# Personal Tailor (私人订制)
**Personal Tailor** (私人订制, also written 私人定制; alternate Chinese title 贵族) is a 2013 Chinese comedy-drama film directed by Feng Xiaogang, written by [Wang Shuo](https://www.edgepedia.org/wang-shuo), and starring Ge You, Bai Baihe, Li Xiaolu, Zheng Kai, Fan Wei, and Song Dandan. It follows a four-person company that stages elaborate one-day fantasies for paying clients, and it was Feng's return to the [New Year](https://www.edgepedia.org/new-year) comedy genre after the somber historical film *Back to 1942* (2012).[1](https://www.1905.com/mdb/film/2214783/) • [2](https://tv.sohu.com/item/MjA4ODM0.html) The film earned about 84 million yuan on its first day, a record for a Chinese-language film at the time, and finished with 713 million yuan in mainland theaters, but its sharply divided critical reception also became a national talking point and helped trigger a steep fall in the stock of its producer, [Huayi Brothers](https://www.edgepedia.org/huayi-brothers).[3](https://www.chinanews.com/yl/2013/12-20/5645722.shtml) • [4](https://piaofang.maoyan.com/mdb/search?key=%E7%A7%81%E4%BA%BA%E5%AE%9A%E5%88%B6)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Release | Mainland China, 19 December 2013, with advance screenings from 18 December 22:00; 118 minutes, 2D[1](https://www.1905.com/mdb/film/2214783/) • [5](https://static.cninfo.com.cn/finalpage/2013-12-20/63396877.PDF) |
| Key personnel | Director Feng Xiaogang; screenwriter Wang Shuo; cast led by Ge You, Bai Baihe, Li Xiaolu, Zheng Kai, Fan Wei, Song Dandan[1](https://www.1905.com/mdb/film/2214783/) |
| First-day box office | About 84 million yuan including 10.1 million yuan from midnight screenings, then a record for a Chinese-language film's opening and single day[3](https://www.chinanews.com/yl/2013/12-20/5645722.shtml) |
| Total box office | 713 million yuan in mainland China[4](https://piaofang.maoyan.com/mdb/search?key=%E7%A7%81%E4%BA%BA%E5%AE%9A%E5%88%B6) |
| Structure | Three independent wish-fulfillment stories plus a closing apology to nature, a segmented form critics compared to a gala of sketch comedy[6](https://media.people.com.cn/n/2013/1221/c40606-23908883.html) |
| Audience ratings | Douban 5.5 (60,695 raters), Mtime 5.8 (14,301 raters), Weibo-derived audience sentiment 6.23 of 10[7](https://www.huxiu.com/article/26466.html) |
| Market impact | Huayi Brothers (300027.SZ) fell limit-down on 18 December and another 5.78% on 19 December, losing about 6.3 billion yuan of market value in two trading days[8](https://finance.people.com.cn/stock/BIG5/n/2013/1220/c67815-23900734.html) |
## Spoilers
### Premise and structure
The film centers on a company called "Personal Tailor," whose slogan is "成全别人，恶心自己" ("fulfill others, disgust ourselves"). The four employees are wish planner Yang Zhong (Ge You), situation designer Xiao Bai (Bai Baihe), dream reconstruction specialist Xiao Lu (Li Xiaolu), and mind anesthetist Ma Qing (Zheng Kai). Clients arrive with eccentric requests, and the team stages each fantasy in full.[2](https://tv.sohu.com/item/MjA4ODM0.html)
The main episodes include a young woman (Miao Pu) who wants to experience being a martyr, a director played by Li Chengru who vows to trade vulgarity for elegance, a driver played by Fan Wei who wants to test whether he can stay honest as an official facing bribes of money and sex, and a river-cleaning worker called Sister Dan (Song Dandan) whose birthday wish is to know how it feels to be rich.[2](https://tv.sohu.com/item/MjA4ODM0.html) Chinese press identified the segments by their themes: Fan Wei's "性本善" (the most dramatically charged), Li Chengru's "一腔俗血" (read as Feng mocking himself), Song Dandan's "有钱" (the most natural and moving), and a closing "道歉" in which the four employees lyrically apologize to the smog-covered city, polluted rivers, felled forests, and spoiled grasslands.[9](https://www.chinanews.com/yl/2013/12-20/5642421.shtml) • [6](https://media.people.com.cn/n/2013/1221/c40606-23908883.html)
