7. If You Are The One
The Chinese New Year film season was launched and defined by director Feng Xiaogang in 1997 with the top grossing movie Dream Factory. But the comedy director went on to change the direction of his career by presenting a Hamlet-inspired Chinese tragedy, The Banquet , and a war epic, The Assembly in past two years. Feng came back at the end of 2008 with his new effort If You Are The One, although many hardly recognize him and miss his old persona.
If You Are The One is a weird hybrid of comedy and art film. It is also a road-film story of emotional despair and salvation. A story about a girl in love with a married man who then meets a middle-aged man himself in search of true love is like a Chinese version of When Harry Met Sally. Feng wrote the script on his own but did not have the time to polish the film and make it even better. No matter – the film is full of beautiful scenes shot on the road and heart-warming jokes, while sympathetic dialogue about the sequence of misfortunes in China in 2008 like the earthquake and the stock market slump will surely give people joy and hope, and make it a perfect New Year film. If You Are The One has already grossed over 200 million yuan (US$29.3million) in its first two weeks, a huge success by any standard.
