"I had written over 100 film critiques on my blog Customized Sabres Jersey , but only a little more than a dozen are left that I reluctantly find acceptable," Be Chenggong said on two different occasions during our interview.
Be was once one of the most attention grabbing film critics on Sina Weibo in China, but now he prefers to be thought of as a scriptwriter and composer.
Be stressed that although he wrote movie critiques he never truly thought of himself as a critic because his motivations for writing them stemmed partly from personal interest and partly from his disappointment with other critics. This life journey from film industry observer and commentator to film industry participant is shared by many Chinese working in the industry. However, although he has decided to open himself up to criticism by joining the industry, his natural inclination to be critical of film still creeps up from time to time, as seen from his Sina Weibo.
From outsider to insider
Be still recalls when he first watched James Cameron's Terminator 2 at the age of 10. "When the liquid metal shifted into a human Buffalo Sabres Jersey , I felt uncomfortable from head to toe. I was almost scared crazy," Be said, explaining that back then neither of his parents, who brought the videotape back, had known it was an R rated film.
"But I was also deeply impressed by how extraordinary Hollywood films could be," Be added.
Alien Justin Bailey Sabres Jersey , Indiana Jones, Top Gun, Jurassic Park, True Lies and Forrest Gump - Be talks about Hollywood films like he is sharing his own family treasures. "Though I tried to watch a few films from other countries, none were as interesting as those from Hollywood," Be noted.
Majoring in history for both his bachelor and master degrees Ryan O'Reilly Sabres Jersey , his teenage hobby of watching films somehow caught up to him. From the beginning of the 21st century, Be began to write reports about the North American box office for news portal sina as well as analyzing the Oscars after 2004.
"In the 1980s, 1990s and even the beginning of the 21st century, films in China were almost pure art," Be commented, adding that he feels director Feng Xiaogang together with Huayi Brothers Benoit Pouliot Sabres Jersey , and director Zhang Yimou together with New Pictures were major contributors to the commercialization of the Chinese film industry.
"Because of this commercialization, the possibility opened up for people like myself to contribute to the industry in a way that did not exist when we chose our majors during our 20s," Be said.
Going deeper
Be described his time as a film critic as lasting from the first Harry Potter film in 2001 to the last one in 2011.
"I did not write any film critiques after the last Harry Potter," Be said, adding that he made an exception for Gravity because he admired the film so deeply. "I stopped writing after 2011 because I wanted to stay independent."
Be told the Global Times that he felt humiliated about two years earlier when a big production company asked him to write a positive critique of their blockbuster film, for which they would pay him 5 Rasmus Ristolainen Sabres Jersey ,000 yuan ($800).
"There are few film critics in China today who are not taking money [from production companies]. The only difference is the skill with which they hide themselves," Be noted.
Considering today's social media, the title of "film critic" is easily gained in China as some just crown themselves. However, the fact that it is also an underappreciated job may be why many critics need to earn a living through other means.
