The emergence of promising young actors, innovative directors, and cutting-edge filmmaking technologies has energized China's movie industry, leading to an impressive box office milestone this summer.
According to real-time data from online platforms, China's box office revenue for this summer movie season, including pre-sales, surpassed 11 billion yuan (about 1.54 billion U.S. dollars) as of 22:45 Saturday.
Sun Jiashan, associate researcher at the Central Cultural and Tourism Management Cadre Institute, said that with a diverse slate ranging from big-budget spectacles to smaller, artful offerings, China's extended summer season has provided the perfect platform for the wave of youth to shine.
As the season's hits featuring more promising young actors continue to captivate audiences, the future looks increasingly bright for China's cinematic landscape.
Standout performances from actors like Wang Shengdi in the crime thriller "A Place Called Silence" and Shi Pengyuan in the domestic comedy "Successor" have particularly impressed Sun.
"The two actors both came from the 2020 TV series called The Bad Kids. Their presence in movies demonstrates how film and television are deeply converging to cultivate a robust talent pipeline for the movie business," Sun said.
Alongside the rise of new actor and actresses, a wave of up-and-coming directors have also made their mark on the 2024 summer slate. Filmmakers such as Li Yang of sci-fi "Evacuate from the 21st Century", Zhong Ding of animation "Into the Mortal World", and Ma Yuke of crime film "Go for Broke" have earned acclaim for their fresh cinematic visions.
Furthermore, innovative use of cutting-edge technologies like AI and rotoscope animation has elevated the visual experiences for moviegoers. The film "The Traveler" utilized rotoscope animation, where live-action footage is traced frame-by-frame to create an animated effect.
"First, our live-action actors completed the full live-action filming process. Then, our artists performed secondary post-processing on these live-action footage, using rotoscoping animation techniques. The result was a 2.5-dimensional visual style and aesthetics that have never before been seen in the Chinese cinema. This has directly inspired a new exploration of applying innovative technologies in China's film industry," Sun said.
China's 2024 summer box office sees breakthrough with new talent, technology
The 2024 Global Industrial Internet Conference opened in Shenyang City of northeast China's Liaoning Province on Thursday, unveiling the latest achievements in China's 5G, big data and other digital areas.
The three-day conference, focusing on digital transformation, has brought together well-known exports, scholars and representatives of leading enterprises from both China and abroad to explore the trend in industrial internet innovation.
The conference revealed that the number of 5G plus Industrial Internet projects in China has exceeded 14,000, with industrial internet integration across all 49 major national economic categories, achieving full coverage.
Functions and structures of China's industrial Internet have both kept improving, and the value of core sectors in the area has exceeded 1.35 trillion yuan (about 190 billion U.S. dollars).
Over 510 billion unique identifiers have been registered in the industrial internet, covering nearly 450,000 companies, facilitating their operations and connectivity.
Approximately 340 industrial internet platforms, spanning comprehensive, specialized and niche services, are driving the sector forward. The development of the National Industrial Internet Big Data Center is picking up pace, amassing over 1.4 billion data entries, according to data released at the conference.
The National Equipment Manufacturing Digital Supply Chain Platform was also launched at the conference.
To date, the platform has gathered nearly 370,000 companies and 2.01 million active engineers, creating the nation's largest digital inventory of industrial products, which includes over 210 million digital items spanning key sectors such as machine tools, medical equipment and industrial robots.
"The conference this comprises 22 special forums, events and exchange activities with the focus on cutting-edge technologies and emerging industries such as artificial intelligence and quantum technology. It is more market-oriented, professional and international. It highlights the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries with a new generation of information technology, aimed at achieving industrial upgrading through a dual promotion of technological innovation and industrial development," said Liu Wenqing, deputy director of the China Industrial Internet Research Institute, in an interview with China Central Television on the sidelines of the conference.
2024 Global Industrial Internet Conference opens in northeast China city, highlighting digital progress
