Source: People's Daily Overseas Edition
In the just-concluded summer of 2022, the mainland film market has blown a "science fiction wind".
According to data from the National Film Administration, as of August 31, the total box office output of the 2022 summer program was 9.135 billion yuan, an increase of 23.76% over the same period of 2021 of 7.381 billion yuan. In China, the Chinese-made science fiction comedy film "Lone Moon" grossed 2.896 billion yuan, and the science fiction action movie "Tomorrow's War" grossed 623 million yuan, accounting for nearly 40% of the box office of the two films. In addition, the science fiction parent-child movie "Mozart in Outer Space" grossed nearly 224 million yuan, and the science fiction animation film "Rushing Out of the Earth" and "Happy Superman Hero's Heart" exceeded the 10 million yuan mark at the box office.
In recent years, domestic science fiction films have made great progress. "The Wandering Earth", released in the Spring Festival in 2019, has received unanimous praise from inside and outside the industry, opening a new journey of domestic science fiction film creation. Today, the release of "The Wandering Earth 2" is poised to go, and "Cosmic Exploration Editorial Department" has won the "Most Watched Film" in the "Attention to the Future" section of the 12th Beijing International Film Festival. Science fiction movies such as "749 Bureau", "Crazy Alien 2", and "Mermaid 2" are also in preparation and production. In the future, domestic science fiction films are expected to become an important growth point and new momentum for the high-quality development of movies.
Industrialization is a strong support
"When Zootopia was released in 2016, Judy the Rabbit had more than 2 million hairs, and everyone was particularly envious of Disney's industrialization at that time. Today, Chinese filmmakers have created a kangaroo gangzi with nearly 50 million hairs in "Alone on the Moon", which is deeply loved by the audience. Liu Hongtao, chief producer of "Lone Moon" and president of Happy Twist Pictures, said.
Chinese science fiction films have long been in the initial stage of industrialization, and workshop-style film crews are not uncommon. The real realization of film industrialization not only means a high level of visual effects and sound effects production and large-scale shooting, but also includes the specialization, standardization and refinement of the film production process.
From "Thunderbolt Babe" and "The Disappearance of the Atmosphere", which were called the "enlightenment works" of children's science fiction films in the 1990s, to "Yangtze River No. 7", "Future Police", "Citywide Alert", "Mermaid", etc., which were jointly launched by the mainland and Hong Kong filmmakers since the 21st century, Chinese filmmakers have never stopped exploring the industrialization model and construction of film, but due to various conditions, they have never been able to make substantive breakthroughs. Until 2019, Guo Fan directed "The Wandering Earth", which had 2,200 visual effects shots in the film, was released and achieved a box office performance of nearly 4.7 billion yuan. The sci-fi comedy film "Crazy Alien" directed by Ning Hao was released at the same time and also achieved a good result of more than 2.2 billion yuan at the box office.
According to reports, 50% of "The Wandering Earth" is a difficult visual effects shot, and it also challenges a large number of full CG shots. The crew of "Lone Moon" used 15 soundstages, and 95% of the shots involved special effects. The crew laid 200 tons of sand and gravel in a 6,000-square-meter studio to simulate lunar dust, and built a lunar base on a 100% real scene.
Guo Fan believes that film industrialization is a mode of thinking, a process, and a set of standards. With a production team of 7,000 people, production standards and management processes are particularly important when coordinating such a large-scale team. After the release of "The Wandering Earth", Guo Fan conducted a long-term review and national research on this project, hoping to summarize the lessons learned and promote the establishment of China's film industrialization system. He revealed that The Wandering Earth 2 experimented with a whole new industrial process.
The Wandering Earth is a new beginning for Chinese science fiction films. The success of films such as "Lone Moon" and "Tomorrow's War" shows that on the basis of the rapid development of Chinese films in recent years, the industrialization system has begun to take shape, and Chinese science fiction films have entered a new period.
