Arts & Entertainment
First 'Happy Chinese New Year's Movie' at AMC 16
Cupertino's movie theater adopts a new Chinese New Year tradition with the simultaneous opening of a Chinese remake of 'What Women Want.'
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 set a seed in Cupertino.
A Mandarin-language movie, What Women Want, opened Thursday at AMC 16 Movie Theaters in Cupertino. This is the first so-called "Happy Chinese New Year's movie" in North America.
Typically the films are called "Happy Chinese New Year's 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.
Find out what's happening in Cupertinofor free with the latest updates from Patch.
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 Chinese New Year's movie" in the United States.
Find out what's happening in Cupertinofor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Like many other "Happy Chinese New Year's movies," What Women Want is a romantic comedy. It is a Chinese remake of the 2000 American film of the same name. Two superstars in the Chinese world, Andy Lau and Gong Li, play Mel Gibson's and Helen Hunt's equivalents in the movie.
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.
