"During the storm" sweeps China
Catalan filmmaker Oriol Paulo has once again achieved a blockbuster in China with his feature film "Durante la tormenta", becoming the third of the films favored by the Chinese public in its first weekend of screening in cinemas, with one million and medium of spectators.
"We have started super good and I can not say anything other than how delighted I am," the director said in a telephone interview with Efe from China, where he is already preparing his return trip: next week, he reveals without pointing any more information , will announce an important collaboration to make a series.
Paulo (Barcelona, 1975) has done hard promotion work in China, with visits to nine cities, including three days in Beijing and attendance to 48 total screenings since last April 17; an effort that has given him many personal and commercial satisfactions, but that only reinforce the already announced tastes of his audience.
Because after the success of "Contratiempo", which made a box office of more than 26 million euros, the Chinese industry opted for its new film from the script.
"Yes it is true that in October I came to China to teach them the tape, so they would stay calm, and they supported it, although it is now when they release it", explains the director of "El cuerpo" (2012).
China, which is a "hyperprotective" country with its audiences, goes mad with the complicated temporary turns of Paulo's films. Catalan thinks that it is because his films "always invite to be very active with the viewing and that they love".
"That already happened to me with" Contratiempo "and this one, which is more complex, with more temporary mess, they are plugged in," he says.
In Spain, "Contratiempo" raised 3.67 million euros, but "During the storm" remained at 779,520 euros and 123,778 viewers, a fairly short figure compared to the shot achieved only the weekend of the premiere in China. Of course, China has 1.3 billion inhabitants and cinema is a little cheaper.
"It gives me a lot of envy, they take great care of their rooms, the screenings, people like to go to the movies and there is a lot of respect for culture, and I've seen it the same in the best working neighborhoods," says Paulo.
"During the storm", which closes in a certain way a "trilogy" that Paulo started with "El cuerpo" (2012) and "Contratiempo" (2016), gathers all the "leitmotifs" of Paulo's cinema: mystery, characters forced to act against the clock and the need for the viewer to get involved with the plot from minute one.
"'Contratiempo' was hooked by the story of the parents who defeated a corrupt moral, but I think they like it for the part of the love story of the two: they are obsessed to know if Adriana and Chino end up together," protagonists in the temporary jumps of the tape.
