Netflix Buys Rights To Stream Chinese Sci-Fi Blockbuster 'The Wandering Earth' (npr.org)

An anonymous reader writes from a report via NPR: Netflix announced this week that it has acquired the rights to stream Chinese sci-fi blockbuster "The Wandering Earth," which has already grossed more than $600 million globally and hit number two in the all-time Chinese box office rankings since it was released in theaters Feb. 5. Netflix will translate the movie into 28 languages and release it in more than 190 countries. The movie, based on a short story by Hugo award winner Liu Cixin (author of "Three Body Problem" and "Ball Lighting") is set in a distant future in which the earth is about to be devoured by the sun. Using propulsive engines, humans turn earth into a spaceship and try to launch it out of the solar system and the planet is saved by a Chinese hero (rather than American ones as typically seen in Hollywood sci-fi movies.)

For China's film industry, the release marks a major milestone. "Filmmakers in China see science fiction as a holy grail," Raymond Zhou, an independent critic, told The New York Times. "It's like the coming-of-age of the industry." Two sci-fi movies, "The Wandering Earth" and "Crazy Alien," which is also inspired by Liu's work, topped this Chinese New Year movie season. Inkoo Kang wrote at Slate that the film "understands what American blockbusters are still loath to admit: Responding to climate change will pose infrastructural challenges on a massive order and require drastic measures on a planetary scale. Perhaps it takes a country like China, which is accustomed to a manic rate of construction and grandness of organizational possibility, to seriously consider how dramatically humanity will have to reimagine our ways of life to survive such a catastrophic force."

Comments

seems to me

[50000BTU_barbecue]

We could have made movies out of Niven novels at any time in the last three decades with similar "big engineering sci-fi wow" scenarios. A World Out Of Time springs to mind.
I've read Three Body Problem and found it terse and unremarkable. I must be getting too old to "get" new stuff, or read so much all I see is recycled ideas.

Re:seems to me

[50000BTU_barbecue]

Numerous novels invoke deus ex machina under the guise of pseudo-scientific mumbo-jumbo. James P Hogan's Entoverse posits a universe-spanning computer network that communicates by some sort of sub-atomic phenomena.
Maybe it was a ten dimensional post-biological sapient parallel universe that became conscious. This is all trite nonsense. To me, I've read all this shit before.
It's just meaningless prattle.
At least Rudy Rucker's "ware" books were hilarious. He had conscious beings that could encrypt themselves as some sort of particle that would materialize on Earth and had multi-dimensional time and could see forwards and backwards in time at the same time. Or whatever.
It's all the same.
Look, I just invented a 12 dimensional computer that's as small as a quark.
See, it's one dimension bigger and one particle smaller.
How is this interesting or a great idea? It's sophomoric.

Re:seems to me

[drinkypoo]

Most of Niven's works are just "wow big thing" mind experiments. But A World Out Of Time starts in the present day and actually has a character you can sort of connect with.

The Integral Trees had a main protagonist, but you could follow any of the characters from the series reasonably. Maybe the dude who wears the suit makes the most sense. Ringworld has Louis Wu, I had no trouble putting myself in his shoes. In fact, now I want to reread Ringworld.

Re:seems to me

[Aighearach]

It was a pretty good roast, I enjoyed it. Better than your response, anyways.

Re:seems to me

[lgw]

Everything I don't like is deus-ex-machina

Yeah, heard that one before. Guess what it's not?

If you've decide ahead of time there's nothing new under the sun, you're not going to like anything. Sounds like an unpleasant way to go through life.

Three-Body problem was his first book, IIRC, and he didn't get the hang of writing characters in a compelling way until towards the end. What he did start, and improved throughout the series, is great perspectives on how humanity would react to certain new technologies and new events that make us realize how small we are. All from a perspective very different from American and British writers.

The technology in these books makes a solid attempt at not being science fantasy, but the technology isn't really the point of these books, or of non-schlocky SF in general. Good stories are about people, and how they are changed by events.

Chinese hero

[Anonymous Coward]

and the planet is saved by a Chinese hero (rather than American ones as typically seen in Hollywood sci-fi movies.)

(or Indian ones as typically seen in Bollywood movies)
(or Japanese ones as typically seen in Japanese movies)
(or French ones as typically seen in French movies)
(or Nigerian ones as typically seen in Nigerian movies)
(etc)

Like Space: 1999 ???

[bradley13]

In Space: 1999 it was the moon that was blasting around the universion. As sci-fi shows went, the acting and plots were ok, but I could never get over the utter stupidity of the premise. No, you are not going to drive around the universe on a planet.

On the Earth, just think what happens to the oceans when you accelerate. *slosh*

Re:Like Space: 1999 ???

[DontBeAMoran]

Shut up, Q.

Would'a thunk it?

[CrimsonAvenger]

the planet is saved by a Chinese hero (rather than American ones as typically seen in Hollywood sci-fi movies.

What a novel notion - a Chinese SF thriller would have a Chinese hero, unlike American SF thrillers, which have...American heroes....

Yeah, we're supposed to be really surprised that Chinese movies have Chinese heroes, and be really appalled that American movies have American heroes.