Text | Ling Hu Boguang
Recently, the Berlin Film Festival will be held, and this one has several points worth paying attention to for Chinese film fans. First of all, there are a large number of Chinese-language films shortlisted, covering all aspects of the award. The other is to judge the familiar Hong Kong director To Qifeng.
At the official opening speech on the 16th, there were two paragraphs that were still quite sharp.
One paragraph is that movies all over the world are deteriorating, and the world of watching movies before is gradually disappearing, and it is no longer the world of his former life.
In another paragraph, a foreign journalist asks: "Why is film so important to you, what makes it special and makes it last?" ”。 Du Qifeng's answer is very sensitive, directly linked to some things at the level of reality, I don't know what to say here, just put pictures.
To's speech is very much in line with the concept of some Hong Kong filmmakers, let's not talk about politically sensitive topics, and the decline of Hong Kong films alone has nothing to do with the mainland. On the contrary, if it were not for the rise of the mainland market, a large number of Hong Kong filmmakers might have withdrawn long ago.
Hong Kong films in the 80s and 90s were also not released in the mainland? At that time, Hong Kong filmmakers could not look at the mainland market, and Hong Kong films were not prosperous? Why is it that the decline of Hong Kong films is now described as a problem of the mainland?
Like "When the Wind Rises Again", which was not good at the box office, director Weng Ziguang's previous work "Stepping on Blood to Find Mei" was not released in the mainland, and the investment was not too high, and it won several awards at the Academy Awards. To Qifeng's own said at the meeting that his film investment is not high, so why don't you make movies?
Mainland audiences are looking forward to the future with science fiction for "The Wandering Earth 2" and "The Three-Body Problem", do you see Andy Lau viewers who caught up with the car do not like him? The Hong Kong movies "When the Wind Rises Again" and "Dragon Babu: The Legend of Qiao Feng" are not without merit, but the theme is old, and the actors are still those people.
After the Spring Festival in 2023, I believe that even audiences with strong feelings for Hong Kong movies will find that Hong Kong films are declining too quickly, even faster than we think.
Why are Hong Kong films in decline? There is no successor to the actor, and the lack of talent is not the main reason
I have always told everyone that the actors are all those old people, and then the director, screenwriter and other talents are indeed one of the reasons, but it has never been the main reason. The main reason is one, the economy is declining, the market is not working, and the status cannot be maintained, and this point extends to the most important two.
The first point is that the Hong Kong market is too small to support, so it cannot support the film and television industrial revolution, and modern industrial upgrading is really a dimensionality reduction blow.
Hong Kong films have been industrialized, but not the current film industrialization. Shaw Film Company such a large movie set, the entire Shaw Studios is a set, all kinds of era sets, clothing props, etc. have each has a special department management, the props have a props department, makeup has a makeup department, editing has an editing department, the props and props in the film go to the props department according to the needs to get it, Shaw actors also live in a collective dormitory outside the set, can also live outside, the salary is a monthly salary.
This is also the enemy that Shaw is TVB has been criticized so far, squeezing artists, salaries are lower than other film companies, unless they become a particularly big name to have the opportunity to bargain with Shaw's management, and there is a particularly criticized deed of sale contract, the contract has no expiration time, it is very difficult to terminate the contract, and some have to lose Shaw money.
Therefore, many of the Shaw filmmakers who left later have openly and secretly ridiculed contract issues, such as Xu Guanwen's "Deed of Sale", Wang Yu's "One-armed" series filmed in Taiwan, most of the villain names are Shao Laoliu, Shao Laoliu is Run Run Shaw's nickname, Run Run Shaw is in the Shaw family line six, many people in the market call him Shao Laoliu, because of the contract problem Wang Yu also made a particularly big thing, pried open the vault in the archive room and took away his own contract, By the way, he also burned all the contracts that burned the archive room and connected a large number of cast and crew.
There are many outstanding Shaw actors who ended up with no money and no one in the bleak end, Dillon may not have been uncomfortable if "The True Color of Heroes" was not popular again, and after being terminated by Shaw, more than ten years of acting experience ended up empty. This contract issue not only squeezes the artist, but also the director.