Localization is the foundation of one's life
Based on the eponymous work of South Korean science fiction cartoonist Cho Seok, Lone Moon tells the story of engineer Lone Moon being forgotten on the moon and struggling to return to Earth.
Happy Twist has localized this IP, based on the feelings of home and country Chinese, reasonably extending part of the story line and creating an unexpected comedic effect. In particular, the ending of the film enriches the plot of Du Lonely Moon's choice of self-sacrifice and preservation of the earth and mankind, and the story of tragedy and joy fully reflects the traditional Chinese values of "home and country" and "sacrificing the small self in exchange for the big self".
A similar plot exists in The Wandering Earth. The film tells the story of "taking the earth to wander" with distinct Chinese historical and cultural characteristics and romantic poetry, and the father-son love, grandson-in-law love, brother-sister love, and war friendship shown in it not only promote the development of the plot, but also carry the hope that "even if there is a gap and misunderstanding, it will eventually unite to build a homeland", which is the Chinese expression of the concept of a community with a shared future for mankind.
Wang Hongwei, vice president of the China Film Directors Association and associate professor of the Beijing Film Academy, has participated in the screenwriting and planning of science fiction films such as "The Wandering Earth" and "Crazy Aliens". He believes that Chinese science fiction films will adhere to the path of localization, and copying foreign genre models may be a shortcut, but what really attracts audiences is the Chinese story itself.
Zhang Wei, executive vice president of the China Film Critics Association, believes that science fiction films tell the story of the future destiny of all mankind, and Chinese science fiction films should have a lofty vision of the world and the community of human destiny. At the same time, science fiction films are an important field of film power, and Chinese science fiction films should reflect the common value pursuit of mankind, so that it is easier to obtain worldwide influence.
Branding is the way forward
After years of market cultivation, Hollywood science fiction movies such as "Transformers" and "The Avengers" have shown brand effects, and sequels have been continuously launched. The much-talked about Avatar 2 will also be released in North America.
The domestic science fiction films that have entered the development track are also actively exploring the road of brand development.
During the 12th Beijing International Film Festival held in August, "The Wandering Earth 2" released the first trailer, announcing that Li Xuejian, chairman of the international jury of the "Temple of Heaven Award" and a famous actor, joined the film and cooperated with Wu Jing and Andy Lau. At this year's Beijing International Film Festival, it was also reported that the "Mermaid 2" directed by Stephen Chow was about to complete production. As early as last year, Bad Monkey Pictures announced that "Crazy Aliens 2" had begun preparations.
The film industry believes that with the same values and unified aesthetic style, the series of films is more likely to obtain higher expectations and market heat, and plays an important role in improving the box office, cultivating audiences, cultivating talents, branding domestic films, and exploring industrialization.
As we all know, science fiction movies are extremely difficult to shoot and extremely expensive to produce. The preparation, creation and release of science fiction films not only require accurate judgment of the market, but also require strong support from national policies.
In August 2020, the National Film Administration and the China Association for Science and Technology issued the "Several Opinions on Promoting the Development of Science Fiction Films", proposing to build science fiction films into important growth points and new momentum for the high-quality development of films, and announced ten policy measures to strengthen support and guidance for the creation and production of science fiction films, distribution and screening, special effects technology, talent training, etc., known as the "Ten Science Fiction Articles".
In November 2021, the "14th Five-Year Plan" China Film Development Plan was officially released, which clearly pointed out that it is necessary to accelerate the development of film special effects technology, encourage and guide all parties to invest in the research and development of common special effects underlying technology, implement the linkage mechanism for promoting the development of science fiction films, and further improve the film standardization system.
Guo Fan once said that the audience recognition and self-confidence of domestic science fiction films are closely related to the country's growing comprehensive national strength. Nowadays, domestic science fiction movies have a grander narrative pattern and a broad imagination space. Under the multiple favorable conditions such as policy support, market expectations, and audience recognition, domestic science fiction films will definitely have a better future.
People's Daily Overseas Edition ( 2022-09-02 Issue 07)