Rhino Entertainment Original
Wen | Xiaofu Editor| Park Fang
As a barometer of the film market, the national cinema domestic film promotion conference held twice a year has always been the focus of attention of the whole industry. Due to the sudden cancellation of the spring promotion meeting caused by the epidemic, the 21st National Cinema Domestic Film Promotion Conference held in Hengdian this week has become the only seedling this year.
This year's promotion meeting brought together more than 80 distribution and production companies such as China Film, Huaxia, Lianrui, Bona, Wanda, Guangguang, Ali, Maoyan, etc., and the number of recommended films reached more than 120, and the scale of activities far exceeded the past.
In the past three days of activities, a large number of key projects covering comedy, action, love, suspense, crime, war, sports, science fiction, family, fantasy, history and other mainstream types of the market have been unveiled in the past three days. Through this event, we can also get a glimpse of the trend of the film market in the next six months to one year.
Again to meet the tide of the fixed gear, "volume" to 2022
Cinema promotion meeting is an important publicity window in the film industry, many scheduled projects will use this activity as a stage for publicity and warm-up, and naturally many projects choose to disclose the schedule in the promotion meeting.
In terms of recent projects, two key films will be ushered in on November 19. One is the main theme blockbuster "Railway Hero" starring Zhang Hanyu and Fan Wei, which was rescheduled from the National Day file to November 19, which is expected to continue the patriotic enthusiasm ignited by the National Day file "Changjin Lake" and "My Father and Me" and boost the market. The other is "Door Lock", which is produced by Wubai and starring Bai Baihe, focusing on the topic of the safety of women living alone.
After a short period of cold stalls, December will enter the annual hilarious New Year slot. The suspense crime film "The Last Truth", directed by Huang Xiaoming as a supervising producer for the first time and directed by newcomer director Li Taige, will debut on December 3.
As an animated film just needed by the market, it continues to make a big move in the New Year file in line with the principle of not missing every slot. Rock Mastiff: Blue Glow and Lion Boy, two animated films that have undergone a rescheduling, will be released on December 11 and December 17, respectively.
Approaching the New Year's Eve, the competitiveness of fixed-file projects has been significantly enhanced, and the battle for shares will become more intense. Huang Bo and Jia Ling, who will be released on December 24, lead the film "Embracing You Through The Cold Winter", which tells the warm story of winter against the backdrop of Wuhan during the epidemic. "Love Myth" starring Xu Zheng and Ma Yili has been labeled as a "new benchmark for love philosophy" to create a different love film.
The two Japanese IP adaptations of "Loyal Dog Hachiko" and "Imitation Blade" promoted by Hengye Pictures will also be unveiled at the end of the year. Among them, "Loyal Dog Hachiko", directed by "Twelve Citizens" director Xu Ang and starring Feng Xiaogang, has been scheduled for December 31, and "The Blade of Wandering", adapted from Keigo Higashino's novel of the same name, has not yet announced a specific schedule.
There are also two Hong Kong films in this year's Lunar New Year file. Prolific director Qiu Litao brought his new work "Assassination Storm", and the audience's long-awaited "Anti-Corruption Storm 5" will also be released on December 31.
Watching romance films on New Year's Eve has also unconsciously become a market practice, and this year's baton was handed over to Mao Xiaotong and Yang Jiu's "One Year's Itch", this time, can the "sense of ceremony" recreate the miracle?
In addition, there is also the highly anticipated crime trial theme movie "Prosecutorial Storm", which is also expected to usher in the official finalization in the near future and meet the audience at the end of the year.
With the end of the Warm-up of the Lunar New Year file, the film market will once again usher in a full outbreak in the Spring Festival file next year. In the past two years, the situation in the Spring Festival file has become more and more intense, and there are still more than three months to go before the Spring Festival file next year, and more than ten new films have been set for the first day of the Chinese New Year.
