Latest news with #mainland
South China Morning Post
a day ago
- Automotive
- South China Morning Post
Xiaomi's SU7 SUV a hit with mainland Chinese motorists as bookings reach 240,000
Chinese smartphone and electric-vehicle (EV) maker Xiaomi has been flooded with orders for its YU7 SUV, with analysts saying the car could challenge the dominance of the Tesla Model Y , the bestselling SUV on the mainland. Advertisement The company said that it received 200,000 pre-orders for the YU7 in just three minutes after bookings opened at 10pm on Thursday, with the number rising to 240,000 by 4pm on Friday. The 240,000 bookings for the YU7, priced from 253,500 yuan (US$35,366) to 329,900 yuan, are categorised as 'locked-in' orders because a deposit of 5,000 yuan cannot be refunded even if the buyer reneges on the agreement. Such frenzy over a new EV is unprecedented in China, where monthly sales of 10,000 units for a single model are typically considered a success. The basic edition of the YU7 has a driving range of 835km. Photo: Weibo 'The sales volume the YU7 recorded in only three minutes exceeds the annual deliveries of dozens of electric-car assemblers,' said Tian Maowei, a sales manager at Yiyou Auto Service in Shanghai. 'The SUV did pose a real challenge to Model Y, meeting the market expectations even before its official launch.' Advertisement The Shanghai Gigafactory-made Model Y, with annual deliveries of more than 480,000 units on the mainland, topped all other SUVs – including petrol-powered cars – last year, according to the China Passenger Car Association.
South China Morning Post
2 days ago
- Automotive
- South China Morning Post
Xiaomi takes aim at Tesla with 4% cheaper YU7 SUV, a Model Y competitor
Xiaomi, the Chinese smartphone maker and electric-car start-up, priced its YU7 sport-utility vehicle (SUV) at a 4 per cent discount to Tesla's bestselling Model Y, a move that is expected to draw a wave of orders in a cutthroat market where even the strongest players struggle to break even. Advertisement The YU7, Xiaomi's second production model, starts at 253,500 yuan (US$35,322), compared with 263,500 yuan for the Model Y's basic edition, the Beijing-based company announced at a launch event on Thursday evening. 'We have set an unreasonable goal of beating the Model Y,' Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun said on Weibo on Monday. 'Based on the strength of our product, I am fully confident that we can achieve the goal.' The new SUV, featuring a preliminary self-driving system, a large multimedia screen and a high-performance battery, was seen as a game changer in mainland China's premium electric-vehicle (EV) segment, where Tesla has seen its advantage erode. It has a driving range of 835km, while Tesla's Shanghai-made Model Y can go as far as 593km on a single charge. Advertisement The Model Y , with annual deliveries of more than 480,000 units on the mainland, outsold all other SUVs – including petrol-powered cars – in 2024, according to the China Passenger Car Association. Xiaomi began taking orders for the new car after the launch event and said it would deliver the first batch of YU7s next week.
South China Morning Post
3 days ago
- Automotive
- South China Morning Post
CATL executive warns of risks from EV price cuts, calls on Beijing to intervene
A senior executive from Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL) , the world's largest producer of batteries for electric vehicles (EVs), urged authorities on the mainland to intervene in the price war that is roiling the market for new energy cars. Ni Jun, CATL's chief manufacturing officer, on Wednesday said the brutal discount war would not end if Beijing remained on the sidelines. 'One big player cannot always lower prices [to gain market share] while driving out all other small rivals,' he said at the World Economic Forum in Tianjin. 'If it continues to do so without proper [regulatory] oversight, all of its rivals will not survive.' Ni did not name the 'big player', but BYD – the world's largest EV builder – kicked off a fresh round of price cuts in May. The EV giant offered discounts of 10 per cent to more than 30 per cent on 22 of its battery-powered and plug-in hybrid models, which prompted other firms to slash prices on 70 models in May, according to the mainland business publication 21st Century Business Herald. CATL, which for the first four months of 2025 had a 38.6 per cent share of the global EV battery market, raised US$5.22 billion in its Hong Kong share listing last month, the world's largest initial public offering this year. Ni's remarks at the forum were the latest warning from an influential industry player about the prospects for the mainland's EV sector, which despite its troubles was considered to be at the global vanguard for electric cars.
