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China references in Looper (2012)


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Posted

I just saw Looper last night and noticed the theme of "China as the future" plays an important part of the plot. The movie is set in 2044 and 2074 and without giving anything away in the plot, the main character is learning French and wants to go to France when he 'retires'. When confronted about these plans by someone sent back from the future, the character says "Go to China, trust me, I'm from the future." (A very dry reading by Jeff Daniels and I thought very funny.) There is a important connection to China with Bruce Willis' character as well.

I really enjoyed the movie and would recommend it. I thought some of my fellow China Nerds would get a kick out of the China reference in a Sci-Fi flick. :D

Posted

I noticed this as well, and I laughed out loud at that line from Jeff Daniels. Too bad we never got any scenes of Joseph Gordon-Levitt practicing his Mandarin. We would criticize the **** out of it, I'm sure.

Looper was a great movie.

Posted

I saw it last night as well, in Beijing. Definitely enjoyed hearing Bruce speak Chinese. I wonder how many of the China scenes were shown in the western version, as apparently a lot were added here to satisfy Chinese audiences.

Posted

MINOR SPOILER BELOW

I watched the movie last night with my gf. the American version has music playing over dialog that would have been mandarin.

we talked about it after the movie, and thought that Bruce didn't want to embarrass himself with bad mandarin a la Bradley Cooper.

Posted

SPOILER:

In the beginning, I loved the detail when the "present" guy exchanged his silver from the future for RMB.

Posted

Saw it in Beijing and enjoyed it as well. I read that the China release of the movie has alot more China-related scenes than non-China releases.

Posted
I read that the China release of the movie has alot more China-related scenes than non-China releases.

Wow, they did an edit entirely different for Chinese audiences, with added content? I thought they usually just edited out the objectionable scenes. Anyone know if the run times differ? Or, what scenes would be different? Might have to watch it again later if it is a different release.

Posted

I saw it yesterday in Kunming. Run time was 118 minutes. It had several scenes in which various characters, including Willis, said things in Chinese. No long, sustained conversations.

The theater in which I saw it only offered an English version; no Chinese version. Some audience members were shaking their heads on the way out and their conversations were about how they had found parts of the film confusing.

One young couple said they thought the Chinese subtitles must have been faulty. I didn't rely on the Chinese subtitles, but found parts of the film confusing as well. I hate "time travel" movies for exactly that reason. Had gone to the theater hoping to see 危险关系, but the timing was wrong.

#5 -- It was a "pickup line," but Willis tossed it out quickly and I couldn't make out the words.

Posted

China strictly limits the number of foreign movies that can be shown in its cinemas. Looper got around that by being a US-China co-production. For that to happen, it had to contain a significant amount of Chinese elements and at least one token Chinese actor.

I saw the American version on the internet and it had almost nothing about China at all. I suspect the China scenes weren't that interesting because, well if they were that great they could have included them in the American edit.

Overall, the movie had a very "in edit" feel to it. The first half was fast and frenetic with ideas and plot arcs soaring off here and there. Then in the second half it slooooooowed right down to show Bruce Willis sitting around chatting with a woman and her child. When he was talking to the kiddie I was checking my emails.

Posted

Yup @count_zero, the Chinese production company is DMG Entertainment , which you will see is the second production company listed at the bottom of the movie poster of this Sony distributed movie.

Their earliest movie listed by IMDB.com is for being involved in the production of that old(ish) chestnut, "The Founding of a Republic" in 2009, if you remember that one... !

As you imply, seems like more and more American movies are taking this China route, through various Chinese production partners, including the upcoming Iron Man 3, says the Huffington Post. "(W)e are going to add Chinese elements and a Chinese story into Iron Man 3," says Disney Pictures. Dancing with the devil? (... so long as the path they dance along continues to be paved with gold...)

Posted

Interesting that it was a China/US co-production. I'll definitely have to see the China release edit when I can. There was an interesting podcast talking about the current Chinese film market over at Sinica:

Hollywood comes to China

@count_zero Did you listen to this too? They talk about the new China/US co-production model as a means to get more movies past the 'foreign movie limit'.

@smurese I think they discuss Iron Man 3 in the podcast, as well. I'm not terribly familiar with Iron Man universe, but I understand a main antagonist from China is call 'The Mandarin'. We'll see how they handle that one!

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