Unexpectedly, the new film "Miracle", which was recently announced to be officially launched, and Yi Qianxi, starred in yi Qianxi, was officially announced at the promotion meeting that it was set for the first day of the Chinese New Year in 2022. The film will also have a head-on duel with "Four Seas" directed by Han Han and starring Liu Haoran, Shen Teng and Liu Haocun.
What is more special than in previous years is that next year's Spring Festival will usher in the same stage competition of two new films of the "Happy Twist" series. The science fiction comedy movie "Super Family", directed by Song Yang, which also ranks in the first echelon of next year's Spring Festival file, also released a trailer to pull the audience full of expectations in addition to the early setting. According to the creator, the film will have more than 1700 special effects shots, and the "content" will also be very impressive.
The comedy "This Killer Is Not Calm", which gathers Yan Fei, Peng Damo, Ma Li and other "twist old faces", has also been officially launched recently, announcing that it has entered the Spring Festival file. Shen Teng vs. Ma Li, such a scene must be rare.
Animated films are never absent from the Spring Festival file, the box office output of the "Bear Haunting" series will launch the latest sequel "Bear Haunting • Return to the Earth" in the Spring Festival next year, and the veteran national animation "Pleasant Goat" will also return to the Spring Festival file after many years, launching "Pleasant Sheep and the Basket of the Gray Wolf out of the Future".
In addition, there are two animated movies "Tiger Dun Dart Master" and "Jurassic Paradise" that also selected the Spring Festival file. The animated films that were once in the quiet corner of the Spring Festival slot have gradually fallen into the battlefield of inner volume.
The main theme of the creation of the tide is coming
In recent years, the proportion of main theme films in the market has been rising, and the presence in the promotion meeting has become increasingly prominent. All kinds of commercial theme films will become the main thrust of the next stage of the film market.
Among the many main theme films, we can divide them into two categories: "commercial main theme films" and "main theme commercial films". Among the former, projects such as "Wangdao", starring Liu Ye and Hu Jun, focusing on Chen Wangdao's translation of the first Chinese full translation of the "Communist Manifesto", "Above the Clouds", which won three awards at the Beijing Film Festival, and "We Are the First Secretary" and "The Battle of Penghu", will meet the audience one after another.
The lineup of "main theme commercial films" is more luxurious. Directed by Qiu Litao and adapted from the real events, "Jedi Pursuit", "Search and Rescue" produced and starred by Zhen Zidan, "Search and Rescue" directed by "Anti-Corruption Storm" series director Lin Delu, and Chen Guohui's "Hero Series" sequel "Ordinary Heroes" Four Hong Kong style main theme films were successively unveiled at the promotion meeting.
In the summer file and national day file, Bona Pictures, which has successively brought the two main theme blockbusters of "Chinese Doctor" and "Changjin Lake", will continue to deepen the main theme market, and exposed the final chapter of the "China Victory Trilogy" "Nameless" that is being filmed at the promotion meeting.
Guo Fan's new film "Translator", which appeared at the promotion conference last year, and Rao Xiaozhi, announced that it will officially start next year.
In addition, there are two completed works directed by Zhang Yimou, "Sniper" and "Rock Solid", and the crime movie "Fox Hunting Operation" starring Liang Chaowei and Duan Yihong, who was originally scheduled to be withdrawn after its release in January this year, also appeared at the promotion meeting. However, none of the three films have announced new finalizations.
New project VS backlog
In terms of the rest of the projects to be screened, in addition to a number of new films in the pre-preparation, shooting, and post-production stages, there are also many "old friends" who have appeared at the promotion conference many times in recent years.
Jackie Chan's new work "Dragon Horse Spirit", which is being filmed, brings together many new and old actors such as Jackie Chan, Liu Haocun, Guo Qilin and so on, and the film will focus on the story of a generation of dragon and tiger martial artists.
In this year's Spring Festival and summer files, the light-chasing animation of two high-quality animation films brought "New God List: Nezha Rebirth" and "White Snake 2: Green Snake Robbery" will create a new work in the "New God List" series "New God List: Yang Jian" in the summer file next year, and the output is very stable.