Geek Tyrant
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Geek Tyrant
28 YEARS LATER: Danny Boyle and Alex Garland on Film's Cliffhanger, Studio Pushback, and What Comes Next — GeekTyrant
More than two decades after 28 Days Later redefined zombie cinema, director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland have returned to the bleak, rage-filled world they helped create, only this time, they're going bigger. Spoilers ahead! 28 Years Later , the first of a planned new trilogy, has hit theaters, and it's not shy about pushing boundaries. From extreme gore to full-on zombie nudity, the filmmakers aren't pulling punches, and surprisingly, the studio didn't ask them to. 'We had a bit of back-and-forth,' Boyle admits, 'but Tom Rothman at Sony really backed the vision. Horror expects you to push things to the edge. You want brutality, sure—but you also want contrast. That's why we layered the violence against children's innocence and beautiful landscapes. It stretches the story as far as it can go.' The story follows a family, played by Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and Alfie Williams leaving their isolated island for the infected mainland. It doesn't take long for things to spiral into chaos. One major surprise comes in the final act when Jack O'Connell's Jimmy Crystal reappears as a cult leader, a twist that tees up the second film, already shot by director Nia DaCosta and set for a January 16 release. I loved the ending of this film! Garland explains that Jimmy, and the film as a whole, was born from the team's reflection on nostalgia and distorted memory. 'This trilogy is about how we look backward. People cherry-pick, forget, or misremember history. That distortion is baked into the world and the characters. Jimmy is just one face of that cultural regression.' The filmmakers actually started down a different path post-COVID. 'I had a go at a script,' Garland says, 'but it was too generic. That failure let us think bigger, and the story we landed on felt right. It's much broader in scope.' As for the trilogy's future? It's in motion, but far from set in stone. 'The script for the third one isn't written,' Garland says. 'There's a plan, a structure, a through-line with certain characters, but each film also stands alone. It's kind of like TV—things evolve as you shoot. You need to see how it all lands.' Cillian Murphy, who starred in 28 Days Later , has returned as an executive producer and will play a larger role in the final installment. 'He's briefly in Nia's film,' Boyle reveals, 'but the plan is for him to have a major presence in the third.' The duo has also noticed how the landscape of horror, and its audience, has changed. 'When we made the first film, someone told us, 'No women will watch this,'' Boyle recalls. 'That was dead wrong. Women are now a huge part of the horror audience, and that's helped the genre stay alive. Horror still thrives in theaters, and that communal experience—being scared together in the dark—is powerful. We need to protect that.' With the second chapter already on its way and the third looming, it's clear Boyle and Garland are thinking long-term. Not just about scares, but about the emotional and cultural depth that gives the horror genre its bite. And if 28 Years Later is any indication, they're not interested in playing it safe. Source: Variety
News.com.au
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- News.com.au
Viewers divided over hit new film 28 Years Later's ‘bananas' ending
WARNING: 28 YEARS SPOILERS AHEAD. Danny Boyle's long-awaited return to the 28 Days Late r franchise, 28 Years Later, is getting rave reviews since its release last week – but the film's final minutes are leaving viewers divided, fiercely debating whether it's a genius or a terrible end to an otherwise powerful film. The third film in the series, 28 Years is set – as the name would suggest – 28 years after a 'rage virus' swept England, turning everyone in its path into murderous zombies. The film tells the story of Spike (Alfie Williams), as he joins his father Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) on his first trip from their small island home to the mainland, where he'll start practising his skills dispatching the undead. It's a tense, gory, and at times heart-stopping journey, with some spectacular sequences, including a night time chase as an 'Alpha' zombie tails them all the way back to their fortified island, the pair narrowly escaping a grisly death. The film takes a sharp turn in its final act to something altogether more contemplative, as Spike ventures to the mainland again, this