Text | Ling Hu Boguang
The results of "The Wandering Earth 2" after its release in Hong Kong were average, with a box office of only 446,000 Hong Kong dollars on the first day of release, and a cumulative box office of 1.1 million Hong Kong dollars in 3 days of release. In the first place is the local film "Poisonous Tongue" starring Huang Zihua, with a cumulative box office of 8,700 Hong Kong dollars in 22 days of release, and is moving towards 90 million.
The second is the Taiwanese movie "Want to See You" with a single-day box office of 967,000 Hong Kong dollars, and 2.6 million Hong Kong dollars in 3 days of release. The third place is Cameron's "Titanic" 4K restoration re-release, which is 464,000 Hong Kong dollars in a single day and 1.07 million Hong Kong dollars in three days.
Why did "The Wandering Earth 2" still lose to the re-screened "Titanic"? The main reason is that there are too few films, not to mention the first and second places, even "Titanic" re-screenings 63 times, "The Wandering Earth 2" only 86 on the first day, only 39 cinemas willing to be released.
This film is obviously Andy Lau is the absolute starring actor, and as a result, Andy Lau's name was deliberately hidden in the publicity, and even Hong Kong netizens complained themselves: With Andy Lau's popularity and influence in Hong Kong, this obviously does not want "The Wandering Earth 2" to have a good box office in Hong Kong.
At the same time, the Internet also broke the news of the attitude of some Hong Kong filmmakers to this film, and I think that several industry insiders cannot represent ordinary audiences. Coupled with the recent explosion on the Internet, we all know that the reason is something deeper in reality, and culture is only one of the manifestations.
This combined with the outbreak of mainland film and television dramas represented by "The Wandering Earth 2" in the Spring Festival file, as a result, mainland works have been cold in the Hong Kong and Taiwan markets; Hong Kong and Taiwan film and television dramas have declined significantly, but domestic netizens still strongly pursue Hong Kong and Taiwan film and television dramas and stars. This different attitude of the audience on both sides of the strait and the three places is really worth playing.
In recent years, the Chinese film and television pop culture industry. Why is it that it has obviously declined, why are mainland audiences still blindly praising the Hong Kong and Taiwan entertainment industry, and what is the Hong Kong and Taiwan entertainment industry noble?
Why can't Hong Kong and Taiwan make "The Wandering Earth 2"? We know it when we watch Hong Kong movies
The first big problem: After "The Wandering Earth 2", the Chinese-language film and television industry represented by the mainland surpassed South Korea to become the first in Asia, and only Hollywood can compare.
The foundation of Hong Kong's film industry model was laid by Shaw, and by the peak of the 8090s, it was better because of the market boom and complexity, but the essence remained unchanged. This essence is a half-manual workshop, a semi-industrial model.
Hong Kong filmmakers who came out of this model, in addition to combining the social environment, are recognized as "pattern" issues. You see Hong Kong director Koo Tianle's "Tomorrow's War" is a police and bandit action film in sci-fi skin, and there is another important thing. Hong Kong and Taiwan directors have always been semi-manual and semi-industrialized dojos in the film and television industry.
In recent years, the police and bandit blockbusters co-produced in Hong Kong are all the progress of computer special effects technology in the past model + new era. It is not the same as "The Wandering Earth 2" Guo Fan built the entire Chinese film and television industry industry chain.
The local market in Hong Kong is not enough to support the upgrading of Hong Kong films, and the mainland market is obviously able. The mainland market has not given them opportunities, from costume blockbusters after 2000 to costume magic blockbusters after 2010, and then to Hong Kong police and bandit blockbusters in these years.
Let's say it this way, "Nameless" in the Spring Festival file is Bona's, but the director Cheng Er is a mainland director. But the company once had a whole "China Victory Trilogy", the other two are "Changjin Lake" and "Chinese Doctor". Among them, in addition to the cooperation of directors from both sides of the strait and three places in "Changjin Lake".
"Chinese Doctor" is a model of mainland theme + mainland investment + mainland market + mainland actors + Hong Kong director team.
Other works "Chinese Captain", "Climber", "Heroes of Fire" and so on are all of this model, whether these films are not pursued in the film and television industry, casually made into industrial assembly line movies to make money. I have always insisted that the deterioration of the reputation of domestic main theme movies is due to this model.
