Poor showing in China for Singapore-helmed movie

SINGAPORE- The highly anticipated Voice Of China movie I Want You, which is helmed by Singaporean talents, opened in China last Friday with a disappointing 1 million yuan (S$209,000) at the box office.

The high profile project is a spin-off of the highly rated reality talent show, The Voice Of China. Made on a budget of 30 million yuan, it was backed by a home-grown creative team made up of director Chai Yee Wei, producer Melvin Ang and music producer Eric Ng.

Chai, 37, tells Life! that he did not keep tabs on the movie's box-office takings.

"I don't have much expectations in terms of the box-office numbers because I don't use that to determine how I view a project.

"I think a lot of people are disappointed because they were expecting much bigger numbers. I'm just grateful for the opportunity to work on the project and the stars," says the director who had also helmed That Girl In Pinafore this year.

Banking on the huge following of the reality show, I Want You stars The Voice's contestants such as Li Daimo, Ding Ding (left) and Momo Wu Mochou. It follows a group of young people passionate about music.

On Dou Ban, a popular Chinese movie review website, viewers rated it 2.4 out of five stars.

Its lacklustre performance could be due to fierce competition on its opening day from Jackie Chan's Police Story 2013 and Personal Tailor, by Feng Xiaogang, one of China's most popular directors.

I Want You will open in Singapore in March.

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