WITH earnings of 850 million yuan (US$123.4 million) in just six days in China, “Aquaman” has become the most successful superhero film adapted from American comic giant DC’s books in China. The US$160-million epic starring Hawaii-born actor Jason Momoa as the lead is running on around 85 percent of the country’s screens since Dec 7. The release of “Aquaman” in China also makes it the first Hollywood big-budget film to be shown in China two weeks ahead of its North American release. Typically, films in Chinese theaters run for one month. So, considering that the film has just been released, “Aquaman” is estimated to earn 1.76 billion yuan, according to the box-office tracking and analyzing site Maoyan. Most fans attribute the latest DC spectacle to James Wan, the Malaysia-born Australian director of Chinese heritage. A question about what they felt was Wan’s main contribution to “Aquaman” drew responses from 114,120 netizens on Douban, the country’s most popular entertainment review site. And one of the responses was: “It’s amazing to see Wan demonstrate his talent in action sequences, where he combines various elements from various genres including sci-fi, adventure, epic and horror to shoot a deep-sea version of ‘Star Wars.’” The 41-year-old Wan is arguably Hollywood’s trailblazing director of the moment. From the low-budget gore genre with “Saw” — the series he started in 2003 that has since expanded into one of the most successful horror franchises of all time — to horror hits like “Insidious” and “The Conjuring,” to the action tent-pole that was “Furious 7,” Wan’s trajectory has been nothing short of breathtaking. He’s an Asian filmmaker of Malaysian-Chinese descent in Hollywood, breaking stereotypes — without letting continued box-office success get to his head. The Malaysian-born, Australian-raised director at the helm of “Aquaman” told CNA Lifestyle that he was cognizant of the lack of Asian representation in Hollywood, and everything he has done in his career was “about breaking doors, breaking stereotypes.” “I’m not out there making kung fu movies, you know what I mean?” said Wan. “My career started out making horror films, and I don’t know many Asian directors who make successful horror movies in Hollywood.” “I hate stereotypes,” he continued. “And so that’s always something I’m trying to do. And now I’m getting the chance to do a superhero movie, and again that’s something that’s different.” Wan pointed out another heartening difference: Aquaman, as embodied by Momoa — a Pacific Islander of Hawaiian and white descent — is Hollywood’s first brown-skinned big-screen superhero. “It’s incredible, isn’t it?” said Wan. “The character of Aquaman himself — he’s the very definition of bi-racial. He’s half-Atlantean, half surface-dweller. You have a character here who feels like he doesn’t belong in either world to begin with. That’s how he is in the comic books. And that was something that really stood out for me.” “And then when you lay the casting of Jason, with his mixed-heritage on top of that, it feels like a synchronicity that was meant to happen.” Wan continues to embrace his Malaysian-Chinese heritage, taking pride in the immigrant-style hustle that has defined his continued success in Tinseltown’s big leagues. His own upbringing — moving from Sarawak to Perth when he was 7 years old — “allowed me to get a bigger perspective,” he said thoughtfully. “I think what I bring to all my projects is that I try to look at all my films slightly out-of-the-box,” said Wan. “Trying to find a little way to break with tradition. And that’s the same thing I did with ‘Aquaman.’ It’s a superhero movie but it doesn’t play like a superhero film. It plays more like a classic, adventure-quest, fantasy movie — that just so happens to have a superhero character in it.” And his “break with tradition” seems to be paying off. “Aquaman” has already taken in more than US$120 million at the Chinese box office. With the film set for big openings in the United States this month, Wan’s latest hustle could be on its way to becoming the “box-office titan” that The New York Times predicts it will be. “When you make a movie of this size, there’s always going to be lots of pressure. You’re coming into a world that someone has established and is beloved. But the cool thing about ‘Aquaman’ is that even though it’s under the umbrella of the DC cinematic universe, I get to create my own world within that world.” “And when I get to create my own world,” said Wan, grinning, “my characters get to play within my own rules.” (SD-Agencies) | 