At the Tokyo Olympic Games, Chinese Olympic athletes frequently made good achievements and won praise from netizens. With the approaching of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, the Winter Olympics-themed movie "My Heart Is Flying" has been announced to be scheduled for the first day of the Chinese New Year in 2022. In addition, a large number of new Chinese sports films such as "Chinese Table Tennis" and "Flying Basketball Team" are also preparing for development.
How do sports-themed films highlight the siege and win both box office and word-of-mouth harvests? Recently, Red Star News reporters interviewed relevant industry insiders.
【Phenomenon】 A large wave of sports movies hit "My Heart Is Flying" to present the Winter Olympics
In recent years, sports-themed films "Win the Championship", "The Great Dad" and "Beyond" have been released one after another, and the three films focus on volleyball, marathon and sprinting. Among them, the total box office of the movie "Win the Championship" exceeded 800 million yuan, and the Douban score was 7.2 points. "The Great Dad" and "Beyond" also grossed over 100 million yuan respectively. Next, "Five Splashing Teenagers", which shows "synchronized swimming", will be released soon.
"Win the Championship" poster Picture according to the film side
"The Great Dad" poster picture according to the film side
"Beyond" poster According to the film side
In addition, there are sports-themed films such as "Chinese Table Tennis" and "Flying Basketball Team" that are about to be launched.
From the story introduction of ticketing platforms such as Taobao Tickets, it can be seen that "China Table Tennis" tells the story of Cai Zhenhua in the 1990s, after Cai Zhenhua returned from abroad as the coach of the national table tennis men's team, led five athletes, Ding Song, Ma Wenge, Wang Tao, Liu Guoliang and Kong Linghui, to fight back at the Tianjin World Championships. The film has been planned for nearly three years, and the script creation has also undergone a long process, and the director and actors of the film have not yet been announced. "Feitian Basketball Team" has been filed in 2019, and the story tells the story of the boy You Youyou and Chang Teng, who met because of basketball, and in the process of realizing their dreams, the attitude and changes of the two faced life choices.
"Chinese Table Tennis" poster According to the film side
On May 8 this year, the Winter Olympics movie "My Heart Is Flying", produced by Xu Zheng, directed by Wang Fangfang, and starring Meng Meiqi and Xia Yu, was officially launched. The film tells the story of Chinese athletes who have worked hard for 22 years to win the first gold medal at the Winter Olympics. The story of the movie "My Heart Is Flying" was inspired by the fact that in 1980, the Chinese delegation began to participate in the Winter Olympics, and repeatedly missed the gold medal. In order to achieve a breakthrough of zero, Qin Shan (Xia Yu) formed the Chinese short track speed skating national team represented by Yang Fan (Meng Meiqi), and was ordered to be ashamed of the snow. The two launched an attack on the gold medal, and the master-apprentice relationship also faced fierce collisions and tests...
"My Heart Is Flying" poster According to the film side
Meng Meiqi said that she had never been exposed to ice sports before shooting this film, so the biggest challenge was how to quickly become professional, and the challenge was extraordinary. Xia Yu, who plays qin shan, the head coach of the national team, called Meng Meiqi "a cruel person", saying that in order to truly present the feeling of pain after the foot injury, Meng Meiqi took the initiative to put a stone in the skates, wearing "special" skates on the ice rink, and even the stones that were taken out were bloody.
"My Heart Is Flying" (starring Meng Meiqi) Picture according to the film side
"My Heart Is Flying" (starring Xia Yu) picture according to the film side
【Story】 "Beyond" once paid tribute to the scene of "Su Bingtian Jakarta winning gold"
In the men's 100m final at the Tokyo Olympics, China's Su Bingtian finished sixth with a time of 9.98 seconds. In the semi-final held on the same day, Su Bingtian ran a good time of 9.83 seconds, breaking the Asian record and becoming the first Chinese athlete to reach the men's 100 meters final of the Olympic Games.
Zheng Kai, Li Chen, and Li Yunrui, the main creators of the movie "Beyond", also posted a blog for the first time to praise and congratulate Su Bingtian. In fact, the movie "Beyond" starring Zheng Kai has paid tribute to Su Bingtian, and the scene in which Zheng Kai rushed over the finish line to win the championship and knelt down to shake his fist and roar, is to pay tribute to Su Bingtian's gold medal at the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games.
"Beyond" pays tribute to a scene by Su Bingtian
"Beyond" was released nationwide on June 12, and the box office broke through 140 million. The film tells the story of Hao Chaoyue (Zheng Kai), a "100-meter flyer" who has won numerous awards, fell into a trough after experiencing a transformation in his life, because the reunion with his former best friend was awakened to warm memories, reinvigorated, and realized self-transcendence. In order to show the professionalism of the characters, Zheng Kai began intensive training half a year before the filming began, and invited his friend "Asian Flying Man" Su Bingtian to come to guide. During the release of the movie, Zheng Kai once revealed on Weibo that it was not easy to shoot this movie, "Last year, there was a 35-year-old uncle, with a group of 17-year-old little brothers, who soaked in the track and field field every day to learn to run, and half a year later, the uncle practiced eight-pack abs, the body fat dropped to 9%, and the score improved by one second." Thank you brother Su Bingtian for teaching me how to run, I can, you can too! Run, don't stop! Su Bingtian once forwarded the Weibo and encouraged Zheng Kai to "surpass yourself and don't stop!" ”
[Expert] Sports film creation is difficult, and it needs to be viewed with a more open mind
At the Tokyo Olympic Games, there were many touching stories of Chinese Olympic athletes, such as Quan Hongchan and Su Bingtian, and some netizens said that their inspirational stories are very suitable for making movies. In this regard, Yin Hong, a professor at the School of Journalism and Communication of Tsinghua University, said bluntly, "These stories are not as easy to tell as we think, because these people exist in a certain environment, such as the relationship with coaches, the relationship with comrades-in-arms, how to deal with, how to express, to what extent, on the one hand, the creators need to go deep into life to understand, on the other hand, they also need the whole society to have a more open attitude to film creation." In fact, there are many visualizations of sports themes, but the difficulty of creation is very high. ”
Yin Hong said that from the overall point of view, China's current sports films are relatively weak, because sports films are subject to some practical conditions, such as the impact of industry management, the restrictions of themes, and so on. How do sports movies stand out? Yin Hong said that it is difficult in a short period of time, because sports movies involve specific characters, specific projects, and specific competitions, "so we still need to be more open, and treat the film as a film, rather than a completely real event, so that there will be some new breakthroughs in creation, and creators are willing to create."
Referring to the impact of the Olympic Games on the film industry, Chen Shaofeng, deputy dean of the Institute of Cultural Industries of Peking University, said that if movies related to ice and snow or the Olympic Games are made during the Olympic Games or during the Winter Olympics next year, they will have a promoting effect on the film industry, but the Olympic-themed movies are not well combined with the golden period of the Spring Festival, so the promotion effect will not be too large.
On how to highlight the siege of sports movies, Chen Shaofeng said, "I think first of all, this movie should be good-looking, and secondly, it should be considered in terms of theme, not too cold, if it is too cold, everyone has no participation." ”
Red Star News reporter | Zhang Shihao
Intern | Wang Zuxi
Editor| Li Xueli
(Download Red Star News, there are prizes for the newspaper!) ）