Oh, wow. This is enlightening! I did not know this film was slammed by the Chinese community. No wonder the sequel release was halted for some years.
He became a self-made director because no one would adapt and film his works,
I now understand why he eventually released the sequel via online streaming. Indeed GJM has a distinct craft and he's doing great. The Yin-Yang Master: Dream of Eternity is on my next weekend watch list! ☺️
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I am pretty sure every country has their own "OMG this is garbage" film making banks somewhere else. Taste is ultimately different across the globe. Also, some tropes that are overused in one cinema culture can be fresh to a different audience. Like I have seen people here (I am from Malaysia) absolutely love some "5.0 in IMDB", typical hollywood formulaic movies.
For instance, a lot of C-Dramas available on the various Youtube channels of Chinese streaming companies aren't that well-received inside China but had incredible amount of praises on the Youtube comments and high score on sites like MyDramaList.
It's why I believe that international release is smart for entertainment industries everywhere but not many are doing it aggressively. I have always credited the the success of S. Korea entertainment industry in the 2010s to their willingness to share their entertainment products to the world. Meanwhile, China and Japan have a more passive, "stick to our own country" strategy that just hurt their growth and international reputation IMO.
The situation with the sequel was more complicated. They had to re-do some parts of the film due to Fan Bingbing. It's funny and sad that there are so many talents in this series getting banned or potentially banned by the China's entertainment industry. China has a very strict protocol on this and will ban anyone with criminal records, no matter how small, or any star with records of some unlawful or unethical activities. A ban like this means that they cannot be shown on any entertainment product. New films and etc have to take the character out and all the old things said talents are in had to be taken down from the internet streaming platforms.
They had to re-do the animation on the sequel cuz FBB was banned and they had to completely remove her part from it. FBB was banned like a few months before the theatrical release of the sequel and there's not enough time to remake the CGs so they are forced to cancel the whole theatrical release.
It's not the worst decision though. Online streaming is the go-to platform for drama and movie consumption in Mainland China and the sequel is pay-to-watch. It's pretty much digital theatrical release so I am sure the investors still earn back a decent amount of money despite the failed theatrical release.