This Movie Wasn’t Plagarized, It’s Totally a Chinese Idea & China’s Best Director, Jiang Wen (姜文)

The photo speaks for itself, there really is no need to watch the movie,  The copycat to Cars just came out in theaters in China a couple days ago on July 4th.  Here are some other plagiarized movies:

Debauchery

It’s not just the posters that are copied, much of the story is similar.  It’s important to note that Chinese people themselves recognize the utter plagiarism that is going on here, and many Chinese people refuse to support the Chinese theater because of these often-occurring copycats.  On China’s premier movie critic website, “The Autobots” car movie received a 2.1 out of 10 with many negative comments.  99% of the raters gave a 1 star, ouch! (douban 豆瓣) The top comment is quite humorous: “什么鬼啊 人物一样 海报一样 还故意把名字里的人字挡的看不见 ！还！ 能！ 要！ 点！ 脸！ 么！？  “ (“What the hell?  The characters are the same, the poster is the same, even the names were deliberately the same.  Why must they lose face in such a way??”)

It’s funny because, now, China’s main actors/actresses have all cameo-ed in a short clip during the previews telling the audience to “support Chinese movies,” but the reality is, nobody takes that propaganda seriously with all the crud that has come out.  Most films are either trying to be funny or overly dramatic.  There are rarely any movies coming out of China that talk about true life.  It’s my personal opinion that the government is worried about allowing movies/literature/music, etc. to talk about real life as it may lead people to think negatively towards the government.

Shimmering Hope

The best director and actor from China in my opinion is Jiang Wen (姜文).  Some of his films are banned in China simply because they are too close to the truth for the Chinese government to handle.  I recommend all the readers out there to look into this director’s movies that contain genuine dead-pan humor and are a truly Chinese experience.  I’ve watched dozens of Chinese movies, and I am always laughing out loud because of the jokes in Jiang Wen’s films.  He’s directed and acted in a number of internationally successful films such as Red Sorghum, the film adaptation to a book of the same name written by the only Chinese Nobel Laureate Mo Yan.

Let’s hope this shameful behavior ends soon.  I know a couple Chinese professors in China that are actively shaming their students that plagiarize.  I commend their bravery for going against the grain and doing what is right when every other professor is turning a blind eye to the problem.  Cheating, copying, and plagiarizing is a systematic problem in that country, and it will require not only more legal action on the part of the government.  It will also need the attention of every individual.  As we read above of the top commenter on Douban, even the Chinese people are upset with the behavior.