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When copycat becomes cultural norm in China:
Foreign movie posters ripped off
A lia | March 3rd, 2012 - 4:32 am
It is not an easy task to design a really original and creative movie poster. Given the number of
movies in existence, no matter what is put into a movie poster, it probably has already been
used somewhere else.
But what you will see below has nothing to do with draining creativity. It is plain copycat. For all
the movie posters shown below, the Chinese movies on the right were released after the
foreign ones on the left. (Click links to see details about movies on IMDB or Mtime China).
Most of them are movies of similar genres. For example. Phobia 2 from Thailand and Midnight
Beating, both are horror movies. Street Kings from the US and Chongqing Blues, both
are gangster movies. Addicted to Love from the US and Sophies Revenge, both are chic love
comedy.
Other pairs, however, almost have a wicked sense of humor such as The Ides of March vs. Lao
Nan Ren Li Xian Ji (translated as The Adventure of a Middle-aged Man), Taken vs. The Killer
Who Never Kills, and Fahrenheit 9/11 vs. Dear Enemy (love drama).

South Korea: Sad Movie (2005) VS. China: You Ren La Wu Mi (2011) VS. China: The
Allure of Tears (2011)

US: Vantage Point (2008) VS. China: Seven 2 One (2009)
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UK: Pirate Radio (2009) VS. China: Sleepless Fashion (2011)

France: Taken (2008) VS. China: The Killer Who Never Kills (2011)

US: Fahreheit 9/11 (2004) VS. China: Dear Enemy (2011)

US: Yours, Mine and Ours (2005) VS. China: Perfect Wedding (2010)

US: Valentines Day (2010) VS. China: Hot Summer Days (2010)

US: Oceans Twelve (2004) VS. China: Fit Lover (2008)

