Review | Galaxy Writer movie review: Chinese drama about new directors navigating the film industry is amusing but unoriginal
- Writer-director duo Li Kuo and Shan Dandan’s film about novice filmmakers struggling in China’s commercial film industry is likely based on their own experience
- Christopher Nolan references and a love triangle don’t save the film from its fresh-faced characters, who offer little for viewers who have seen it all before
2/5 stars
Films about filmmaking are nearly as old as the medium itself, yet remain a popular subgenre. At once self-indulgent and celebratory, filmmakers repeatedly rise to the challenge, attempting to convey what attracts them to the art form, despite its difficulty, cost, competition, and every other obstacle standing between them and cinematic success.
Such cautionary tales of quixotic endeavours seem especially popular with first-time filmmakers, which brings us to Galaxy Writer.
Drawn, one suspects, very much from their own experiences, the film follows a pair of best friends and wannabe screenwriters as they attempt to bring their sci-fi action epic “Seven Seconds Man” to fruition.
After moving to Beijing, the epicentre of the China’s booming film industry, Liaoyi (Song Muzi) and Tan (He Wenjun) must negotiate a treacherous road of charlatan producers and commercially driven industry drones dead set on taking the boys’ beloved masterpiece and distorting it into just another slice of soulless corporate content.