The three stories are independent of one another, and the closing apology has no plot connection to the rest of the film. This segmented design drove much of the debate: critics called the result a collection of sketches rather than a single film, and some dubbed it a rehearsal for the CCTV Spring Festival Gala, which Feng was set to direct; defenders argued that a New Year comedy only needed to entertain.[6](https://media.people.com.cn/n/2013/1221/c40606-23908883.html) • [9](https://www.chinanews.com/yl/2013/12-20/5642421.shtml)
## Production
**Origins.** The story grew out of Wang Shuo's script 《贵族》 ("Nobles"), about conflict between a returnee from abroad and a newly rich man. After *Back to 1942* underperformed at the box office, Feng returned to light comedy and reworked the script extensively with Wang Shuo. Feng described the finished style as a combination of *Wanshu* (《顽主》) and *The Dream Factory* (《甲方乙方》), with both broad comedy and biting satire.[10](https://www.1905.com/mdb/film/2214783/feature/) Feng later told the film scholar Peggy Chiao (焦雄屏) that he made the film to repay Huayi's Wang Zhongjun for backing *Back to 1942*: "At the time I said, if it loses money, I will definitely make you one that earns money."[11](https://www.chinanews.com/yl/2013/12-20/5644067.shtml)
**Cinematography and locations.** The film was shot digitally by cinematographer Zhao Xiaoshi (赵晓时), with bright, advertisement-like imagery for the present-day scenes and a dated color tone for the dream sequences. Locations were mainly in Haikou and Suzhou; the Suzhou scenes, concentrated in Fan Wei's segment, show the Chongyuan Temple on Yangcheng Peninsula, Suzhou gardens with [Suzhou embroidery](https://www.edgepedia.org/suzhou-embroidery) and pingtan performance, Jinji Lake, and the Suzhou Culture and Arts Center.[10](https://www.1905.com/mdb/film/2214783/feature/)
**Censorship.** In early December 2013, rumors circulated that the film had failed censorship. The Film Bureau issued the theatrical release permit numbered (2013) 第588号, meaning it was the 588th film approved that year, and Huayi's president Wang Zhonglei posted the permit online; the 19 December release date held.[12](https://ent.sina.com.cn/m/c/w/2013-12-10/21474058191.shtml) • [13](https://media.people.com.cn/n/2013/1211/c40606-23805290.html)
## Box office
The release was engineered around the New Year holiday season, a weak period in 2013. Advance midnight screenings on 18 December at 22:00 plus zero-hour shows on 19 December totaled 5,140 screenings nationwide with 286,000 admissions and about 10.1 million yuan, surpassing *Tiny Times* for the Chinese-language midnight-screening record in both revenue and attendance.[9](https://www.chinanews.com/yl/2013/12-20/5642421.shtml) The film opened with an unprecedented share of screens: 50.99% on its first day, 55.49% on the second, and the top screening share for its first six days, a level the trade press called unprecedented for a Chinese-language film.[14](https://finance.people.com.cn/stock/n/2013/1226/c67815-23948288.html)
