The sun is going to enter the orbit of Mercury according to scientific calculations, which will result in the Earth catching on fire. Who will save the world?
This imaginative tale is at the heart of a Chinese sci-fi movie The WanderingEarth. Unlike many American space-themed films where the solution to a challenge Earth faces is always fleeing the planet in spaceships, this time we're taking the Earth with us. The film, which has become the country's most successful film of all time, has offered a different and more ambitious idea.
The "ambition" didn't come from nowhere. For thousands of years, "homeland" has had a soft spot in the hearts and minds of Chinese people. One old idiom that shows a strong feeling that Chinese people have had for their homeland is "luoyeguigen", which means returning to one's homeland in old age, like fallen leaves returning to the roots of their tree.
"What is Chinese sci-fi?" Guo Fan, the film's director, said in an interview. "A vehicle that really expresses our cultural and spinal core can be called Chinese sci-fi. Otherwise, we're just following others and telling the same Hollywood stories. "
And the makers of The WanderingEarth may have chosen the best time to tell its Chinese sci-fi story. The film was released on Feb 5, 2015, the first day of Chinese New Year. It was a time when many people had just made the hard journey back to their hometowns. So to them, there is only one possible way to tell the story. Earth goes wherever humans go, because it's our home.
