Chinese Movie Database Blog

Chinese Movie Database has been moved to a new server, which boasts dual Xeon 2.8GHz and 4GB memory. The server need upgrading because the old one could no longer cop with the heavy load. The system and software of the new server is very similar to the old one, so I expected a smooth transfer. Nothing is straight forward however…

First there was an error in php compilation which causes abortion of php scripts. Then I underestimated the complexity of MySQL 4.0 to 4.1 upgrading. When the two problems happen at the same time, I was further confused. For several days, I was very frustrated. My host provider stepped in to solve the first problem. The second problem, is somewhat solved. The website is now running fine. However I can’t edit the database through phpMyAdmin. The database is in UTF-8, but using phpMyAdmin I can’t make the Chinese characters being displayed correctly. This is very strang. If you know where the problem comes from, I’ll be glad to hear your suggestion and comments.

Chinese Movie Database is the database of mainly Chinese language movies. The Database include 1) movies whose main dialogue is in standardised spoken Chinese (mandarin or putonghua) or regional dialects (e.g. Cantonese), 2) early (1910-1930’s) silent movies made by Chinese filmmakers, 3) movies not in Chinese but set in China, or are closely related to Chinese society, culture and history, and 4) movies not in Chinese but in which Chinese talents play important or starring roles. For the movies in 3) and 4) you will see a [non-Chinese] tag attached to them.

Besides the common language, Chinese films, in most of the cases,  can all claim their root in 20-30’s Shanghai film industry. So instead of breaking down Chinese-language movies according to regional boundary, I built a database covering all Chinese movies (before- and post-1949 of mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macau, Singapore and other regions). Last ten years see the frequent cooperation between different regions in finance, management and talent, thus further blurring of the line.

Chinese Movie Database is originally set up only for films. Starting from 2006, Chinese TV programmes have also been included. TV programmes include TV series, single TV drama, TV Movie and TV documentaries. I’m also looking into a new format of movie recently. Short digital videos are flourishing and have gained lots of audiences. The quality of some (like those by Danwei TV) is pretty high. I think Chinese Movie Database should start to include them at some time.