time with his ailing mother Isla (Jodie Comer), seeking the help of a doctor who's somehow managed to survive out there for all these years (he's played by Ralph Fiennes in a standout role). But – and here are those spoilers for the very end of 28 Years Later – after what feels like a natural end point to the film, it takes another sharp turn for one final scenes. Young Spike has decided he still has some growing up to do, and returns once more to the mainland to camp, hunt and live off the land alone. He's cornered by a bunch of zombies when suddenly, out of nowhere, a whole new gang of (uninfected) people turn up and the film's tone drastically changes. The gang is run by 'Sir Jimmy Crystal' (Jack O'Connell), dressed in a lairy tracksuit, his hair dyed blonde, and dripping in jewels. His disciples are all dressed in similar uniforms. It's a marked contrast to everyone we've seen so far in the film – from the mostly-naked zombies, their clothes having rotted away, to the inhabitants of the island, all dressed like medieval peasants. The gang tell Spike to stand back so they can expertly kill off the approaching zombies – which they do with moves that are part Power Rangers, part Monkey Magic (seriously, they spend more time doing backflips and karate chops than actually killing). The film ends there, with the suggestion that Spike will now fall in with Sir Jimmy and his gang, grateful for their protection. But it doesn't really feel like Spike's actually found safety, given that everyone in the group, who called themselves 'the Jimmys,' have marked resemblance to Jimmy Savile, a beloved children's TV presenter who was exposed as perhaps one of Britain's most prolific predatory sex offenders after his death in 2011. That tonally bizarre final two minutes drew puzzled laughter in my screening of the film last week (among them, surely many who didn't make the Savile connection) – and it's proved extremely divisive among viewers. First – who are the Jimmys? It appears this wasn't clear to everyone who saw the film, but the key to Sir Jimmy's identity lies in 28 Years Later' s opening scene. It's set back in 2002, as the outbreak first sweeps Britain. A group of children sit huddled in a living room, Teletubbies on the TV, as their parents fret on the other side of the door about the looming threat of the infected. Suddenly, a zombie breaks into the home and horror sweeps the house, as parents and children quickly succumb to the virus. One young boy manages to escape and flees to a nearby church, where he takes shelter as the priest is descended on by the infected horde. That young boy is 'Sir Jimmy Crystal,' 28 years earlier. Viewers have suggested this opening scene not only revealed his identity, but gives a reason for the bizarre look and demeanour of Sir Jimmy and his gang. If life and culture as you know it stopped in 2002 when you were a small child, but you managed to survive, wouldn't you fight zombies like a Power Ranger? More disturbingly – would you dress you and your gang like Jimmy Savile, still then a beloved children's entertainer, a decade before he was posthumously hit with multiple allegations of sexual offences? Viewers divided 'The ending of #28YearsLater is so hilariously f**king weird, you guys. I'm legit at a loss for words. So, so weird,' tweeted one viewer. Another called the final two minutes of the film 'one of the most insane tonal shifts,' while others called it 'bananas.' 'Absolutely dug the f**k out of the bonkers ending. I know it may be divisive for some but I am SOOOOOO here for it!' shared one fan. Others were less thrilled at the gang of Jimmy Savile Power Rangers saving the day. 'Danny Boyle what the f**k,' was one viewer's succint verdict. Another called the final scene 'disappointing', while others questioned if the reference would fly over most viewers' heads: 'I didn't expect to watch 28 Years Later & having to research about Jimmy Savile, who I'm assuming the vast majority of non-British viewers have no idea who the hell the man is or what he represents … Such a bananas manner of ending your movie,' tweeted one viewer. Will there be a sequel? I at least understood the ending a little better once I left the cinema, Googled the movie and realised that it was in fact a set-up for another film in the franchise – one that's coming very soon. 28 Years Later was shot back-to-back with its sequel, The Bone Temple, which is set to be released on 16 January 2026. The film will focus on Spike and Sir Jimmy, and will also return OG star Cillian Murphy to the franchise, reprising his role as Jim (yes, another Jim) from the original film.
