"The Wandering Earth" has been a huge success and has blown up the world, but this country is "sour" about it

Today, the box office of the Chinese sci-fi masterpiece "The Wandering Earth" exceeded 2.4 billion, officially ranking tenth in the top 10 box office list of Chinese mainland movies, and the trend is still upward. While it is popular all over the country, the film has also been released in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and other countries, and won high praise. Many overseas media have given positive comments on this Chinese local sci-fi film, and tried to interpret the core of Chinese culture and think about the differences between Eastern and Western cultures.

But not surprisingly, while "The Wandering Earth" won attention and praise at home and abroad, the "envy, jealousy and hatred" of some countries also arrived as expected.

"China doesn't need Hollywood anymore!"

Foreign media have been full of praise for this "first show" of Chinese science fiction films. The New York Times believes that this marks the beginning of a new era of Chinese filmmaking. The report also linked "The Wandering Earth" to the recent landing of a Chinese probe on the far side of the moon, and commented that China is a latecomer in both science fiction films and space exploration, but is clearly catching up.

Image of the "Yutu-2" rover landing on the moon, taken by the Chang'e-4 lander surveillance camera C (National Space Administration)

"As China reached a milestone in space - the probe landed on the far side of the moon in January, Chinese science fiction films have also seen development," the article said. But the admiration is also accompanied by concerns, and some media have even begun to speculate: Are the same old American blockbusters no longer needed?

Forbes website cited "The Wandering Earth" as an example, pointing out that Chinese domestic films have ushered in high box office, and China no longer needs to import Hollywood blockbusters. "If China can make such movies themselves, they will not need Hollywood imports. With the blockbuster production in China, Hollywood blockbusters are no longer so special in the world." The author said.

More media have seen the development of Chinese films and started to think about the cultural differences between the East and the West reflected in different works of art. The American technology news website "Critical Point" believes that the similarities and differences between Chinese and American values ​​can be seen from "The Wandering Earth".

The report pointed out that the importance of family and noble sacrifice in the film are familiar to American audiences, but the film also emphasizes the necessity of global action and international cooperation rather than individual heroism.

The article stated, "As China moves into action blockbusters, we look forward to seeing how the country brings its unique voice and talents to the global market."

Movie poster of The Wandering Earth

Australian film critic Travis Johnson also commented on the Australian version of the film website flicks that "The Wandering Earth" may be the best science fiction film in 2019. In his opinion, the film abandons American-style personal heroism and chooses the responsibility, humility, self-sacrifice and loyalty to family and society in Chinese culture.

Korean netizens are jealous before they even watch it

While The Wandering Earth sparked heated discussions among media and netizens from all over the world, the voices of some Korean netizens seemed particularly discordant. During the hot release of the movie, the topic of "Korean netizens' comments on The Wandering Earth" became a hot search on Weibo, attracting 300 million views and more than 40,000 discussions.

As we all know, "The Wandering Earth" has not been released in South Korea, but some Chinese netizens discovered that under a news article introducing "The Wandering Earth" on the Korean search website Naver, many Korean netizens completely ignored the content of the movie and directly ridiculed China, saying that China is the "origin of destruction" and even said they want to "save the earth from China."

Under these malicious and biased comments, many Chinese netizens responded succinctly: sour! In fact, there is no need for Chinese netizens to respond, as the performance of The Wandering Earth overseas is enough to give a strong response to these noises.

"The Wandering Earth" was originally scheduled to be released overseas on February 8, but before the release, the official announced on February 1 that the film would be directly advanced to the first day of the Lunar New Year, in synchronization with the domestic release.

Less than a week after its release, the film had additional screenings, and many foreign netizens still complained that the film was so popular that tickets were not available.

Information from ticketing websites shows that when "The Wandering Earth" was screened overseas, almost every show was sold out.

Along with the popularity comes good word of mouth. On the famous American Internet Movie Database (IMDb) website, "The Wandering Earth" received a high score of 8. Many netizens praised the Chinese science fiction film for its grand background setting, touching scenes, and the tone of all mankind working together to save the earth.

This most straightforward affirmation of the film from overseas audiences is also the best response to certain deliberate attacks.

Overseas media: The secret of the film's success lies in its adherence to Chinese cultural traditions

Amid the overwhelming praise from netizens around the world, many people noticed the difference between the film and Hollywood movies, and gave "thumbs-up" to this unconventional creation.

Obviously, in the eyes of movie fans from the above-mentioned countries, the reason why "The Wandering Earth" is so refreshing is that the film does not blindly imitate Western values, but adheres to China's own cultural traditions.

In a media interview, Guo Fan, the director of "The Wandering Earth", also frankly stated that this film did not consider any other international markets or international audiences.

"The Wandering Earth" Director Guo Fan

"I will serve the Chinese audience first," he said.

He also explained his views on Chinese culture in the interview: Chinese people regard home as a carrier of emotions, so the film chose to wander in space with the entire earth. This kind of creativity is not Western, but given to us by Chinese culture.

"This should be the cultural core of Chinese science fiction," he said.

Taiwan's United News Network also believes that unlike other Hollywood movies, not all the protagonists are heroes throughout the show, but it is a concept that unites all of humanity to concentrate their efforts on major events. The future world that Chinese people understand is based on values ​​such as seeking common ground while reserving differences, common development, and not easily accepting fate.

"On the surface, The Wandering Earth is a science fiction film, but in fact it carries many of the core elements of Chinese culture," the article said.

All of this is just as a Chinese netizen said: Only a nation with 5,000 years of civilization can write a grand plan for 2,500 years. It can be said that "The Wandering Earth" is the contemporary Jingwei filling the sea and Yugong moving the mountains! History determines the foundation, China, come on!