A still of the film "A Chinese Odyssey" [File photo]

Classic comedy to reopen in cinemas

Foreign TV shows online will need permits

Thus, Huaxia Film Distribution Company, which acquired the release rights of the movie, launched a re-release program to screen old classics. "A Chinese Odyssey" is their choice for the second season of this program, entitled "The Good Movies We Missed Out on in Those Years." The promotional slogan for the rerelease campaign is, "We must compensate Stephen Chow for the missed ticket money."

However, Chow will not see any of the proceeds since the rights to release the film on the Chinese mainland are solely owned by West Movie Group, while the Hong Kong release rights are owned by Chow.

"A Chinese Odyssey" provoked heady nostalgia from young and middle-aged audiences, many of whom cried before the screen or used mobile cell phone cameras to capture classic scenes onscreen inside a theater, our reporter observed.

"We are trying to bring those movies with high artistic value back to audiences, in order to raise people's artistic tastes and find something solemn and ceremonial back on the big screen," Fu Ruoqing, the executive board chairman of Huaxia, said. But "A Chinese Odyssey" still doesn't get extra show times and is not promoted as a big re-released blockbuster like "Titanic 3D." But Huang Qunfei, the vice general manager of Huaxia Film Distribution Company, said this is "hunger marketing."

According to a popular poll by Sina.com, 74.7 percent of voters said they wanted to view the film again in theaters. 50.9 percent confessed they first viewed the film via illegal downloads or pirated tapes or disks, and only 3.6 percent first saw it in cinema.

Another Stephen Chow adaption of the Chinese classic, "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons," released in 2013, directed by Chow and starring Wen Zhang, Shu Qi, and Huang Bo, grossed 1.244 billion yuan ($203.5 million) on the Chinese mainland alone and ranked as the second-biggest-grossing Chinese film ever. The film somewhat continued Chow's tragicomic style and kept the tune of the ever-familiar classic "Love in a Life Time" by Lowell Lo, who composed the song and scores for "A Chinese Odyssey."