Tang Wei’s “Finding Mr. Right” Beats Hollywood Heavyweights at the Box Office
Merely 6 days after its release, romantic comedy Finding Mr. Right <北京遇上西雅图>, has already reached 100 million RMB at the mainland Chinese box office. The film even beat Hollywood big-budget movies such as Resident Evil: Retribution 3D, A Good Day to Die Hard and the heavily promoted Jack the Giant Slayer.
Director Xue Xiao Lu’s (薛晓路)’s second project, Finding Mr. Right, features Tang Wei (汤唯) and Wu Xiubo (吴秀波). In the film, Tang Wei plays Jiajia, a young woman in Beijing who lives a luxurious life provided by her wealthy boyfriend. When Jiajia got pregnant, she goes to the United States, hoping that the baby will be born an American citizen. While waiting for the baby’s arrival, Jiajia loses contact with her boyfriend and suddenly finds that she is unable to make end meets. At this point, she meets Frank, played by Wu Xiubo, a doctor who offers help. The emotional entanglements between Tang Wei and the much older Wu Xiubo are heartfelt and touching.
Within its love story, the film weaves sensitive topics such as extramarital affairs, worshiping money, and the mainland trend of going to the United States to give birth. Due to the familiar subjects, Finding Mr. Right struck a cord with the local viewers and received positive reviews. Tang Wei also reveals her light-hearted side as a pregnant woman at a crossroads in life.
Unlike Hollywood movies which use special effects as their selling point, mainland Chinese movies tend to focus on a strong storyline, appealing to local tastes and leaving a deeper impression. As The Chef, The Actor, The Scoundrel’s <厨子戏子痞子> director Guan Hu (管虎) puts it, “Local-made films really touch on the viewers’ heart strings. After all, we are all from the same continent and naturally we have more interest in the topics and people here.”
Many people in the industry share the same viewpoint and are hopeful that the Chinese film industry will be able to dominate the market in the near future. Box office grosses for domestic films have reached unprecedented levels, such as Lost in Thailand <人再囧途之泰 囧> and Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons <西遊·降魔篇> both earning more than 1 billion RMB. An industry insider said, “There are indeed several great Hollywood productions. But they are more or less the same. It’s just like McDonald’s and Kentucky Fried Chicken. We can have them for a meal or two. For everyday meals, we still prefer our Beijing noodles.”
“Finding Mr. Right” Trailer
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This article is written by Karen for JayneStars.com.
I seldom watch mandarin movies but this one looks good from its trailer!!
AHAHAH…Frank is awesome in bed! ….hahaha…I would love to watch this movie! It looks good!
This is totally not my type of movie, but I love Wu Xiu Bo, so I will probably suffer through it just for him lol.
Wow, an asian that can actually grow facial hair like white men.. assuming the photo of 吴秀波’s beard is real
that’s a stereotypical view. Many of China’s famous philosophers, warriors and artists had mustaches and beards. fortunately, Asian men don’t have primitive looking hairy chests and legs.
Sorry but I think “Beats Hollywood Heavyweights at the Box Office” is misleading. Resident Evil is a played out franchise and nobody considers it a heavy weight. Everybody beat Jack the Giant Slayer including domestically, so not a feat there either. I would have more respect if it beat Die Hard 5 in the same week it opened but it didn’t.
Not to mention resident evil got kick to the curl by the Chinese gov because its a Japanese game franchise
They have to make themselves sound good somehow
You western growing-up kids here forgot that this the Asian market where Asian films thrive and there are alot of gem sright here. You think Hollywood rules everywhere?
I, for one, find the HK ‘Infernal Affairs’ movies are way better than that oscar-winning hollywood version, totally no kick,!
she should have pretended not to know how to speak english well in the movie.. between, i don’t fancy tang wei, don’t know why
I do not get this comment.
she’s supposed to be a newbie from china trying to get into america
But she wasn’t speaking well? Is it hard to construct three word sentences?
big diff between three word sentence spoken by an american and a china hillbilly
A “hillbilly” from Beijing.
Wh-oa!
Guess you are gonna call someone a Tokyo hillbilly, hong kong hillbilly or Seoul hillbilly next.
I dont like beijing for my own reasons, but she is playing a materialistic and b*tchy woman from the capital of china, not xinjiang. If you been to Beijing, most young people can speak Basic English.
maybe it’s just me not liking her, esp after watching her on ang lee’s ‘love caution’ movie, no respect whatsoever
@ Yswn
By the same token, do you feel the same way about Tony Leung then?
Does Tony Leung owe you money, Terminator?
lol
@ terminator, good q, actually no, tony leung didn’t do it because of fame and money, he did it to save face, carina was having a good time with her real estate mogul, to me it spells Revenge, but good thing they at peace with one another now
@ YAWN
So it is more respectable to do it for the sake of getting a piece of ass for revenge purposes than for fame and money. LOL!!
@ terminator, may have used the wrong word, revenge is actually tony leung trying to tell carina, she’s hurting him
Tang Wei is the Kwai Lun-Mei (Guey!) and the Angelababy of China.
In other words, the brightest “young” actress of China.
Its disturbing enough knowing that angelababy is the best HK can muster up, until you realise even she is imported.
Yeah, she’s not going doing any more HK movies either.
And if you asked me who is the second best under-30s actor I’d have to say Elanne Kong. And guess what? Born in China as well.
And don’t ask me who I think 3rd best is. I’ll give you a hint: born in Canada, last name starts with “C”, first name starts with “Linda”.
Yes, “oh my god”.
Fiona Sit would’ve been my #2 except she’s already like 32.