"Lost in Thailand" is the biggest dark horse in the Chinese movie industry in 2012, and the highest-grossing Chinese movie of all time.
The comedy has grossed about 1.2 billion yuan as of Jan. 10, 2013, and is set to break the Chinese box-office record set by "Avatar." It has attracted a huge audience of about 37 million people, far more than that of "Avatar," becoming the most watched Chinese movie in the past 10 odd years.
The movie has attracted widespread attention due to its amazing success. Most reviews are positive and objective, but a few people have labeled it as a "vulgar" movie.
There has long been a good deal of vulgarity in the domestic entertainment industry.
"Lost in Thailand" has been labeled as a "vulgar" movie for some different reasons.
Audiences have had fun watching the comedy, the film production company has made great profits, and domestic movie industry insiders and authorities are glad to see the success of a homemade movie.
However, a few so-called intellectual elites have publicly condemned the movie as "vulgar" probably because they lack a proper understanding of the mainstream movie production and consumption values.
The movie's success first lies in its artistic and entertainment quality as well as the nationwide promotion by its investor Enlight Media Group.
Comedies can be divided into high-caliber and low-caliber ones. "Lost in Thailand" appears to be a low-caliber comedy due to its low-level joke making methods, but possesses some features of a high-caliber comedy thanks to its solid dramatic structure, delicate conflict, smooth storytelling, good sense of rhythm, and other difficult artistic methods. Such a comedy meets the needs of both the grassroots and intellectuals, and has naturally become popular nationwide.
Culturally speaking, the movie appears to be a farce, but contains generally accepted cultural values. In the movie, the grassroots beat white-collar workers in terms of morality, and the pursuit of family love prevails over utilitarianism. These cultural values have been widely accepted in China.
Right time, right place, and right people have contributed the success of "Lost in Thailand."
First, domestic movies performed poorly last year compared to foreign ones, and people from all walks of life hope that a homemade movie can beat foreign blockbusters and add impetus to the domestic film industry. This comedy has thus naturally received great support from all sides. Second, the comedy's competitors are too "weak" to compete against it. Third, the movie stars Xu Zheng, Wang Baoqiang, and Huang Bo, three extremely popular Chinese comedians, have naturally attracted huge audiences.
The success of "Lost in Thailand" shows that comedies which serve its purpose, reflect real-world problems, tell story in accordance with artistic rules, and star popular comedians are highly likely to succeed at the box office.
Admittedly, many domestic movies contain vulgar elements, and are sometimes too vulgar. However, movies were initially considered as vulgar things, and were invented to meet the entrainment needs of the masses. It is difficult to completely remove vulgarity from movies. At the same time, a movie cannot just rely on vulgarity to achieve box-office success.