Avatar, not Hurt Locker, wins over Chinese

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‘Hurt Locker’ won Best Picture, but  ‘Avatar’ won China’s heart.

China Daily offers a post-Oscar look at why Chinese fans prefer blue creatures to bomb diffusers.

Raymond Zhou:

Chinese film fans were mostly disappointed by the unexpected shutout of Avatar in the major categories at the 82nd Academy Awards. Most bet on the $2 billion juggernaut for the Best Picture award, and when my fellow guest at Sina.com’s Oscar show openly rallied for The Hurt Locker, he instantly received text messages denouncing him.

It is understandable why Chinese filmgoers prefer Avatar. It is a runaway hit, and is still packing them in at all 3D venues. People can read all kinds of messages into it and many regard a trip to Pandora as their best movie experience.

The Hurt Locker, on the other hand, is harder to decipher. Most here tend to misinterpret its message. Even the normally liberal Beijing News reckoned it was Pentagon propaganda. It’s a war movie, but it does not offer much fun or gratuitous violence. The impact of war on the protagonist and the morbid nature of his fascination with danger, simply eludes those not familiar with the culture, or not interested in anything except the explosions.

This gap between Oscar voters and movie viewers in China is a clear testament to the power of movies as escapist or fantasy fare to audiences here. People do not want to go to the theater to watch a sharper replica of reality, but to forget about it

[Emphasis added]

*If Zhou’s reference to ‘interpreting’ Avatar seems vague, it may be because the film was widely ‘read’ as a critique of forced evict in China. Touchy subject.