Comic book movies refer to movies adapted from comics, which usually have a fan base of the original work before they are released, and at the same time can use the flow of movie actors to drive the sales of comics and improve the popularity of comics. With the domestic comic film market beginning to expand in recent years, more and more comic films have appeared, so Rabbit rabbit will talk to you about comic movies today.
Comic book movies are nothing new, as early as the 1940s, DC's comic book "Superman" and Marvel's "Captain America" have been adapted into movies and put on the big screen. In the 1980s and 1990s, Marvel and DC comics companies made film and television adaptations of their superhero comics, and achieved a considerable impact.
To this day, comic book adaptations of these two companies are still an important pillar of the global box office, partly because of the huge fan base and market of the original comic, and on the other hand, the addition of well-known actors has also attracted a lot of new fans to the comic.
1944 version of Captain America live-action movie poster / 1948 version of Superman live-action movie poster
Unlike the American comic book market, which has superhero themes as the main theme, Japan's comic book movie themes are more extensive. In 1987, Japan's first manga adaptation film, Bipopu High School, won the Japan Academy Award for Best Newcomer, and began the road to manga adaptations.
In the 1990s, the theme of Japanese comic films was still based on blood and campus themes, the most representative of which was the movie "The Legend of the Shanghai Mermaid in the Kaneda Ichi Shonen Incident Book" released in 1997, which won 2.38 billion box office in that year and is still a classic in the minds of many people.
In addition to Kaneda's series of manga fans, Tsuyoshi Domoto, who plays Kaneda, and fans of his group Kinki Kids are also the main reasons for driving the box office. In addition to Kazuchi Kaneda, two other classic comic adaptations from the 90s, GTO Spicy Teacher and Fancy Man, also caused a huge sensation at the time.
The former, as a film sequel to the TV series version of "GTO Spicy Teacher", not only has a fan base of the manga, but also attracts great attention from fans of the TV series version.
Although the latter did not cause a sensation at the time, as the first adaptation of the huge girl to the IP of "Flower Man", its influence had a positive fan influence on the subsequent publication of the "Flower Man" animation and the TV series "Meteor Garden" filmed in Taiwan in 2001, and even for the new version of the "Flower Man" TV series filmed by Japan's TBS TV in 2005.
Poster for the comic film "The Legend of the Shanghai Mermaid in the Incident Book of a Teenager in Kaneda"
After 2000, Japanese manga movies began to diversify their themes, and in addition to the usual campus themes, more types of manga began to be adapted into movies. In 2005, the film "NANA", adapted from the comic book of the same name, grossed 4 billion yuan at the box office, becoming the first comic book to break 4 billion at the box office.
The huge fan base of the original work and the promotion of Mika Nakajima are also an important reason for the film's box office success. Since then, Japanese manga films are no longer limited to themes such as schools and youth, but have begun to develop toward adults and magic.
In 2006, the popular manga "Death Note" was released in two live-action movies in the same year, and this film starring Ryuya Fujiwara and Kenichi Matsuyama achieved a box office success of 8 billion, while driving the sales of the original manga, and also breaking the situation that the manga was used as an add-on to the manga SERIEs, and since then the Japanese manga has entered a golden period.
Promotional image for the 2006 Version of The Death Note movie
Since 2009, there have been more and more manga adaptations in Japan, and the situation of "destroying the original work" has gradually become common. The 2010 film adaptation of the popular shonen manga "I Want to Tell You" was spurned by the original manga party because of the actor's makeup photos and plot settings.
Also "ruining the original" is the first part of the movie "Attack on Titan" released in 2015, because the original work was changed beyond recognition, many people lost interest in the back part after watching the previous part, so that the box office of the latter part was unbearable. But not all comic book movies are "ruined originals", the 2011 comic book movie "Killing City" and the 2012 "Ranger Sword Heart" series and even last year's release of "Gintama" are all comic book movies that have been recognized by fans of the original work.
The acting skills of the actors and the script adaptation ability of the screenwriter play a very important role in it, and the audience does not feel like watching the comic film when watching the movie, but as an ordinary commercial film, and the effect is naturally much better than the deliberate comic film.
Ken Sato starred in the poster of "Ronin Ken Heart"
In recent years, domestic comic films have mushroomed like mushrooms, and a large number of IP has been adapted into web dramas and movies, but the evaluation is not as good as the producers think, and the original fans do not buy it. Although the traffic actor can bring a certain fan base, it is difficult to achieve expectations without the support of the fans of the original work.
In addition to "destroying the original work", the national conditions are also another practical problem faced by domestic comic films, and placing the world view setting of Japanese and Korean comics in the domestic context will make many general audiences who do not contact the second dimension have a sense of violation.
Therefore, for domestic comic films, the choice of works is not as diverse as that of Japanese comic films, which requires screenwriters to adapt comics into movies in addition to adapting them into movies, but also adapting them into works with local colors.
For example, the recent hit movie "Animal World", this film adapted from the popular comic "Gambling Apocalypse" can get the praise of fans of the original work, because it is not blindly copying the original work, but on the basis of the original work, it has been reasonably adapted, and the story background is placed in a blurred national border, which is also an important reason why this movie does not have a "sense of violation".
Comparison of the posters of "Animal World" and the Japanese manga adaptation of the movie "Gambling Apocalypse"
A good comic book movie, in addition to attracting fans of the original work, must also attract the attention of the general public, so that the audience abandons the original work when watching. Blindly restoring the original will make ordinary audiences unable to feel the charm of the film itself.
Blindly carrying out "magic reform" will make it lose the fans of the original work, and it is more than worth the loss, which is a test of the ability of directors, screenwriters, and actors, and removing the two-dimensionalization of comic films is the future direction of comic film development.