China’s pandemic film hits theatres — but the Covid wound is still raw

(Edited and refined by Vianne Chia, with the assistance of AI translation.)

“Seventy-six days; ten million lives on the line.” With that one line, the release poster for Chinese film Angels in White (《白衣逆行者》) evokes the 76-day lockdown in Wuhan, Hubei, after the Covid-19 outbreak in early 2020.

The film’s trailer features scenes of emergency treatment in hospitals and tells the story of ordinary people of different professions and age groups joining forces to fight the pandemic, both before and during the lockdown.

Set to open in cinemas across China on 6 November, the film is hardly new, and its journey from production to release has been anything but smooth. According to reports by Hong Kong newspaper Sing Tao Daily and 1905.com, filming wrapped in Shenzhen in December 2020 after just over a month. The film was originally titled Angels in the Fight Against Covid (战疫天使).

Long road to release

No official explanation has been given for why the film was shelved for so long. Film blogger “Wuya Huotang” (乌鸦·火堂), citing publicly available information, noted that the new title did not appear in film registration records until 2023. He speculated that filming may have begun before the production completed the required registration, leaving it unable to proceed to later stages of review.

He also suggested that the film’s subject matter, which touches on complex public memories, may have required a new title, re-editing and reshoots to meet censorship requirements, which could explain why the film was not cleared for release and was shelved for years.

In July last year, China’s National Film Administration announced that Angels in White had received a public screening permit. The following month, CCTV News reported that it would open in cinemas on 23 August.

Yet despite securing approval and announcing a release date, the film never made it to the silver screens. The production team offered no explanation and did not announce a new release date. It was only on 18 October that the film’s release was finally rescheduled.

The film stars Hong Kong superstar Andy Lau and mainland actress Yang Zishan, and is directed by prolific Hong Kong action filmmaker Herman Yau. It marks the latest collaboration between Yau and Lau, following critically and commercially successful titles such as the Shock Wave films and The White Storm 2: Drug Lords.

Divided reactions

With its cast, creative team and subject matter, Angels in White has plenty to attract attention. Yet the comments on its newly released trailer and poster on social media are sharply divided, reflecting a mixed reception even before its release.

Some netizens have welcomed the film, seeing value in revisiting that period. “After all this waiting, it’s finally here,” one wrote.

Another said, “I’ve waited so long for this day,” adding, “It’s a must-watch and I’ll give it my full support.”

Chinese film data platform Mtime said the film had struck a nostalgic chord, noting that a line from the trailer — “That winter in our memories feels like a dream from another lifetime” — resonated with many netizens.

The platform added: “Looking back on those 76 harrowing days and nights, we can better understand how precious life today is, and find greater courage and hope to face the future.”

Others, however, said they expected little from the film, while some made clear that they did not want to revisit their memories of the pandemic.

The film’s official Weibo account carries the slogan: “Say a proper goodbye to the past through a film, and cherish the present.” Ticketing platform Maoyan’s synopsis similarly describes the film as a story about remembering the past hardships, moving forward and looking towards tomorrow.

Reopening painful wounds

But many commenters, whose IP locations placed them in Hubei, pushed back against these messages. One asked that the film not be screened in Wuhan, saying: “We still can’t bear to watch what happened that year.”

Another said Wuhan residents probably would not dare to watch it because “so many people we knew are no longer here”. For Wuhan residents, that experience remains “too painful — a pain we don’t want to relive”.

For these viewers, the trauma and complicated emotions left by Covid-19 have yet to fade. Some said they did not want their wounds reopened, while others asked bluntly: “Who is this supposed to move?”

Some netizens have also questioned the film’s approach to storytelling. Judging from the promotional material released so far, they suspect it will focus on celebrating medical workers but may not fully portray the suffering of ordinary people, or the complex controversies surrounding the lockdown.

In a post, a WeChat account named “History Is Just a Story” (历史只是故事) argued that imposing a neat narrative on people’s messy, deeply personal memories could cause offence as it appears to presumptuously “define their suffering for them”.

“Many of the harsh comments are not attacks on the film itself, but on an atmosphere in which people are forced to feel moved,” the post said.

Fatigue for China’s patriotic films

The criticism facing Angels in White reflects a broader challenge for China’s patriotic films.

In July, a Financial News article discussing China’s film market in the first half of 2026 quoted Jin Yuanpu, director of the Institute for Cultural and Creative Industries at Renmin University of China, as saying that the industry was experiencing narrative fatigue with patriotic films.

Jin said some commercial films in this category had long relied on “propaganda-style storytelling”, built around grand spectacles, ensembles of heroes and emotional appeals. Repeated use of this formula, he said, was producing diminishing returns.

The problem, he argued, lies not in patriotic themes themselves, but the rigidity of the storytelling. When character development takes a back seat to the message, audiences may go from feeling moved to feeling emotionally drained.

Some film critics have also suggested that the decision to release Angels in White in early November, outside the major box-office seasons, may reflect the production team’s desire to bring a long-shelved film to cinemas while competition is relatively light. This comes as China’s film market cools and audiences become less willing to go to the cinema. In that sense, the release may partly be an exercise in clearing its backlog.

A winter for Chinese cinema?

In a report published in September, the Listed Companies Research Institute of Sina Finance described China’s film market performance in the first half of this year as “bone-chilling results that have sent a shudder through the entire industry”.

China’s total box-office revenue reached 17.4 billion RMB (US$2.6 billion) in the first half of the year, down about 40.6% from 29.2 billion RMB a year earlier. Cinema attendance fell from 641 million to 422 million, a drop of more than 200 million, or 34.2%.

Although box-office revenue briefly rebounded during the summer holiday season, takings were concentrated in a handful of blockbusters. According to data provider TopData, box-office revenue during China’s recently concluded National Day holiday period fell sharply again. The seven-day total was 1.2 billion RMB, down about 36.5% year-on-year, while cinema attendance fell by around 36.1%.

Sina Finance’s report described the market as experiencing a “decline in both volume and price”, with industry conditions at their weakest level in nearly a decade, apart from the same period in 2022.

Analysts said that audiences’ tastes have undergone a historic shift, but the supply of quality content has failed to keep pace, leaving the industry in a structural bind. In the first half of this year, Chinese cinemas held a record 73.3 million screenings, yet each screening attracted an average of just 5.8 people, down 36.2% year-on-year.

On the supply side, Ruyi Films’ interim report noted a marked decline in mid-budget films earning between 200 million RMB and 1 billion RMB at the box office. The market is increasingly dependent on major hits, with too few mid-sized productions to sustain box-office revenue in ordinary months.

Short videos and micro-dramas, which cost significantly less to produce, are also drawing audiences away from cinemas. Going to the cinema, therefore, is no longer an automatic choice for leisure and entertainment.

In this environment, a shortage of new releases may have opened a window for Angels in White. But the fact that there is less competition does not mean audiences will necessarily turn out to watch it. Setting aside the sensitivity of its subject matter, the film has yet to open, and its box-office performance remains to be seen.

With the market under pressure and audiences demanding more from the films they watch, China’s film industry faces a bigger challenge: breaking free from formulaic storytelling, capturing the complexity of real life, and finding a balance between grand narratives and individual experiences.

This article was first published in Lianhe Zaobao as “武汉抗疫电影未映先遇舆论考验”.

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