Of course, we can't ignore minorities such as Lin Chaoxian in "Action Series" and Tsui Hark in "Outsmart Tiger Mountain".
The main theme of the shooting of mainland directors is Wu Jing of the "Wolf Warrior" series, Zhang Yimou of "Sniper" and "Above the Cliff", and Rao Xiaozhi of "Ten Thousand Miles Home". Of course, there are also platter movies such as "Me and My Series", "King Kong River" and so on, and here is not counting the "The Wandering Earth" series that is not the main theme.
In fact, the main focus is on the proportion of quantity and the impact on the film and television industry. The film and television industry can also be compared with Tsui Hark and Lin Chaoxian, but it is really compared with the new mainland forces represented by Guo Fan's team (the "Wandering Earth" series, "Assassination of a Novelist" and "Walking on the Moon Alone" are all participated in by Guo Fan's team).
In terms of cultural content, this has been more than 20 years, and Hong Kong directors went north to the mainland market to integrate Tsui Hark, Lin Chaoxian and Chen Kexin, who was hit and fled. His apprentices Zeng Guoxiang, Er Dongsheng and so on are average. They are reluctant to understand the social environment of the mainland and have no interest in the cultural spirit of the mainland.
In the past, I gave resources, platforms, and stars, but the result is like Hong Kong and Taiwan actors who have been going north for decades, and as a result, the Mandarin lines are not good, and some people still complain about not giving resources.
In recent years, why have mainland youth teams been able to shoot the "Chang'an Twelve Hours" and "The Wandering Earth" series, which have made comprehensive breakthroughs in subject matter, industry and cultural aesthetics? I have always insisted that this is not only Hong Kong and Taiwan cultural creators, but also established cultural creators in the mainland.
For example, the costume drama "Daming under the Microscope" is being broadcast, which has made a fairly detailed examination and restoration of the artistic costumes, historical and cultural details of Chinese Ming Dynasty dramas, as well as China's Ming Dynasty officialdom and civil society, which is obviously derived from the changes after "Chang'an Twelve Hours".
This can also be extended to the previous domestic costume drama's 'Dynasty China', skin polishing cutouts, five-haired special effects and shoddy manufacturing, who brought this trend?
"The Wandering Earth 2" Hong Kong is cold? These Hong Kong blockbusters cannot be sold on the mainland
The second big problem: after the Spring Festival in 2023, the mainland represents the rise of Chinese cultural awareness in the new era, which is not far from surpassing Japan and South Korea to become the first in Asia and competing with the West.
Liu Cixin's significance to the soft power of Chinese culture is definitely beyond that of her predecessors. The prosperity and prosperity of culture is based on the economy, and the foundation of hard science fiction and big science fiction is big industry. Our industry is already the first in the world, and we need to have corresponding literary and artistic works to express it.
Our national self-confidence and cultural self-confidence are rising rapidly, so there will be the rise of costume dramas such as "Daming under the Microscope" that is restored, you analyze from this idea, "Go to the Windy Place" is the pastoral style of the new era after the high degree of urban urbanization, "Crazy" is a display of the changes in mainland society in the previous era, including the literary drama "Moses on the Plain".
Now the temperament and consciousness of Hong Kong film and television dramas are actually closer to Europe and the United States, and it was really different before, after all, it was possible to shoot "Huo Yuanjia" and write "The Great Wall Never Falls", and the current works are not very in line with the aesthetics of the mainstream audience in the mainland. Similarly, Hong Kong people do not like to watch mainland films very much, and the temperament and ideology of mainland films are not very in line with their aesthetics.
Hong Kong and Taiwan films are part of Chinese films in the final analysis, but Hong Kong and Taiwan filmmakers have to be paranoid about preserving their so-called characteristics, and as a result, the characteristics are not preserved, the market is lost, and they go in another direction. Although the words are not good, to put it bluntly, their mentality plays themselves to death.
With the economic development, the mainland has strong financial strength, a vast territory, a large choice of themes, and the most important thing is that the market accommodates so many filmmakers, and the development is fast. Moreover, the directorial styles of different regions will have obvious different styles that influence each other, and Hong Kong and Taiwan are such a big place, and they can't jump out of the inherent circles and models. The room for expansion is getting smaller and smaller, and decline is normal.
