"Scotty's Goal the movie, set for production in 2004, will be the first ever U.S.-China co-produced feature film.”
Or rather, as the website states elsewhere with a neat qualifier: “Scotty's Goal promises to be a historically significant project, as its production will mark the first joint film production between The United States and China since the latter joined the World Trade Organization.”
I’d like to submit a petition to all movie producers in the world NEVER to use the word “first” and “China” in the same sentence again. Unless it’s, um, like, “the First Really Truly Crappy US-China Co-Production” or “The First Gay Panda Film” or “The Last F---in’ China Film to Claim to be the First F---in’ Whatever” or “The First Unionized Film in China!”
Okay, okay. I know I’m just a writer. And I know that movie producers must market and advertise their films, i.e., um, lie their asses off to perfectly intelligent people. But, can we get past this “First Chinese [Meaningless Adjectival Phrase] Film” obsession,please? When will someone finally come out and proudly claim to have made “the SECOND Chinese film [to poison a dozen geese on-screen, torture peacocks to the point of suicide, or turkey-shoot nationally-protected Mongolian gazelles crossed-dressed as Tibetan antelopes, etc.]”
- by Chris Barden
