New blockbusters light up screens for holidays

With National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival around the corner, a string of holiday films is gearing up to compete in the conventionally lucrative market.

A promotional event for the festival lineup, hosted by China's Film Administration, was held at the China National Film Museum on Sept 22, gathering the major creators behind the upcoming movies.

Currently leading the presale box office for Oct 1, the opening day of the two festivals, A Writer's Odyssey 2 continues the fantastical story of Lu Kongwen, a novelist whose fiction can alter reality. Tempted by a powerful allure, Lu loses his way, plunging both himself and the characters in his novel into a catastrophic crisis.

Director Lu Yang revealed that the sequel to the 2021 blockbuster A Writer's Odyssey innovatively depicts people from the real world and characters from the fictional world "traveling" into each other's realms. He also highlighted that the film features 50 percent more visual effects scenes than the first installment.

Following A Writer's Odyssey 2 on the presale charts are the animated film Three Kingdoms: Starlit Heroes and The Volunteers: Peace at Last, in second and third place, respectively.

Other highlighted films include Sons of the Neon Night, a thriller in which a massive explosion reveals a plot by a pharmaceutical heir, and Sound of Silence, which is adapted from the real-life story of a CODA (Child of Deaf Adults) lawyer.

Actress Gao Yuanyuan describes her character in Sons of the Neon Night as the key to unraveling the mystery, adding that the role is a microcosm of the entire film, combining "mystery, beauty and danger", as well as reflecting the complexity of human nature.

Wan Li, director of Sound of Silence, said that he hopes the film will draw more public attention to the deaf community and other vulnerable groups.