[Weekly Update] Where are my Christmas movies?

Merry Christmas and happy holidays! Whatever you are celebrating, I hope you are having a great time!

CHANNEL UPDATE

Movies in our upcoming video:
Video for our Journey to the West Part 2 is already complete and is waiting to go live. Meanwhile, script for our yearly Chinese film review is complete and editing has begun. Here are the films we'll cover, in case you want to watch them first: The Pig, The Snake and the Pigeon (2023), Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In (2024), Abang Adik (2023), Jonny Keep Walking! (2023).

January video:
For January, I think we'll return to our bad movie world tour with a film from England: Sex Lives of the Potato Men. If it is questionably bad, it'll get its own video. If it's boring bad, it'll get to double up with Ah Girl Go Army. Either way, I want to continue this series, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

MEDIA TALK

Man, it's Christmas, and there's nothing to see in the cinema! The most hype movie of the Holiday season is somehow Sonic 3, which I supposed isn't anything to scoff at. But it ain't exactly Spider-Man No Way Home, or Avatar.

To be fair, it's not like the studios aren't trying. Disney alone tossed out two heavy weights like Moana 2 and Mufasa. Universal has Wicked still in theaters. And Sony has... well, Kraven. Yikes.

While this is an anecdotal experience, judging by the box office debut number, it seems most people agree with me. Out of all these films, Sonic 3 is the one most worth watching, leaving Mufasa in the dust.

My question, and I have been wanting to ask this for a few years now, is where are the Christmas movies, as in, movies set in and about Christmas? I supposed we have Red One, but no one wants to remember that.

Part of me thinks that Hallmark has cornered that market. With streaming being so accessible and Christmas being a homely holidays, it is natural for people to want to stay home and watch Hallmark movies, rather than going to the theatres for that festivity.

At the same time, I want to extend this question beyond Christmas, as I've noticed that Chinese new year movies are also not about new years anymore, nor are they set in new year.

The month between New Year and Lunar New Year is usually the hottest season for Chinese film releases. Family pictures like Hi, Mom, and blockbusters like Wandering Earth, are both released in this period. With every family going out for movies, you'd think making a film specifically for the holiday would be a no brainer. In fact, there used to be a whole genre of films called "New Year Films". Stephen Chow's King of Comedy is one such film, in which it ends with all the actors wishing the audience a Happy New Year.

But a quick search shows that none of the 2023-2024 new year films are like this. They are regular family movies that can be released in any season.

Usually, I'd give you my speculation on the matter. But this is one question I honestly have no clue what so ever. When talking about festivals no longer feeling festive, people often say that it is because we grew up. But... is it? Movies seem to getting less festive, that's for sure.

Is this phenomenon also happening in your country? Do you have a guess as to why this is happening? Leave a comment and let me know! I'll see you in our next video or our next update!