Cultural differences and opinions form the basis of many of these reviews, so it would be insensitive to throw too much shade on to these opinions. With that being said, if Western audiences responded to The Last Jedi in such a way, there would almost certainly be a social media backlash.
With The Last Jedi underperforming in China compared to the launches of The Force Awakens and Rogue One, Cinese focused site Sixth Tone approached Chinese cinemagoers and Star Wars fans to ask why the film was – in their opinion – not catching the imagination of Chinese audiences.
There are some very interesting opinions, including the observation that we are now 9 big screen films in to the series and it’s too late to catch up, the physical attractiveness of the actors in the film and the plot itself.
Echoing the sentiments of many fellow fans, Wang and Chen both described the new film as visually appealing but riddled with issues such as atypical behavior from established characters. Luke Skywalker was particularly disappointing to Wang, who felt that the character’s brooding behavior didn’t jibe with the resilience and fearless optimism of the young Luke he had come to know from the original trilogy.
While last year’s film, “Rogue One,” wasn’t a box office success either, it was still enthusiastically received by China’s Star Wars fans. Chen appreciated the film’s positivity and its prevailing sense of hope. “For a lot of fans, the story of ‘Rogue One’ made us think of our own country’s revolutionary history,” he said. “A lot of characters in it were just like the Communist Party members who sacrificed themselves for the revolution.”
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