“The Wandering Earth” Accused of Plagiarizing Japanese Sci-fi Film
China’s new sci-fi movie The Wandering Earth <流浪地球> received rave reviews in China and has earned 4.5 billion RMB to-date at the box office. The film stars Wu Jing (吳京), Ng Man Dat (吳孟達), Qu Chuxiao (屈楚蕭), Li Guangjie (李光潔), and Zhao Jinmai (趙今麥). The movie is set in year 2075; the sun is about to self destruct in 45 days and humankind has to race against time to build an engine to try shifting Earth out of the solar system.
Just when The Wandering Earth is praised for making a breakthrough in China’s sci-fi genre, the movie has been accused of plagiarizing 1962 Japanese film Gorath. Directed by the director of Godzilla, the movie is set in Tokyo the year 1980 and a huge planet is on course to collide with Earth in 45 days. The world teams up to find a solution and build a giant ejector in the South Pole to help Earth depart its original track. The two movies bear many similarities in terms of escaping objects from outer space and building large machinery to help Earth deviate from its path.
Not only is the story line very similar but netizens made comparisons of the two movie trailers joking that the Japanese must have watched The Wandering Earth and then traveled back in time to make Gorath! Everything from the background settings, clothing, pace of story, to the style of filming was very similar.
News reports and netizen discussions about the two movies have been widely circulated on the Internet; however many of them are mysteriously being deleted. Netizens are undeterred and have saved screen caps in advance.
“Gorath” Trailer
“The Wandering Earth” Trailer
Source: HK01
This article is written by Kiki for JayneStars.com.
The Wandering Earth was written by Liu Cixin. If it was plagiarism, he would have gotten sue long time ago. Similarity does not make it plagiarism. Just trolls trying to stir up controversy. Hunger Games was a ripoff of Battle Royale but no one cares, not even the Japanese.
@jetmasters
i think for hunger games, the author didn’t know about BR until after she wrote and published the novel.
similiarities doesn’t mean plagiarism. there’s so much you can do with a similiar topic. even with many similiarities, it doesn’t mean the film didn’t use the old one for inspiration.
Good luck trying to prove this point in court. Moreover, if wandering earth didn’t achieve so much success. I bet the Japanese wouldn’t have even brought up the similarities.