Going to the cinema in China is a bit different. The Chinese love adventure, a beautiful actress, or special effects, and go home happy even if a film isn’t any good. Farce works a treat: the Chinese find nothing funnier than someone falling flat on their face.
But lately I’ve been carrying around a 500RMB (£50) cinema gift card that a friend gave me, and I can find nothing to spend it on. China has developed its own version of the Hollywood rom-com, turning out a slew of movies about marriages, or break-ups, or whatever. The problem is that they are nowhere near as raucous or funny as their American counterparts. Very few western films make it into the Chinese cinema due to a government quota of 100 per year. The big action films, like Captain America are always welcome: the Iron, Spider and Super men all seem to make it.