Preach in words. - Don Tears
It is a fact that Hong Kong cinema has flourished and declined.
There have also been several times when people shouted that Hong Kong films are dead, and the voices of opposition have fallen.
But just five years ago, a "Cold War II" still broke the historical box office record, with a score of 66.82 million, from the Taiwanese film "Those Years, the Girl We Chased Together" to regain the overall champion position of Chinese films, defending the dignity of Hong Kong films.
Some people may say, a small market of seven million people, what is the use of tens of millions of box office?
Indeed, compared to Hollywood's prestige in the Hong Kong market, this overall champion is quite shabby.
But it is actually a thought of Hong Kong filmmakers.
Proof, everyone is still working hard.
After the completion of the two weeks, the Hong Kong market began to rise together.
Zhou Xingchi gradually turned behind the scenes and became transcendent.
After two thousand years of great waves and sands, actors who have been able to stand firm and even rise against the trend to today can be called the backbone of the Hong Kong film industry.
According to the different types of films and performance styles, these stalwart filmmakers have formed various pairing combinations.
If you take the film of the last decade.
Taking the "double male" actor structure as an example, what kind of combination can be a double guarantee of Hong Kong film box office and word of mouth?
This is actually an interesting question.
Get to the point.
In 2010, there were two films on the list.
One is "The King of Guns", which grossed 129 million yuan in the mainland, directed by Er Dongsheng, and the double male drama of Gu Tianle and Wu Yanzu.
This film is regarded as a sequel to Zhang Guorong's "King of Guns" ten years ago, and in order to continue this "sequel" meaning, the cast list still retains Fang Zhongxin's name, but that's all. Compared with the plot tension of the previous work and Zhang Guorong's crazy and paranoid performance, the sequel seems thin and empty, and Gu Tianle certainly cannot compare with Zhang Guorong.
The other is "Informant", which ranked sixth in the year with a box office of 53.71 million in the mainland and 12.65 million in Hong Kong, with the works of Lin Chaoxian, Nicholas Tse and Cheung Ka Fai.
This movie can be seen as the sister film of the "Witness" two years ago, and a "Witness" let Zhang Jiahui take eight film emperors, which is also an unprecedented grand event, this "Informant" has brought Nicholas Tse to the throne of the Golden Emperor, Lin Chaoxian is proud of these two movies.
In the same year, there were two Hong Kong films that tested the waters of "science fiction".
One is Aaron Kwok's "Whole City Alert", with an investment of 100 million, the mainland box office is only 90.33 million, and the other is Andy Lau's "Future Police", with an investment of 150 million, but the mainland box office is only 60.73 million, which is a failure.
Taken together, this year's box office word-of-mouth performance is ordinary.
In 2011, four.
They are "Eavesdropping 2", "Death Gold", "New Shaolin Temple" and "Single Men and Women".
There are two over 200 million, "New Shaolin Temple" and "Eavesdropping 2", one is Andy Lau and Nicholas Tse Shuangxiong, 216 million, the other is Gu Tianle, Liu Qingyun and Wu Yanzu three-line narrative, over 200 million, "Single Men and Women" is still a combination of Gu Tianle and Wu Yanzu, box office 97.2 million, and in Hong Kong is "Eavesdropping 2" slightly better than "New Shaolin Temple", "Death Gold" is Liu Qingyun and Ren Xianqi cooperation.
This year, Aaron Kwok starred in mainland director Gu Changwei's literary and artistic work "The Favourite", partner Zhang Ziyi, with a box office of 60 million, while another commercial film starring Andy Lau and Gong Li with an investment of 100 million yuan, "I Know the Woman's Heart", only grossed 67.58 million, in addition to the niche suspense film "B+ Detective" starring Aaron Kwok, which grossed 22.73 million, which is not ideal.
In addition to the remake of "I Am a Woman's Heart", several other movies are not bad at watchability.
In 2012, three double male plays.
Aaron Kwok and Leung Ka Fai's "Cold War", Jay Chou and Nicholas Tse's "Counter War", Cheung Ka Fai and Ren Dahua's "The Great Hunt".
Lu Jianqing and Liang Lemin, two new directors, became famous in the first world war, "Cold War" unexpectedly received both word-of-mouth box office, the mainland box office reached 254 million and won the Hong Kong annual crown with 42.82 million, "Reverse War" earned 130 million box office, Hong Kong 22.21 million, "The Great Hunt" box office was the worst, the mainland box office was only 48.14 million.
This year, Andy Lau invested and starred in Xu Anhua's "Sister Peach", the mainland box office of 70 million, the Hong Kong box office of 27.87 million, won the Venice Best Film and Film Honor, and swept the Golden Horse, Golden Statue Awards Ceremony, the grand prize will be in the pocket, Andy Lau also won his second Golden Horse Film Emperor and the third Golden Film Emperor, the scenery is unique for a while.
And another literary and art film, directed by the new wave star Yan Hao, starring Aaron Kwok," "One Hundred Years of Floating City" (also known as "Floating City Tycoon in the mainland"), the box office is dismal, such a very good quality masterpiece, actually did not participate in any award ceremony news, it is difficult to guess what the situation is.
Aaron Kwok and Leung Ka Fai's first positive cooperation, one article and one martial art, positive and strange, fit full score. And Jay Chou and Nicholas Tse, a pair of newcomer kings, have almost no spark, to be honest, if Jay Chou's music is 90 points, his movie ceiling is only 60 points, without him, talent. The quality of "The Great Hunt" is also good, and Zhang Jiahui's acting skills are excellent, helping Zhou Xianyang win the Best New Director Award.
