Hacker News Reader

There are plenty of films produced in China and India about historical periods in China and India... watch them?

Likewise there are few films in those markets set in historical European eras.

A place tends to make films regarding their own cultural heritage, is this a problem or are you going to start complaining about the lack of Bollywood productions about King Arthur?

View on HN

I would bet China and India's film industries aren't great on historical accuracy either. The past tends to be a strange, different country, where people care about a ton of unsexy stuff which we don't care for, and vice versa.

That's not ideal for engaging stories, let alone courting nationalist audiences.

India has booming film industries, but I haven't looked into historical film. I'm normally there for the escapism. The fact that it's considered A place or A heritage is another problem. It's more diverse than Europe. Heck, often languages are closer to European languages than they are to the neighboring region. I wish I knew a lot more about that than I do.

China has some pretty serious issues with the government's projection on their own history and their ability to dictate what is or is not made. Minor example: a Tang period film required a change to not period-accurate clothing because it was too immodest. Sorry, I can't remember the name.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com