However, the mainland can do without the Hong Kong market and do not have to accommodate the aesthetics of Hong Kong people, but Hong Kong cannot do without the mainland market, and without the mainland market can not get big investment, so except for its own most confident Hong Kong-flavored police and bandit action films, other types of films have no advantage at all.
Now even if they have an advantageous film, it is only more than a billion box office, other types of films want to get a big investment is more impossible, the less advantageous the box office potential, the more withered talents, the more talents wither, the more no one dares to invest, no one dares to invest in talents more withered, even if talents are cultivated.
The development space of the mainland will only suck away the talents you cultivate, forming a vicious circle! In essence, the essence of the decline of Hong Kong films can be said to be assimilated by mainland films, the Hong Kong film market is too small, and the taste of films is not suitable for the aesthetics of mainland people.
What is so noble about Hong Kong Entertainment? But the attitude of domestic netizens should have changed a long time ago
The Hong Kong box office of "The Wandering Earth 2" can only be unspeakable, everyone understands, but the box office of "When the Wind Rises Again" is not good, and "Poisonous Tongue" will be the same, which also shows that Hong Kong films will only become more and more marginal and less important in the eyes of mainland audiences.
Let's go back to the question at the beginning, I personally understand the reason why some audiences still look down on Hong Kong and Taiwan stars and the entertainment industry. There were many chaos in the mainland's cultural industry before, and the "traffic economy" in 2023 cannot be said to have completely passed, not to mention that Hong Kong and Taiwan pop culture once prospered, which is the childhood sentiment of several generations of Chinese people.
This phenomenon of reverse psychological sustenance is very common, the key is that the cultural industry is different, the introduction of external works are difficult to play a catfish effect, deliberately to tout the external role is even more limited, it needs to be from top to bottom, from the inside to the outside of the industrial reform and trying to establish an industrial system team to lead.
The development of China's pop culture industry since "Wolf Warrior 2" happens to be in line with this economic model.
On the contrary, after 2010, the rise of mainland financial capital, the traffic economy made peace with Hong Kong and Taiwan teams and mainland established teams, expanded to the financial and cultural industry with higher gambling agreements, and then extended downward to anti-Japanese dramas, shoddy film and television dramas, and IP film and television dramas with sky-high salaries.
When did Chinese pop culture begin to change in recent years? And how did it change? From games after "Genshin", domestic animation, domestic movies and domestic dramas and so on. Is it related to external works and celebrity introduction? Or is it the other way around?
Finally, the Chinese cultural market will only get bigger and bigger, and cultural creators will spend 100% of their energy on the Chinese mainland market, and other markets are not important at present. The important thing is to go out and face it sooner or later, and it is still in Chinese-speaking areas. What is not important is that strictly speaking, this market is not very large, and it can no longer affect the overall situation of China's cultural industry.
For example, the box office of "The Wandering Earth 2" in the Hong Kong market is not as good as the box office in the United States and other Western countries (of course, there is a problem of market size). When "The Wandering Earth 2" is released in Russia, Africa and other markets, it is possible to eventually exceed ten million US dollars or even more.
The overseas box office of "The Wandering Earth 1" is only a few million US dollars, and 4 years later, if there is no accident, "The Wandering Earth 3" may impact 50 million or even higher, and the Hong Kong and Taiwan pop culture 4 years later, by then Gu Tianle will be old.
Finally, the outbreak of the 2023 Spring Festival file that has just been released is a little surprising to me, and the cultural works with comprehensive breakthroughs in industry, cultural aesthetics and content can affect the fashion in society, and many netizens ignore the impact of this year's Spring Festival file on fashion culture (most people are still unconscious).
For example, "Chinese Qitan" and "Deep Sea" for the technology and traditional aesthetics of domestic animation (the script is still poor).
The TV series "Go to a Windy Place" is for the fashionable idyllic; The fin de siècle texture of "Moses on the Plain". "Crazy" has begun to attack the film and television aesthetics established by Hong Kong gangster films; The Chinese sci-fi industrial aesthetics brought by "The Three-Body Problem" and "The Wandering Earth 2" need not be mentioned.
At this time, when you go to watch the current Hong Kong and Taiwan film and television works, and even feel "a little dirty", there is a lot to lose behind this.