Movie experts warned last week that Chinese “super blockbusters*” — heavily-invested home-made movies — are facing a “crisis” despite doing well commercially.

Yin Hong, professor at the media college of Qinghua University, said domestic movies contributed* to half of the box-office intake* at Chinese cinemas last year, with Zhang Yimou’s “Curse of the Golden Flower” and Feng Xiaogang’s “The Banquet” leading the way.

Yin dubbed* the two movies “super blockbusters” because they were so highly publicized and heavily invested that “even someone who did not like cinemas was tempted* to have a look at it.”

“However, the domestic audiences begin to feel disappointed after the big fanfare* around their market debut* and people don’t think they are as good as they preached*,” said Yin at a conference held by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

However, neither film was well received outside China, he said, adding the success of such blockbusters greatly depends on the reception overseas.

“The Curse,” a story of bloody palace intrigue* in ancient China, earned 250 million yuan (US$31.25 million) by early January, whereas it cost 360 million yuan to make. “The Banquet” pulled in 130 million yuan during its run.

“Some domestic blockbusters cannot reflect any of China’s culture and tradition. Instead, they put more emphasis on visual pleasure and take more resemblance* to Hollywood movies,” said Huang Shixian, a professor at the Beijing Film Academy.

“Those movies surely cannot attract overseas audience who expect to see more Chinese elements in Chinese movies,” said Huang.

Chinese director Jia Zhangke, who won the Golden Lion for Best Film at the Venice Film Festival with his “Still Life,” has said he hopes more Chinese films will portray the lives of common people, instead of just being extravagant*.

“The model for those commercial films is to gain huge profits, which will remove creativity and imagination from Chinese films,” said Jia.

“Chinese movie industry should readjust its development path in 2007. The first and foremost* subject is to cultivate a movie-watching habit among Chinese,” said Yin. (SD-Agencies)