"What Women Want" about a chauvinist ad exec who gains the ability to hear women's thoughts has been remade in China and was released in the U.S. It might be a surprise to see how few details needed to be changed to make the story relevant to Chinese moviegoers.
Hong Kong Singer-actor Andy Lau takes over the role originated by Mel Gibson and Gong Li on the role played by Helen Hunt. Thanks to increasingly Westernized tastes in China, there was no need to substitute, the filmmakers said. He drives an Acura, has a divorced wife who's taken up with a foreigner, and serenades his work rival/love interest with an English-language song in a Beijing jazz lounge. It says a lot about how China has evolved, it would has needed a lot more changes 10 years ago.
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| Andy Lau |
The remake was directed by Chen Daming, who spent most of the 1990s in Los Angeles, playing small roles in films like "Beverly Hills Ninja" and working on scripts. He returned to his homeland to take a stab at directing.
"China was changing economically, growing very fast, so I thought it was a very interesting time to do film," he said. "Ten years ago, China was still a man-dominated society," Chen said. "Men still had more power. It's definitely changing. You look at all my friends — women are powerful and doing much more things than 10 years ago. There are many more opportunities."
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| Gong Li |
”What Women Want" remake also reflects how fast China has built up a globalized consumer culture after decades of centralized communist economic policies.
"China is exactly like repeating America," Chen said. "So I thought the film could be interesting in that way. The kinds of lifestyle people try to have.
Given how fast lifestyles in China and America are converging and that China’s homegrown film industry is still relatively immature compared to Hollywood's, American Producer Nickerson and her fellow "What Women Want" producer Yu Dong say they see many opportunities to adapt other U.S. productions.
”Sleepless in Seattle,'" said Yu, may be the next one made into a Chinese movie.
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| Andy Lau and Gong Li at the premier of "What Women Want" in China |