The most beautiful of the year are the two kings.
In 2013, there were still three films.
They are Zhang Jiahui and Peng Yuyan's "Fierce Battle", Gu Tianle, Liu Qingyun and Zhang Jiahui's "Sweeping Drugs" and Gu Tianle and Liu Qingyun's "Escape to Heaven", and the cast began to appear in the "matryoshka doll" mode.
And many times netizens said "it is these people again", most likely related to Zhang Jiahui, Liu Qingyun and Gu Tianle three people, the situation of three people and two pairs is really too much, before the timeline of this article there is "Eavesdropping Storm", and in the later Text Tieding will appear more than once.
"Guild Wars" not only won the annual championship, but also helped Zhang Jiahui to go down to the Academy Awards, and the director happened to be Lin Chaoxian, "Sweeping Drugs" has a bit of a sudden taste, the lines are liked by many people, and the plot with the love dilemma as the main line is also quite tense, the two films have a mainland box office of 120 million and 238 million, respectively.
There are also two films this year, which can be counted as half of the concept of "double males", because it is beyond the scope of Hong Kong films, namely "Witnessed by the Whole People" starring Sun Honglei and Aaron Kwok, and "Drug War" starring Sun Honglei and Gu Tianle, and the word-of-mouth box office is still good.
If the memory is not wrong, after this year, Zhang Jiahui began to go down and became a director himself, but more than that, he made some worthless films.
It was merged over the next two years, totaling three parts.
Gu Tianle, Liu Qingyun and Wu Yanzu's "Eavesdropping 3", Nicholas Tse and Yu Wenle's "Firefighting Hero", and Jacky Cheung and Zhang Jiahui's "Equator" have grossed 300 million, 77.12 million and 200 million respectively, and the box office and reputation of Hong Kong-made films have entered a wandering period.
Until 2016's "Cold War II.".
This year produced four films in the double male model, and "Cold War II" led by Aaron Kwok and Leung Ka Fai took over the momentum of the first part, soaring to 678 million in the summer and landing at the box office of Hong Kong film history. Zhang Jiahui and Gu Tianle's "Apostle Walker" followed with 605 million at the box office, Liu Qingyun and Gu Tianle's "Dangerous City" only 167 million, and Lin Jiadong, Ren Xianqi and Chen Xiaochun's "Tree Trick" was not released in the mainland.
The most beautiful of the year is Aaron Kwok, who won the third annual crown, topped the box office championship of a single film in the history of Hong Kong films, the first golden film emperor, and more importantly, the reputation and box office of his films, which is especially rare in the era of Hong Kong films.
His solo concert received a congratulatory short film "Blessings from the Film", including ten directors and a film company owner, all of whom were very popular, and its momentum was evident.
The narratives merged for the next three years.
In 2017, a double-male movie "Chasing the Dragon" helped Wang Jing win word of mouth, and The combination of Zhen Zidan and Andy Lau reached a mainland box office of 570 million.
In 2018, the strongest double male police drama "Peerless" in a decade struck, from Chow Yun Fat, the only time after returning to Hong Kong to play with other actors in a double male way, together with Aaron Kwok, pushed the box office to 1.278 billion, and the reputation was excellent.
By 2019, four films with a double male structure were produced in one go, namely "Sweeping Drugs 2" with 1.285 billion, "Integrity Storm" with 121 million, "Acts 2" with 693 million and "Chasing the Dragon 2" with 300 million, although the highest-grossing film slightly surpassed last year's "Peerless", but the film reputation can be described as the whole army.
The cast of actors in recent years, Zhen Zidan and Andy Lau, Chow Yun Fat and Aaron Kwok, and Andy Lau and Gu Tianle are worth mentioning.
First of all, Zhen Zidan has taken over the class of Jackie Chan and Jet Li and is in the position of a Hong Kong action movie superstar, followed by Aaron Kwok's sufficient growth in acting and coffee position since he began to focus on the film industry in the mid-2000s, and Gu Tianle, a junior, has also grown to the point where he can compete with veteran movie stars such as Andy Lau.
The retrospective of the above ten years may lead to small conclusions.
The strongest combination, elected "Chow Yun Fat + Aaron Kwok", in terms of comprehensive word-of-mouth box office, "Peerless" is undoubtedly the best.
The most explosive combination should be selected "Andy Lau + Gu Tianle", and while the reputation of "Sweeping Drugs 2" collapsed, the box office soared all the way.
The combination of potential that has not been fully released is "Aaron Kwok + Leung Ka Fai", because the performance of "Cold War II" should be more than that.
The more vulnerable combinations are "Liu Qingyun + Zhang Jiahui" and "Jacky Cheung + Zhang Jiahui", as well as "Liang Jiahui + Gu Tianle" these three models.
Combining the above conclusions, there are deeper results derived.
The combination of pure acting schools has a high probability of ushering in box office hits, pure idol combinations have a high probability of word-of-mouth collapse effect, and the model of idol schools and acting schools has certain guarantees but varies from person to person, and the strongest combination should be the "double male" model that combines idols and acting skills.
Push and upcoming movies.
In the future, there will be "When the Wind Rises Again" by Aaron Kwok and Liang Chaowei, "Goldfinger" by Liang Chaowei and Andy Lau, and "Sweeping Drugs 3" by Aaron Kwok, Gu Tianle and Liu Qingyun, which are actually relatively fresh, and do not circle to the point of vomiting like Gu Tianle, Liu Qingyun and Zhang Jiahui in the past.
Like a Rubik's Cube combination, the variations can be endless.
And the best.
Always in the future.