**Records.** Counting the midnight screenings, opening-day revenue exceeded 84 million yuan, breaking the 78.85 million yuan record set earlier in 2013 by *Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons* and making *Personal Tailor* the highest-grossing first day and single day for a Chinese-language film to that point; the film alone accounted for more than 80% of national ticket sales that day.[3](https://www.chinanews.com/yl/2013/12-20/5645722.shtml) Its second day took 73 million yuan, its third day passed 100 million yuan, and its first four days reached 315 million yuan, surpassing *Lost in Thailand*'s 306.5 million yuan first week for a new Chinese-language opening-week record.[15](https://media.people.com.cn/n/2013/1224/c40606-23926833.html) • [16](https://finance.people.com.cn/n/2013/1223/c70846-23922415.html) By 24 December, six days in, the total stood at 395 million yuan, well ahead of the other holiday releases *The Storm*, *No Man's Land*, *The White Storm*, and *Police Story 2013*.[14](https://finance.people.com.cn/stock/n/2013/1226/c67815-23948288.html) The final mainland total was 713 million yuan, and by January 2014 it ranked sixth among Chinese-language films in history at that point.[4](https://piaofang.maoyan.com/mdb/search?key=%E7%A7%81%E4%BA%BA%E5%AE%9A%E5%88%B6) • [1](https://www.1905.com/mdb/film/2214783/)
## Reception
**Critical response was sharply negative while audience response was mixed.** At pre-release press and critic screenings the film was criticized as reheated material from *The Dream Factory*, lacking invention, with jokes stitched from sketches and internet gags and no overall plot or structure.[15](https://media.people.com.cn/n/2013/1224/c40606-23926833.html) On review aggregators the scores were low: Douban 5.5 from 60,695 raters and Mtime 5.8 from 14,301 raters, with about 79% of Douban users giving three stars or fewer; a Weibo-based analysis by the magazine *China Radio, Film & Television* with the Shutopu studio put overall audience sentiment at 6.23 of 10, below *Lost in Thailand* but above *Tiny Times*, and found that 70% of viewers gave positive or neutral comments.[7](https://www.huxiu.com/article/26466.html) • [17](https://www.tsinghua.org.cn/upload/file/1460371174792.pdf) [Professional](https://www.edgepedia.org/professional) film critics were harsher, averaging 4.05 in the same analysis, while 4,362 verified finance-industry users on Weibo averaged 5.72.[7](https://www.huxiu.com/article/26466.html)
Not all critics dismissed it. Zhou Liming argued the film's greatest value was its critical edge toward reality, singling out the power and wealth segments, and the audience analysis found the apology-to-nature ending and the insert song 《时间都去哪儿了》 were the most appreciated elements.[18](https://www.chinanews.com/yl/2013/12-20/5642826.shtml) • [7](https://www.huxiu.com/article/26466.html) Feng himself responded to the controversy in December 2013, saying the film was "not as good as everyone expected, but nowhere near as bad as the online abuse," and later scored his own film 5 out of 10 for completeness, 6 for entertainment, and 9 for social criticism, while attacking most critics in return.[15](https://media.people.com.cn/n/2013/1224/c40606-23926833.html) • [19](https://m.fx361.com/news/2015/0429/26835249.html)
**Audience profile.** The Weibo data analysis found the film's viewers averaged 24 years old, skewed toward northern China, and overlapped heavily with the audience of the reality show *Dad, Where Are We Going?*; Feng himself ranked only fourteenth among the stars his viewers followed, suggesting the film's appeal rested on the Feng Xiaogang New Year comedy brand rather than its cast.[7](https://www.huxiu.com/article/26466.html)
## The Huayi Brothers stock episode
The film's reception became a capital-markets event. On 17 December, Huayi Brothers held advance screenings for institutional investors in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen; attendees included representatives from the film industry, media, finance, and ordinary viewers, and the company stated the reaction at the screenings was positive.[5](https://static.cninfo.com.cn/finalpage/2013-12-20/63396877.PDF) The next day the stock fell limit-down, closing at 30.78 yuan, and on 19 December it fell another 5.78% to 29.00 yuan, erasing about 6.3 billion yuan of market value in two trading days.