"Aftershock," a film based on an earthquake that was released in China sometime this year has quickly became the nations box-office leader of all-time

Toronto Fest Feels The ‘Aftershock’
September 21st, 2010


September 21, 2010: "Aftershock," a film based on an earthquake that was released in China sometime this year has quickly became the nation’s box-office leader of all-time. It has done amazingly well for itself for a domestic movie. The movie was played as an afterthought this weekend in the Toronto Film Festival.

The Chinese release of the film was scheduled to happen at the 34th anniversary of the dreaded Tangshan earthquake that took place in the year 1976. The Tangshan earthquake took over 240,000 lives.

The making of the film costed a whopping $76 million. However, Hollywood’s "Avatar" still remains the leader at the Chinese movie box office and has made more than $200 million in China. "Aftershock" the movie is also the first ever Chinese film that has been made in conjunction with IMAX. The movie is presently devoid of any U.S. distributor.

This film is directed by Feng Xiaogang. The director couldn’t attend the Toronto International Film Festival as he had prior shooting commitments.

This is one film that is bookended by almost real-life depictions of the Tangshan earthquake that devastated the entire region in 1976. It also draws inspiration from the Sichuan earthquake in 2008.

The story as depicted in the movie follows the lives of twins, a boy and a girl. The two are estranged by the first earthquake and then are reunited in the repercussion of the second one. The movie beautifully tracks their personal changes as the nation of China proceeds further away from its days of Cultural Revolution to its more capitalist embodiment of today.