Li Hanxiang joked several times about the contract with Shaw and Fang Yihua's situation in his "Thirty Years in Detail" written by himself, according to director Li Hanxiang's article, Shaw's beginning to squeeze entertainers and extreme compression of film costs all began from Fang Yihua's promotion to Shaw's management, and the departure of Zou Wenhuai and Xu Guanwen had a lot to do with these, especially Zou Wenhuai was the one who fought the world with Run Run Shaw.
As a result, before leaving, I wanted to discuss with Run Run Shaw to get together and disperse, but I didn't even see each other, so I was forced to leave, and since then I have been with Run Run Shaw on the same ground, and founded Jiahe and Shaw to fight against the stage) The dressing room can meet the makeup of all the actors of several plays at the same time, Hong Kong filmmakers and many Japanese filmmakers have a good friendship, Shaw has several big scenes, and the special effects are all responsible for Japanese professional teams.
A more typical is "The Orangutan King", Li Hanxiang said in the article that the holster actor in the orangutan king's holster is Yuan Heping. Shaw's large-scale studio system is a kind of assembly line, and many scripts can be produced at the same time, and many actors are several plays back and forth at that time, and they don't even have to go out of the set, change their clothes and makeup, and then act on a set.
This also leads to the speed of Shaw movies is very fast, from the start to the finished film, may not be used for a week, the editing also has a special department responsible, the director can even not even have to deal with it, just filming, Hong Kong film peak era is still playing this set of industrial models, but the company is more, the situation is more complicated, To Qifeng's and Galaxy Image are also playing this set.
Poor aesthetics, backward technology, and arrogant attitude? Hong Kong movies did not lose unjustly
After 2000, when Hong Kong films declined, they found mainland investment, mainland platforms, and mainland official endorsement. The mainland market gave opportunities, and as a result, except for a few directors such as Lin Chaoxian and Tsui Hark, the vast majority of filmmakers just want to make money and do not want to do anything. Even Tsui Hark, Lin Chaoxian's so-called film and television industry is also to invite foreign special effects companies to do the combination, and did not think about establishing their own full industrial industry chain.
After 2010, they have made a large number of costume magic films that are not in the ocean, as well as Wang Jing's "Macao Vice" series, and then over the years, police and bandit films have been stirred up over the years.
The one who completely revolutionized China's film and television industry is Wu Jing, Guo Fan, a young mainland director. This new force in the mainland is now not only in the class of Hong Kong and Taiwan filmmakers for the innovation and establishment of China's film and television industry.
You see that old-school mainland filmmakers like Zhang Yimou can't do it, and the audience also doesn't recognize them, and they are happy to be taken over.
The second point is that the aesthetics and patterns of Hong Kong and Taiwan cultural creators are becoming more and more unworkable, and naturally cannot keep up with the aesthetics and values of the audience.
Like the costume drama "Daming under the Microscope" is on the air, this drama will bring the Chinese Ming Dynasty's service and art aesthetic restoration to a peak. Today's Hong Kong and Taiwan creators will never be able to shoot it, because their inheritance of Chinese traditional culture is getting worse and worse.
If you think about it, when the young generation of mainland audiences are becoming more and more strict with traditional culture, as a result, the film and television dramas directed by you in Hong Kong and Taiwan are either aesthetically poor or still in the same way as the Wadaihua. So will young mainland audiences enjoy watching it? Why should young mainland audiences pay?
I believe that many netizens have long discovered that now it is not only a costume drama, as long as it is a domestic film and television drama in which Hong Kong and Taiwan creators have participated in these years, the general aesthetics are not good, the technology is backward, and it is really more and more ugly.
In fact, there is a third point, that is, the creative attitude of Hong Kong and Taiwan filmmakers is perfunctory and arrogant. The film and television industry, aesthetics and pattern are not good, it can be said that they are all contained under the attitude. Obviously, you come to the mainland market to make a film, the official gives you the green light, the high investment of film and television companies, stars and other resources you can use, and the strong expectation of 1.4 billion viewers.
The result?
They are not willing to understand the historical development of the mainland, but they are also willing to lower their posture to see what the mainland audience likes. Hong Kong and Taiwan creators have a lofty attitude when shooting works in the mainland, thinking that if they shoot at will, they will buy it if they shoot at will.
Therefore, the grand narrative of the revolutionary theme that the mainland audience wants to see, he can shoot you as a gangster fight.
The spirited and energetic main theme film and television drama that mainland audiences want to watch, he can make "Everest Love" for you.
