In a rather amusing turn of events, it appears that controversial flick Ten Years – which won “Best Film” at the Hong Kong Film Awards (HKFA) on Sunday – may have accidentally benefited Channing Tatum.
While Hong Kong has been abuzz with talk of the locally produced dystopian film for months (guilty!), apparently China’s attempts to downplay the movie have backfired immensely, and piqued the interest of netizens on the mainland. (Come on, China. Have we learned nothing from the Prohibition era?)
Earlier this year, major China-based TV channels and online broadcasters pulled out from broadcasting the 35th Annual Hong Kong Film Awards, with the nomination of Ten Years widely believed to be the reason. Mainland Chinese reports of the ceremony also omitted naming the Best Film winner, according to HKFP.
Following the HKFA ceremony on Sunday, a film titled “十年” (“Ten Years”) became the most popular download on YYeTs, a site used widely by mainland netizens to illegally obtain foreign films and television.
Guess a lot of people in China really want to know who got fat, rich, hot, etc…
Unfortunately for the thousands who downloaded the movie, they wound up with a 2011 Channing Tatum-produced box office flop of a romantic comedy called “10 Years”, about a group of former classmates going to their high school reunion.
So… not exactly the dark, speculative short film anthology they were expecting then. Unless two best friends fighting over a girl then reconciling seems dark to you, because that happens, according to Wikipedia (we didn’t see it, and we’re not sure anyone else did either).
If you’re one of the few people in Hong Kong who hasn’t heard about the 2015 movie Ten Years (seriously, where have you been?), here’s the rundown: five short films, by five different directors, which imagine what life in Hong Kong will be like in a decade under increasing influence by the mainland Chinese government. It outperformed Star Wars: The Force Awakens (which we really shouldn’t have to explain to you) at a cinema in Yau Ma Tei, and has been called a “virus of the mind” by a state-run newspaper. And now you know.
Got a tip? Send it to us at hongkong@coconuts.co
Reader Interactions