Pandering to Hollywood

Well, I finally saw Kung Fu Panda last night. Pretty good and quite funny, though with all the hype it couldn't help but be a bit of a letdown. I did wonder what they spent the 130 million dollars on. All those stars' voices might have something to do with it I suppose. But it also left me a little puzzled about some of the agonizing that has been going on in China about the film. It's amusing and has some fairly standard gongfu mythology woven in. But there are no resounding insights into Chinese history or the national character or whatever. If it didn't get made in China it's not because Chinese couldn't but because it would have seemed too obvious, probably. (That's not to take way from the point made in Wu Nan's post below about censorship, which undoubtedly strangles a good many excellent movies at the conception stage.) In this case I think Chinese directors should worry less about this sort of well-produced but fairly predictable fare and get on with their own work. What about a really good movie about the amazing life of the Tang poet Li Bai, for example? (Ok. OK. I m prejudiced. Full disclosure here)