'Dunkirk' dominates Chinese box office, online discussions

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Christopher Nolan’s new film “Dunkirk” raked in 30 million US dollars in China’s box office in the first three days since its release on September 1.

The war film not only stole the show in theaters across the country, but was also under the spotlight on Chinese social media, giving rise to heated discussions about its plot and whether too much word of mouth has exaggerated its appeal.

"Dunkirk," which tells the story of the Dunkirk evacuation during Word War Two, was written and directed by Christopher Nolan, who is no stranger to big screen hits having wowed the crowd with Inception in 2010 and Interstellar in 2014.

This is the first time Nolan has shot a film depicting realistic events. Surprisingly, he did not include grand establishing shots in his production and audiences can only see ordinary soldiers with fear, tiredness and an unknown future.

The movie scored 97 on Rotten Tomatoes after it debuted in North America. Fans said it was one of the best war films in a decade but others criticized it for being a bit boring and lacking shocking elements.

In China, Dunkirk scored 8.7 (out of 10) on Douban, a popular Chinese movie rating platform, slightly lower than in North America.

Screenshot of Hong Huang's Weibo account.

The movie'st unique perspective was praiseworthy, said columnist and founder of iLook fashion magazine Hong Huang, who has a following of 11 million on China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo.

“Without too many stars, we can totally enjoy the film”.

However, such statement challenges the penchant of moviegoers in China to favor films based on the cast not the content.

Other netizens said the film did not take a fresh path from Nolan's traditional treatment of his movies, as protagonists did not show enough growth through the multiple narrative lines.

Douban screenshot of a review about Dunkirk

"The film showed its respect for the historical facts, which also led to the main narrative angle having nothing new. Not to mention that the way Nolan presented the movie only caused a fake shock effect," wrote a netizen on Douban.

Dunkirk's success in movie theaters has been reflected in the heated discussion and opposite opinions it received from viewers – and such debate does not seem to be fizzling as the movie remains one of the trending topics online.