影视英语：《后会无期》与《小时代3》打响票房战

近日国内上映的两部电影《小时代3》和《后会无期》，成为众多观众的焦点。这两部电影分别来自郭敬明和韩寒这两个以作家身份为人所知的导演。随着《后会无期》今晨的上映，正式的票房大战已经打响！

Writing their own tickets

Two of China's most celebrated – or notorious – young authors are releasing their film creations.

The coincidence that their films are hitting screens at around the same time puts them under the spotlight, drawing the inevitable comparison between Han Han, 32, and Guo Jingming, 31, while at the same time putting them in polar positions.

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Tiny Times 3 — the third installment of a film franchise — will hit cinemas in China on Jul 17; while The Continent, Han's maiden effort as a film director, is to be released on Jul 24.

Both won awards in their teens at the New Concept national writing competition; both have a vast number of fans and readers among the young in China, and both have turned to filmmaking in their latest career switches.

Public and media alike have spared no effort in fueling the competition between them.

Click on any of Han's blogs on weibo and you will find readers' comments about Jingming and the conjectured "bromance" between them.

The joke is so widespread that Han and Guo are occasionally confronted by the media about their "relationship". During their most recent encounter at a film event in Beijing, they were asked if it was possible for them to communicate and become friends.

Han said "maybe", while Guo replied, "I am a person of few friends", interpreted by many as a euphemistic turndown.

The first installment of the Tiny Times trilogy broke box-office records on the first day of its release last year, but soon faced harsh criticism from commentators.

Tiny Times is "an unbridled pile-up of wealth and vanity without the least of taste or imagination", wrote Raymond Zhou, one of China's most acclaimed film critics.

"Guo Jingming understands beauty and wealth like one who has suffered from starvation at childhood: there is no composure or spontaneous joy at the sight of a table full of food. It's just sick greediness."

When Tiny Times 2 came out only two months later, critics joked that Guo was so inadequate as a film director that he shot the first film too long.

Whatever critics or the intellectual community may say about Guo, his films have enjoyed certain commercial success. He has been a successful entrepreneur even before he turned to films and he owns a culture development company that represents a large number of young writers in China.

Tiny Times 2 generated box office revenue of more than 800 million yuan ($128.9 million).

Guo recently said that he expected the last installment of the trilogy to capture at least 500 million yuan from cinema audiences. The Tiny Times series is also being adapted for television.

The trilogy traces the life of four young women from high school to early adulthood.

They are best friends and competitors both in love and work, and have to deal with loss and betrayal and the ups and downs of financial loss and gain.

Han's film is about three young men from an island and their journeys of self-discovery to the continent and adulthood.

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In contrast to the chic costumes and posh settings of Tiny Times, The Continent is a road movie filled with sweat, sand, wind and the smell of gasoline, according to the trailers and publicity stills.

The film may be partly autobiographical, judging from the fact that Han himself is an award-winning auto rally racer from suburban Shanghai’s Jinshan district.

In June at the film event in Beijing, both Han and Guo spoke about filmmaking and their appreciation of fans.

"I am so grateful to my audiences … for them, I have nothing but gratitude," Guo said. In contrast, Han expressed his reluctance to "please" the audience, saying they tend to evolve quickly even during the shooting of a film.

"After all, we are doing a film, not boot-licking," he says.

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