， the trilogy that began with The Three-Body Problem， was optioned and even filmed in 2015 but has since languished in postproduction， reportedly because of technical challenges and costs. The conditions now seem ripe. Seeing the The Wandering Earth on the screen， Liu said， was “soul shaking.”

中國第一部以太空為背景的大片《流浪地球》在萬眾期待之中隆重上映，人們普遍認為它將代表中國電影制作新時代的來臨。

直到現在，無論從技術還是資金上，科幻片都一直令絕大多數中國電影制作人難以觸碰。有不少中國電影人勇于嘗試，拍攝了一系列內容宏大且耗資巨大的科幻片，包括講述外星人襲擊地球的《上海堡壘》和講述太空船在荒漠星球墜毀的《拓星者》，而《流浪地球》就是其中之一。

獨立影評人周黎明說：“中國的電影制片人視科幻片為‘圣杯’。”他指出，好萊塢已樹立了很高的技術標桿，觀眾的期望也因而抬高。3D電影《流浪地球》的故事發生在遙遠的未來，那時的太陽即將膨脹成紅色巨星吞噬地球。危險迫在眉睫，全世界的工程師不得不制訂計劃，利用巨型推進器將地球轉移到新的太陽系。當轉移不得不經過木星時，情況變得十分危急，引發了拯救人類免于滅絕的拼力一搏。

與以往一樣，影片中的特效——比如假設地球突然離開舒適軌道而引發的災難性氣候變化——肯定會被拿來與好萊塢的對比。初步的反響是積極的。周黎明認為：“該行業似乎正逐步走向成熟。”

《流浪地球》于中國農歷新年法定假期首日上映，這七天假期是中國傳統上的票房黃金期。該片在美國、加拿大、澳大利亞和新西蘭會小規模上映。在國內，它將與喜劇片《瘋狂的外星人》競爭，后者受《外星人E.T.》啟發，講述了兩兄弟希望借外太空訪客獲利的故事。

《流浪地球》和《瘋狂的外星人》均改編自劉慈欣的作品。劉慈欣在中國引領了一場科幻小說的復興。2015年，他成為首位斬獲雨果獎的中國作家。他的小說是恢弘的史詩，博大精深，那些關于人類面對危險宇宙的幻想因而變得頗為可信。《流浪地球》的導演郭帆在北京的一場放映會上坦承，把這些作品搬上銀幕對任何電影人都是個挑戰。

這部由北京京西文化旅游有限公司和國企中國電影集團公司聯合出品的影片因此成為行業的試金石。郭帆（英文名Frant Gwo）指出，中國觀眾對此前的很多好萊塢科幻大片反應平淡。正因如此，電影公司對投入各種資源制作令人信服的科幻電影一直非常謹慎。

據報道，該片預算近5000萬美元，以好萊塢標準來衡量并不算高，但在中國可以說是大手筆了。參與制作的有7000多人。影片大部分場景拍攝于新建的東方影都。該影都位于沿海城市青島，由房地產和娛樂巨頭大連萬達耗資80億美元打造。

曾執導浪漫喜劇《同桌的你》的郭帆說：“我真心希望這部片子至少不賠錢。只要不賠錢，我們就可以接著拍科幻。”劉慈欣小說廣受歡迎可能對影片票房會有所幫助。最近的兩部好萊塢電影《地心引力》和《火星救援》也可能起到助推作用。這兩部電影在中國都是賣座大片，片中的重要情節不約而同從正面展現了中國的太空計劃。

《流浪地球》上映正值中國在太空領域取得具有里程碑意義的成就：今年1月，中國的一個探測器在月球背面著陸。雖然落后俄羅斯和美國幾十年，但中國現已將宇航員送入太空軌道，并制訂了遠大計劃邁入甚或引領太空探索新時代。

中國電影資料館的電影策展人沙丹主持了一場和郭帆的討論，他說：“我認為中國電影和國家命運有著非常緊密的聯系。”沙丹提起去年中國最受歡迎的電影《紅海行動》，那是一部動作片，大體取材于2015年也門內戰爆發時中國救援數百名中國公民的撤僑行動。“當我們具備了作戰能力，就能拍出像《紅海行動》這樣的電影。”他說，意指中國近年的軍事現代化，“只有中國具備了進入太空時代的能力，我們才能拍出像《流浪地球》這樣的作品。”

與《紅海行動》和蘭博式英雄痛打西方反派的兩部《戰狼》系列片不同，《流浪地球》并無大國主義色彩，不過該片主角吳京也是《戰狼》的主角，他本人還投資了這部影片。吳京在《流浪地球》中扮演一名登上國際空間站的宇航員。

郭帆說，他有意避免讓吳京的角色成為一個單打獨斗的超級英雄。相反，拯救地球是一項全體參與的行動，其中包括一位和藹可親的俄羅斯宇航員。

《流浪地球》自然而然將中國作為了未來太空探索的核心，但也展現了應對地球面臨威脅時國際合作的必要——這一主題在劉慈欣的小說中貫穿始終。劉慈欣在參加一場放映會時指出，中國的科幻電影可以追溯到1930年代，導演楊小仲拍攝了《化身人猿》和《六十年后上海灘》等影片。“當時的條件下，科幻電影無法產生多大影響。”

將劉慈欣最著名的三部曲改編為電影的計劃在2015年立項并投拍第一部《三體》，但據報道，由于技術原因和成本問題，后期制作一直處于停滯狀態。如今，條件似已成熟。劉慈欣說，在大銀幕上欣賞《流浪地球》令人“心靈震撼”。

（感謝讀者賈慶文推薦原文）