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August 08, 2006

THROUGH THE MOEBIUS STRIP

K_moebiusThe clunky-looking Mainland Chinese computer animated film, THROUGH THE MOEBIUS STRIP, looks  like a giant plate of runny scrambled eggs but that doesn't mean no one wants to watch it. The film opened this past weekend in China and did about 2 million yuan at the box office. This ain't bad (about US$125,500) and certainly it's not the flop that it was accidentally reported as when the numbers from one Shanghai cinema were picked up as the numbers for its total gross across China. But right now CRAZY STONE and DRAGON TIGER GATE are still picking up steam, and the DVD of THROUGH THE MOEBIUS STRIP is going to be released soon to scoop the pirates so the film probably won't even come close to making back its 130 million yuan budget in China. The producers are hoping it'll make money on the international market but that's pretty unlikely. MOEBIUS STRIP has made the rounds of the markets and festivals and no one's biting, probably because it's ugly as sin.

Nevertheless, at least it got finished. I had doubts this one would ever see the light of day.

(Thanks to Monkeypeaches)

August 8, 2006 at 10:30 AM in News | Permalink

Comments

Who the hell do they think they can kid? Anyone can tell it's a pathetic attempt for a CGI movie. Not to be ethno-centric, but I think it's a mistake for any country to try to emulate Hollywood. It's what's been wrong with HK cinema these days too, trying to produce Hollywood-style blockbusters only to make themselves look stupid. I'm not saying that all other industries besides Hollywood are inferior, but rather that other movie industries should capitalize on their respective unique qualities.

Posted by: Stephen | Aug 8, 2006 11:22:16 AM

Really, it's as simple as "this movie just looks like ass" - doesn't matter who made it, it looks just awful, even compared to recent CG films from Hong Kong and Thailand. Moebius's style would have been better served with traditional animation. China has experience with traditional animation, just look at the top-shelf 2D work done by Chinese animation companies on the most recent ASTERIX film. If this had been a 2D animation film, with ASTERIX AND THE VIKINGS-grade artwork, I'm sure we'd be looking at very different numbers, and a much more appealing film.

Posted by: Rhythm-X | Aug 8, 2006 11:50:19 AM

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