The film Moon Man has garnered significant attention in Chinese media even before its release, being hailed as a milestone in Chinese cinema primarily due to its unique genre, technical prowess, and substantial investment. However, despite its success...
The film Moon Man has garnered significant attention in Chinese media even before its release, being hailed as a milestone in Chinese cinema primarily due to its unique genre, technical prowess, and substantial investment. However, despite its success in China, Moon Man faced commercial failure upon its export to Korea. China’s efforts to cultivate soft power, fostering domestic cohesion while simultaneously promoting national branding and image enhancement on the global stage through content development, have been largely successful in significantly expanding the domestic film market through diversification and innovation. However, as demonstrated by the case of Moon Man, the cultural discount rate seems relatively high when it comes to securing popularity in overseas markets.
In this paper, we aim to analyze the uniqueness and cultural context of Moon Man as a transnational content. Specifically, we intend to examine the cultural context of B-grade comedy, particularly Mahua fun age-style comedy, which is beloved by Chinese audiences, and explore the background and implications of the emerging new mainstream film narrative hidden within the SF narrative.