US: Diary of a Wimpy Kid (2010) VS. China: Welcome to Sha-ma Town (2010)
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Tags: China, copycat, knockoff, movie
28 Responses to When copycat becomes cultural norm in China:
Foreign movie posters ripped off
Mister Emma CINEMA : Les plagiats chinois daffiches de films says:
March 14, 2013 at 4:32 pm
[...] rapidement quici, il sagit clairement de plagiat, comme la dmontr le site
offbeatchina.com.Original US : Addicted to Love (1997) vs. Copie Chine : Sophies Revenge
(2009)Original US : [...]
Reply
Posters chinos curiosamente parecidos a otros | AniGame - Donde eres lo que eres says:
September 20, 2012 at 5:41 pm
[...] Fuente: Offbeatchina [...]
Reply
GALLERY | Guni-guni not alone, copycat posters common in Bollywood, China | Entertainment
News InterAksyon.com says:
August 22, 2012 at 9:20 am
[...] 10 egregious samples below, culled from this blog and this [...]
Reply
money says:
May 4, 2012 at 8:26 am
money
[...]When copycat becomes cultural norm in China: Foreign movie posters ripped off |
Offbeat China[...]
Reply
Chinas Copycats From Tech to Movie Posters duncanleung.com says:
May 1, 2012 at 2:13 am
[...] enough ranting from me. I just wanted to show these Chinese movie posters from the
blog Offbeat China that were pretty unoriginally copied from other movies. [...]
Reply
perez-fox.com Chinese Copycat Movie Posters says:
March 30, 2012 at 3:32 am
[...] other day, I came across a rather comprehensive collection of copycat posters in China,
with the layout, photographic style, and general concept lifted directly from Hollywood
movies of [...]
Reply
Movie posters ripped off | | NewVibe says:
March 16, 2012 at 4:43 pm
[...] Maar de voorbeelden hieronder, afkomstig uit China waar copyright wordt vertaald als
right to copy, zijn van een andere categorie. Categorie jatwerk. Het betreft hier niet een
Chinese versie of remake van een bestaande film (links), maar een compleet andere
Chinese film, meestal van een soortgelijk genre. Meer hier. [...]
Reply
Copycat Nation | POSTCARDS FROM NEXT DOOR Letters in Development says:
March 16, 2012 at 6:11 am
[...] found this website and article, When copycat becomes cultural norm in China: Foreign
movie posters ripped off, on CNN, and lets just say that the Chinese movie industry is not
very shy about their movie [...]
Reply
rollo says:
March 16, 2012 at 3:27 pm
The Chinese are like, the Borg from star trek. They assimilate everything and every idea.
It is never about ethics or personal integrity; It is about ripping everything off that is not
nailed down. There modern culture distils down to, not just imitating, but assimilating,
then pretending that those intellectual ideas belonged to them all along.
Reply
#@%$ says:
October 27, 2012 at 2:03 am
Youre Borg fROM STAR TREK!
YOU #$%@ %$@+#*
Reply
Skippy says:
March 15, 2012 at 10:48 pm
The font in Welcome to Shamatown looks very much like the font from the Harry Potter
movies.
Reply
Rocket says:
March 15, 2012 at 8:22 pm
On the girl poster for Diary of a Wimpy Kid (the American poster): broach=brooch. I bet the
Chinese posters are spelled right.
Reply
Chandra says:
March 28, 2012 at 5:26 am
actually broach is a less common spelling of brooch.. all the same. be cool.
Reply
present value of an annuity of 1 says:
March 15, 2012 at 7:24 pm
present value of an annuity of 1
[...]When copycat becomes cultural norm in China: Foreign movie posters ripped off |
Offbeat China[...]
Reply
Pali Breeze says:
March 15, 2012 at 6:31 pm
The inferior copy.
Reply
Flychick86 says:
March 13, 2012 at 4:50 am
This was really interesting to look at. I thought about how some of them were and when
they called them rip-offs.
Reply
Flychick86 says:
March 13, 2012 at 4:49 am
This was really interesting to look at. I kinda thought about when they called them rip-offs.
Reply
niiorkl says:
March 13, 2012 at 3:47 am
If you look at the daddy day car one, you can see that the chinese rip-off has even cloned
the guys body and only copy-pasted the chinese actors face on itpretty lame, even for
them
Reply
Dave Bartlett says:
March 12, 2012 at 4:43 pm
Well if these are all classed as rip-offs, I want to claim originality, since A Tale of Two
Sisters (2003) and Illusion Apartment (2010) are BOTH obvious rip-offs of My mum and
my auntie sitting on their two seat sofa with my grandparents standing behind (about
1947, I think.)
Reply
Ussef says:
March 12, 2012 at 12:11 am
Some are really blatant rip-offs, but others do just convey the same idea or the original
isnt that original to begin with
Reply
ChinaNik says:
March 11, 2012 at 6:04 pm
Even if some of the posters may look generic they are still original artArranging a few
photos in a particular way still conveys an idea and is a copyrighted material.So, yes, no
matter how innocent they may look, the Chinese ripoffs are still rip offsand should not be
defended.
Reply
| Laowaicast says:
March 10, 2012 at 12:43 pm
[...] | var
addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; ?
Ctrl+Enter. [...]
Reply
The View Beyond Parallax more reads for week of March 9 | Parallax View says:
March 9, 2012 at 5:39 pm
[...] Some of these Chinese movie posters arent copying other examples so much as
offering variations on a generic designor maybe I just cant contemplate somebody
actually bothering to rip off Addicted to Loves foursomebut others are so nakedly
plagiarist theyre almost charming. [...]
Reply
Miller says:
March 7, 2012 at 7:34 am
No surprise there. Fabulous shanzhai work.
That said, the posters for Taken and Yours, Mine & Ours are common looking enough
that the Chinese poster paired with it could be a direct rip-off or could just be following the
same archetype. The people crowded behind a door being shut especially is something Ive
seen in other movie posters (off the top of my head, My Big Fat Greek Wedding is ).
Reply
David Wertime, Co-Editor, TeaLeafNation.com says:
March 4, 2012 at 11:22 pm
Very funny stuff. The ones near the bottom seem more like they *may* be coincidences. In
particular, Sleepless Fashions poster seems pretty original. But a lot of them are, well,
shanzhai.
Reply
Ren says:
March 4, 2012 at 5:25 pm
Okay to be fair, some are pretty generica bunch of faces in a heart is not copying. But, that
said some are pretty blatant copies!
Reply
nick says:
March 4, 2012 at 6:57 am
A lot of them are just generic. Those US romantic comedies that are copied look like 1000s
of other romantic comedy covers from all over the world.
Reply
Hao Hao Report says:
March 3, 2012 at 4:36 am
Someone thinks this story is fantastic
This story was submitted to Hao Hao Report a collection of Chinas best stories and blog
posts. If you like this story, be sure to go vote for it.
Reply
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