Arts & Entertainment
First 'Happy New Year Movie' at AMC 16
AMC Theater adopts a Chinese New Year tradition with the simultaneous opening of a remake of 'What Women Want,' set in Beijing.
In a move from East to West, the tradition of major Chinese filmmakers to launch a new movie on Lunar New Year’s Day has started in the lower Peninsula and West Valley.
The first so-called "Happy New Year movie" in North America opened Thursday at AMC 16 Movie Theaters in Cupertino, Mountain View and Saratoga. The Chinese remake of What Women Want, a 2000 romantic comedy starring Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt, is in Mandarin and set in Beijing.
In this version, two superstars in the Chinese world, Andy Lau and Gong Li, play the Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt characters.
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Typically the films are called "Happy New Year movies," with a mission to draw more audience members than usual by providing enticing entertainment. Almost all of them are comedies—or at least, they have a happy ending.
Much in the way movies are launched on Christmas Day, the launching of movies on Lunar New Year takes advantage of a big holiday that brings Chinese home on vacation to enjoy family and friends, the way Christmas does.
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China Lion, a Chinese film distribution company, brought this Chinese tradition into North America. The company gave AMC Movie Theaters exclusive rights to show its releases across North America—except in Vancouver—at the same time the movies are playing in China.
What Women Want is actually the third Chinese movie to simultaneously launch in China and America, but it’s the first "Happy New Year movie" in the United States.
The Chinese version of What Women Want presents Beijing as a cosmopolitan city with bustling international businesses. It portrays how westernized today's Chinese are.
While Hollywood continues to contribute to the westernization of modern Chinese culture, China Lion plans to make Chinese movies as internationally popular as Hollywood films, according to Cecilia Chen, vice president in sales and marketing of China Lion.
Chen says China Lion decided to release 15 Chinese films in North America every year. All the movies will have the same opening dates in China and America.
After What Women Want, China Lion's next release in America will be The Butcher, the Chef and the Swordsman, an action movie scheduled to open in March.
—Los Altos Patch Editor L.A. Chung contributed to this report.
