So I read somewhere that #TheLastJedi is released in China on 5th January and this is a market where it’s predecessor #TheForceAwakens did not really take off.

Unsure if that is true, though what I do know is that whilst as a Historical Original Trilogy Fan I only went once to the cinema to see The Force Awakens, I have already been twice to see The Last Jedi & am considering further trips.

This is important psychology at play because The Force Awakens came with much nostalgia & feel good sentiment from original trilogy fan’s the World over and whilst it might have a big numbers box office crown, many such as myself stayed away in terms of repeat trips preferring to wait for Now & Sky & Amazon to have it available.  Its Box office despite the psychology of being top COULD have been far higher.

Those disappointed at episode VII have also likely now stayed away from the Cinema for episode VIII preferring to wait for other distribution formats/broadcasts and when they do see it, they will likely kick themselves wishing they had seen it at the Cinema.

Having also seen it in 3D and 2D I must admit that like many a movie I have persevered with 3D against my own reviews & personal judgement & eyesight, that usually ultimately says that 3D has been great & fantastic for some Cartoon’s, though for the most part is more than the brain can handle for big budget live action busy fast paced films and you actually take in far more and have a better environmental experience in 2D viewings sessions without the distraction.  I beyond summertime sunglasses am not a glasses person, and suspect that 3D is popular in those sectors of the population already constantly living with augmented eyesight etc.  I also suspect that it is an un-noted bias from those folks and the reason why 3D TV never really took off, you can well imagine a lab full of glasses wearing professor styled boffins scratching there heads and wondering why everyone doesn’t want  to buy into the instant intelligence psychology associated with glasses.

So detractors of The Last Jedi threw there dummy out of the pram and a new complaint I recently saw was that Luke’s expected Brightest of the Light side goodness forever life arc has been ruined, again this seems for myself a nonsense, and the related film section actually showed the same event “through the eyes/narrative” of two people, so that is an excellent way of showing differences between people, society etc. & letting audience make there own conclusions.

So finally I can turn to China question?

What do I know of China?  Well I grew up in 1970’s when Martial Arts from Asia really took off as did Bruce Lee’s Legend.  I also watched a couple of Chinese shows that were broadcast in the UK, one was dubbed and called Monkey or Monkey Magic and was based in ancient Chinese folklore gods.  The other I always remembered as Liang Shan Po (something like that) though was called The Water Margin and was just EPIC, another related show I just remembered was Kung Fu although that was all American.

So I loved those Chinese Shows and of course many Martial Arts Epics have been created over the years, what I have noticed is that I viewed some recent Big Epic Chinese style movies on Netflix and other stream services and they are suggested to not appeal to Western Box Office, that is wrong in so many ways because unfortunately Western Box Office has gone all Trend with Big Budget & nothing else, most of those big budgets are lousy & rubbish bereft of story and pure indulgence to “gamer generation FX heads”.

So in my view having seen The Last Jedi twice already and having been a fan of many works coming out of Asia, I think The Last Jedi can do far better than The Force Awakens in China and the Asian Market in general. When you strip down to basics of storytelling styles & choreography of action, it could well be suggested or complained by Westerners that the film was made to Chinese specification or design, the only thing perhaps missing is martial arts, though the drawback is of course the alleged poor performance of The Force Awakens.

Given the recent last years opening of a Disney Park in China, one can well imagine multiple Movies in the pipeline designed for China’s taste buds, I saw a recent comment that Pixar Coco is doing big business in China & that is probably because the South American legend utilised also exists in Chinese form, as do many other such Legends. So The Last Jedi has all the ingredients for big success and China perhaps also lacks the earlier generation buy-in to the franchise that is responsible for upsetting some loud minority groups within the fandom.

Time will tell of course, though given all the negative contrived nonsense hype surrounding one of the best movies of the year it would be fantastic to see the movie go passed its predecessor, especially as that now seems so poor in comparison.

Thank you for reading, God Bless & Be Well!

P.S. My own research into World myths & histories has again & again demonstrated almost identical stories, designs & craft & art appearing around the globe completely independently of outside influence in multiple cultures & prior to Global shipping and so on, hence many scholars scratching heads seeking to find or identify missing links and conspiracy obsessives wanting to claim Alien responsibility, the idea of basic planetary evolution and environmental habitats in nature is far to simple, why go with easy when you can invent entire establishments & science in the pretence that it all means anything in the greater scheme of life the universe & everything.