The Wandering Earth and China's sci-fi heritage

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The Wandering Earth and China's sci-fi heritage
The film tells the story of our planet, doomed by the expanding Sun, being moved across space to a safer place. The Chinese heroes have to save the mission - and humanity - when Earth gets caught in Jupiter's gravitational pull.To get more china news, you can visit shine news official website.
Based on Hugo Award winner Liu Cixin's short story of the same name, Wandering Earth has already grossed $600m (£464m) at the Chinese box office and was called China's "giant leap into science fiction" by the Financial Times. It's been bought by Netflix and will debut there on 30 April.
But while this may be the first time many in the West have heard of "kehuan" - Chinese science fiction - Chinese cinema has a long sci-fi history, which has given support to scientific endeavour, offered escapism from harsh times and inspired generations of film-goers.
So for Western audiences eager to plot the rise of the Chinese sci-fi movie, here are five films I think are worth renewed attention.They were largely preoccupied with themes like the loss of youth, tradition versus change, and creating the rural aesthetic most people associated with Chinese film.
But China in the 1980s was a scene of rapid modernisation, urbanisation and Westernisation, and films started responding to the impact of this massive change.
In Dislocation, a scientist creates an android version of himself to attend the endless meetings that rob him of his time, in a black comedy of mechanisation and bureaucracy.
Huang's take on the debate on artificial intelligence is superbly delivered against a surreal Kafka-esque dreamscape, with stark lighting and suspenseful music, making this film a delight to watch.In Warrior Revived, police officer Song Da Wei dies a gruesome death on duty and ends up in a decade-long coma. He's brought back to life by a "miracle cure" from a biologist who has found a way to repair defective DNA.
The genetically enhanced Song finds himself uncomfortable with the cyberised world around him, and excluded by his old comrades. Meanwhile, the heavily maimed villain he gave his life to destroy is plotting to steal the gene formula and wreak his revenge.
Like a lot of great cyberpunk movies before the age of CGI, this early mainland kehuan impresses with its high kitsch, low-budget, imaginative approach.
The villain's lair is filled with neon tubes, hand-crafted lab controls and walls covered with plastic bowls in the best traditions of the Tardis.
What it lacks in sleekness it more than makes up with innovative costume designs and soundtrack, diligent camera work and the sheer energy from the cast.