Return of the others

Lu Chuan, director of the movie Chronicles of the Ghostly Tribe.[Photo provided to China Daily]

Speaking of Lu's film, Yin Hong, the deputy head of the School of Journalism at Tsinghua University, says Chronicles "has opened a new road for Chinese-language fantasy movies".

While ghosts and spirits were forbidden as themes in movies set in the years after the founding of New China, Chronicles enters a sensitive zone. As the first fantasy title featuring modern society to get approval from the movie regulators, Chronicles gives hope to the struggling genre, says Yin.

Set in the late 1970s and early '80s, Chronicles touches on areas such as China's early research into the supernatural phenomenon and alien civilizations.

Yin says that today's Internet-savvy youth, who are a major support base for cinema, are also enthusiasts of fantasy epics like The Lord of the Rings and The Hunger Games.

Zhao Weifang, deputy director of the film and TV research institute at the Graduate School of the Chinese National Academy of Arts, says: "Hollywood fantasy blockbusters often create a universe where humans coexist with monsters, ghosts and aliens, and they weave credible tales, a level which Chinese titles have yet to reach."

Director Lu, who also participated in the seminar, says that in Chronicles he wanted to showcase something thoughtful and in-depth beyond a regular commercial flick.

He says that though he feels that his philosophical exploration in Chronicles is not deep enough, many critics say his work is a worthy bid to boost the genre in China.

Other observers say that newer Chinese filmmakers, who are more familiar and fond of the Hollywood narrative, will boost or rewrite traditional myths and fantasy tales to make them more appealing internationally.

Zhang Yiwu, consultant and researcher with Peking University's film and TV research center, says: "With China widely predicted to overtake the United States as the world's top movie market, future blockbusters in China will include fantasy movies with big budgets and heavy special effects."

Examples of such films include the upcoming The Monkey King II, the second installment of the franchise.

Zhang Zhihua, a professor at Beijing Normal University, says that China has a rich history of fantasy literature. If one goes back to the ancient times, Chinese authors have recorded and created many paranormal tales.

"Chinese fantasy movies could see a climax in the coming years, thanks to the country's rich legacy of monster stories," he says.