[8](https://finance.people.com.cn/stock/BIG5/n/2013/1220/c67815-23900734.html) Commentators attributed the sell-off either to poor word of mouth from the investor screenings or to institutions selling once the good news was priced in; analysts noted the market had expected a 1-billion-yuan film.[3](https://www.chinanews.com/yl/2013/12-20/5645722.shtml) A later accounting put the loss at 8.216 billion yuan across four trading days with two limit-downs, and the episode drew criticism that the investor screenings amounted to selective disclosure.[17](https://www.tsinghua.org.cn/upload/file/1460371174792.pdf) • [20](https://m.bjnews.com.cn/detail/155147275314133.html) The company issued a formal announcement defending its premiere activities as standard industry practice.[5](https://static.cninfo.com.cn/finalpage/2013-12-20/63396877.PDF)
## Place in Feng Xiaogang's career
*Personal Tailor* consciously echoes *The Dream Factory* (1997), the film that helped establish the New Year comedy (贺岁片) genre Feng is credited with founding; press coverage described it as a tribute to the 1997 film, and critics noted that Ge You's closing dialogue with Feng drew on an internet joke rather than fresh material.[6](https://media.people.com.cn/n/2013/1221/c40606-23908883.html) • [11](https://www.chinanews.com/yl/2013/12-20/5644067.shtml) Commentators read the film as the work of a director caught between his comic roots and the serious ambitions of *Back to 1942*, made quickly for commercial reasons, and its combination of record box office with record-low ratings for a Feng film became a widely cited case study in the gap between Chinese critics and mass audiences.[11](https://www.chinanews.com/yl/2013/12-20/5644067.shtml) • [7](https://www.huxiu.com/article/26466.html)
## References
1. [私人订制 (2013), 1905电影网](https://www.1905.com/mdb/film/2214783/)
2. [私人订制, 搜狐视频](https://tv.sohu.com/item/MjA4ODM0.html)
3. [《私人订制》公映华谊股票大跌, 法制晚报 via 中新网](https://www.chinanews.com/yl/2013/12-20/5645722.shtml)
4. [私人订制票房, 猫眼专业版](https://piaofang.maoyan.com/mdb/search?key=%E7%A7%81%E4%BA%BA%E5%AE%9A%E5%88%B6)
5. [华谊兄弟关于电影《私人订制》首映及公映情况的说明 (公告 2013-100)](https://static.cninfo.com.cn/finalpage/2013-12-20/63396877.PDF)
6. [《私人订制》口碑两极化 贺岁喜剧还是春晚小品, 羊城晚报 via 人民网](https://media.people.com.cn/n/2013/1221/c40606-23908883.html)
7. [大数据分析《私人订制》观众群像, 虎嗅网](https://www.huxiu.com/article/26466.html)
8. [《私人订制》首映靠企业包场, 人民网](https://finance.people.com.cn/stock/BIG5/n/2013/1220/c67815-23900734.html)
9. [《私人订制》评价两极化 业内预估票房将打折扣, 广州日报 via 中新网](https://www.chinanews.com/yl/2013/12-20/5642421.shtml)
10. [私人订制 幕后花絮, 1905电影网](https://www.1905.com/mdb/film/2214783/feature/)
11. [评"私人订制"：理想主义让位给俗不可耐, 中新网](https://www.chinanews.com/yl/2013/12-20/5644067.shtml)
12. [《私人订制》顺利过审拿许可 19日公映, 新浪娱乐](https://ent.sina.com.cn/m/c/w/2013-12-10/21474058191.shtml)
13. [《私人订制》过审将如期上映, 人民网](https://media.people.com.cn/n/2013/1211/c40606-23805290.html)
14. [贺岁档华谊力压光线 《私人订制》6天票房近4亿, 人民网](https://finance.people.com.cn/stock/n/2013/1226/c67815-23948288.html)
15. ["私人订制"口碑两极票房飘红, 人民网](https://media.people.com.cn/n/2013/1224/c40606-23926833.html)
16. [《私人订制》首周票房超《泰囧》累计已达3.15亿, 北京晚报 via 人民网](https://finance.people.com.cn/n/2013/1223/c70846-23922415.html)
17. [林天强《私人订制的道歉》, 《水木清华》2014年第3期](https://www.tsinghua.org.cn/upload/file/1460371174792.pdf)
18. [《私人订制》口碑：只比《小时代2》高0.1分, 信息时报 via 中新网](https://www.chinanews.com/yl/2013/12-20/5642826.shtml)
19. [私人订制，定制为谁——浅析冯小刚电影《私人订制》, 西江文艺](https://m.fx361.com/news/2015/0429/26835249.html)
20. [《私人订制》差评引发市场看空, 新京报](https://m.bjnews.com.cn/detail/155147275314133.html)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Black comedy and satire films › Released 1998 to 2024*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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