The sincere, serious and restored anti-epidemic movies that mainland audiences want to see, he can make you into a cry, two troubles and three slogans.
Mainland audiences want to see domestic film and television dramas that are restored to the Tao, have advanced art aesthetics, and are very powerful in the film and television industry. They can shoot you into skin-grinding cutouts and five-haired special effects, shoot into Wadaihua, and even make it into an "anti-Japanese drama".
Of course, the problem of the cultural creation environment in the mainland objectively exists, and it is undeniable that Chen Kexin's departure in 2022 is a landmark event. Hong Kong and Taiwan creators do not know much about the mainland environment because of the historical environment, which is also an objective fact. There is a key point here, then Tsui Hark, Lin Chaoxian, Andy Lau, and even the poor quality of "Chinese Captain", "Chinese Doctor", "Heroes of Fire", etc., have mainland audiences bought it?
The largest market for Hong Kong and Taiwan filmmakers is the mainland, and your biggest consumer is the mainland audience. You are not willing to understand the social environment in the mainland, you are not willing to understand the mainland audience, and your aesthetics and technology are backward.
Now the biggest consumer obviously does not buy it, your attitude is still so arrogant, who gave you courage?
To be honest, I don't quite understand the thoughts of some mainland audiences, you are strict with yourself because of the chaos of the mainland traffic economy, and then because of the tolerance of Hong Kong film sentiment filters. But the festering of Hong Kong and Taiwan entertainment over the years, the attitude of creators is in front of them, can they use it so humble?
20 years of Hong Kong film decline? After the Spring Festival in 2023, it may really be "dead"
The mainland market is the world's first in many fields, and it will be the world's first in the future. Whether it is Hong Kong and Taiwan films, Hallyu, or even American Hollywood blockbusters, as live-action films and television, they are like a flood wave, coming and going quickly.
An important reason for the ebb of these works is that Chinese mainland also do live-action film and television, movies, TV series, variety shows and so on. Not only the United States, Europe, China, Japan and South Korea are engaged in live-action film and television, but India, Thailand and many other countries are engaged in live-action film and television, maybe what do you think this can represent?
Chinese mainland because of the large market, large population, and unique historical environment and development stage. It will breed an audience of 1.4 billion unique needs, and the audience will naturally have unique cultural needs. With a huge market and fierce cultural demand, the competition in this line is changing quickly, and there are many competitors and alternatives.
Hong Kong movies did flourish (plus Taiwanese entertainment), and the cultural divide was not as severe. However, everyone knows that due to the historical environment, the cultural reflection of the two sides of the strait and the three places is still quite different.
After 2017, the mainland film and television industry is also developing rapidly, on the one hand, film and television dramas are taking off, I don't believe in watching domestic film and television dramas in the Spring Festival file; On the other hand, the cultural and entertainment industries such as the mainland are now focusing on their own markets, and there is also an intersection with Hong Kong and Taiwan, but for various reasons, the ecological niche has obviously staggered in recent years.
This has led to the mainland-based new era of Chinese pop culture, because of serious restrictions on movies and platform reasons, coupled with the strict control of the "epidemic" for three years, there are fewer going out, but domestic dramas, Chinese games, online novels, domestic animation, short videos, etc. are going to the world, and Hong Kong and Taiwan are a small market.
Finally, here is a realistic joke for everyone, don't Hong Kong and Taiwan creators complain all day about how the mainland market is?
However, the largest buyer of Hong Kong and Taiwan entertainment products is the mainland market, and the upper limit of creator development is also the mainland. Overseas markets Japan, South Korea, Southeast Asia, Europe and the United States have long become yesterday's yellow flowers. Even in the top ten of the annual box office list of the local market of Hong Kong and Taiwan, there are few local films.
For example, Hong Kong movies on last year's "Tomorrow's War", this year's "Poisonous Tongue" both broke records (the latter is likely to break 100 million to squeeze into the top ten), the last record was 66.82 million Hong Kong dollars for "Cold War 2" released in 2016, and the box office champion was 221 million Hong Kong dollars for "Avengers 4".
This Taiwanese market is the same, the list is full of foreign films.
In other words, Hong Kong and Taiwan audiences themselves do not like to watch local movies, why do you blame mainland audiences for not watching them. Some people say that they all come to the mainland market to make films, and local audiences don't like to watch them - isn't this going around the circle!