The Fifth Shanghai International Film Festival was not only a feast for movie-goers but also turned out to be a huge gathering for Chinese movie enthusiasts to talk about the Chinese film business. 
The nine-day film festival, which ended on Sunday, drew many domestic and international filmmakers, stars and critics. An audience of 17,000 flocked daily to cinemas in China's most international metropolis. At discussion in and outside cinemas, critics and audience blame an increasing competitive entertainment market, poor production quality and monopolized distribution channels for losing appeal of most Chinese films. The Chinese film industry enjoyed its best days during the past few decades but has suffered hugely in recent years. Today, people enjoy much more freedom in choosing the way they spend their leisure time. Films are no longer the major pastime for Chinese people to kill their time. But rather, it is TV programmes that dominate their leisure hours. No wonder that movie audiences have been shrinking; box office revenues, especially those of home-grown low budget films, have gone down in recent years. Bad film quality, unsatisfactory services in movie theatres and rampant film piracy on Video Compact Disc and Digital Video Disc also keep people from going to the cinema.Some think the biggest problem of the Chinese film industry is not competition from other forms of entertainment or overseas box office hits but their poor quality due to various reasons. 
In this Internet era, some Chinese film directors still cling to the old tricks of film-making they learnt ages ago. They ignore the changing tastes of newer generations of audiences who are more emotionally attached to the small screen of the TV and personal computer than the big screen at movie theatres. They have beautifully packaged soap operas and music videos with cute, flashy teen icons to watch and look up to on the tube; and they find much more fun playing electronic games and surfing the Internet than sitting through a boring film in an uncomfortably furnished, poorly equipped cinema.
But, there are signs that the government has been stepping up efforts over the past few years to crack down on copyright infringement. And measures have been taken to strengthen intellectual property rights legislation and law enforcement. Some young, talented filmmakers are bringing out films, though in a limited number, with novel shooting approaches and more intriguing storytelling devices. With this, they are trying to draw Chinese movie buffs back to theatres. To boost the development of the Chinese film industry, the government should take more effective measures in breaking up the monopolies in the film import, film distribution and film screening sectors.


 

 






 

   

     
 