In recent years, Chinese audiences have a very high degree of love for crime films, and crime films have also shown a more diversified theme integration trend. The recently released 2019 Lunar New Year dark horse sequel "Manslaughter 2" exposed new materials at the promotion meeting. The film will continue to be starring Xiao Yang, but will tell a whole new story.
The film "Crisis Route" starring Andy Lau and Zhang Zifeng, which is being filmed, is "China's first aerial crime film", which is expected to be released in 2022. The crime movie "New Order", starring Zhang Jiahui, Ruan Jingtian, Wang Mainland and Qin Pei, will be officially launched in the near future. In addition, there are police action movies "Old Enemies" co-starring Zhong Hanliang and Wu Zhenyu, and "Sweeping Drugs 3" led by Liu Qingyun, Gu Tianle and Aaron Kwok, all of which appeared at the event.
"Tomorrow's War", "When the Wind Rises Again", "Detective Wars" several "backlog" Hong Kong films appeared again at this year's promotion meeting, but this time it has not yet announced the relevant news of the finalization.
Youth and love projects are easy to create dark horses, so they have also become the focus of attention in the industry. At this promotion meeting, the movie "Crush" (formerly known as "Crush Orange Sheng Huainan") announced that it will be released in the early summer of 2022. "Don't Forget I Love You" (formerly titled "Stolen Tomorrow") is expected to meet the audience on the first best day of next year for couples to date. There are also projects such as "Leper Lover" starring Shu Qi and Zhou Wei, the fantasy theme romance film "The History of Three Noble Loves" and "Ten Years of One Pin Wen Ru Yan" that were exposed at the promotion meeting.
Women's films have also begun to appear frequently in the market. For example, the first anti-domestic violence film "I Passed the Storm" starring Tong Liya, "Punch Out, Mother" starring Tan Zhuo, and "Refining Love", which focuses on the life of single women in the city, all attracted attention at the event.
Newcomer directors are the fresh blood of the film industry and the most anticipated potential stock in the film market. The projects directed by them are a presence that cannot be ignored in the promotion meeting.
Produced by Han Yan, directed by Liu Jiangjiang, and starring Zhu Yilong, "Life Events" is a rare funeral film in China. The film benchmarks "Send You a Little Red Flower" and "My Sister", telling the story of the third brother of the funeralist who was released after completing his sentence and met the orphan Wu Xiaowen during a funeral, and the appearance of Xiaowen unexpectedly changed the attitude of the third brother to his career and life.
In the recent pingyao film festival, the soft science fiction theme word of mouth dark horse "Cosmic Exploration Editorial Department" was also surprised at the promotion meeting, and the promoter said that the film is expected to be released in the near future.
There is also the new work "Second-hand Masterpiece" of the director of the "Bad Monkey 72 Change Film Project" previously exposed in the bad monkey film conference, and the parent-child education topic comedy "Learning Dad" starring Huang Bo directed by Su Liang also participated in the promotion meeting.
epilogue
More than 100 new films with different themes were "bombed indiscriminately" in just three days of promotion activities, which seemed to show the indomitable vitality of the Chinese film market after last year's "catastrophe". At the same time, we also see that in addition to the traditional head companies, the head Internet film companies with Cat's Eye Pictures and Ali Pictures have gradually become the main players in the theater promotion meeting.
In terms of projects, the most eye-catching thing is undoubtedly the collective appearance of the first echelon films of the Spring Festival file represented by "Miracle", "Four Seas" and "Super Family". Of course, there are a large number of key projects that are in full swing, and it is also expected to inject more high-quality content into the film market next year and even the year after. And these projects will also continue to bring confidence and vitality to practitioners.
However, in addition to optimism, we have also seen the delay of many backlog projects, the continuous scarcity of head projects, the increasingly serious phenomenon of schedule piling up, and the missing sequels of "Fengshen Trilogy" and "Chosin Lake". The recovery of the film market is still a long and protracted battle, from the creative end to the market end, we still have a long way to go.