As of 22:33 on February 27, "Chinese Table Tennis Jedi Strikes Back" (hereinafter referred to as "Chinese Table Tennis"), which has been released for 11 days, has not yet jumped the 100 million mark at the box office.
Not only is the arrangement far inferior to "The Wandering Earth 2", "Deep Sea" and "Nameless", but even the word-of-mouth Waterloo's "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantum Frenzia" has not been played.
This is the current status quo of "Chinese Table Tennis", after missing the fiercely competitive Spring Festival file, it did not usher in a counterattack, but faced a "Jedi".
【I】
Why did "Chinese Table Tennis" fail so much at the box office?
There are two reasons for this.
1. The influence of past works
As early as before its release, "Chinese Table Tennis" had many controversies.
Many of this controversy is because of the fourth cooperation between Deng Chao and Yu Baimei.
"Breakup Master" with a score of 5.1;
"Villain Angel" with a score of 4.4;
6.2 points of "Galaxy Cram School".
In particular, the "sequelae" of the first two films are too strong, resulting in many audiences having difficulty changing their inherent impressions of Deng Chao and Yu Baimei.
In order to change the outside world's opinion, the film party decided to screen it in advance, and the reputation was unexpectedly good, and even many praise were completely opposite to the predictions before the release,
"It is indeed the best of Yu Baimei Deng Chaoli";
"I feel very comfortable after reading it";
"The completion within the framework of sports genre films is not bad, which can be regarded as the progress of the two directors."
Wu Jing, who participated in the film, said bluntly,
"This is the best sports movie in China."
But no matter how the audience who has seen it praises and creates momentum for "Chinese Table Tennis", passers-by will question it,
Is the "persuasion combination" of Deng Chao and Yu Baimei really worth a fare?
Word of mouth ushered in a certain "counterattack", but it was not satisfactory at the level of commercial performance.
2. It has been changed and released many times
In addition to the influence of word-of-mouth in the past, the publicity also disrupted the rhythm.
"Chinese Table Tennis" originally pointed to the first day of the Lunar New Year (January 21), vowing to compete with movies such as "The Wandering Earth 2", "Nameless" and "Deep Sea", but due to various reasons, it needed to change its lines and title, and had to be postponed to the third day of the Lunar New Year (January 24).
On January 25, the film suddenly announced that it would be changed to a small-scale screening from January 26, and postponed to a large-scale release on February 17.
The third time it was finalized, which not only wasted publicity, but also distracted the audience's enthusiasm.
The battlefield pays attention to "one blow, then decline, three exhaustion", and the same is true of the box office battle.
【II】
Box office failure has become an established fact.
But "Chinese Table Tennis" is definitely worth a ticket price.
Douban 7.1 points is a proof.
Knowing some of the stories behind the scenes, it is not difficult to find that this film is well filmed for a reason.
1. See the real chapter in the subtleties
In order to film the "national IP" of table tennis, Deng Chao and Yu Baimei spent five years collecting styles, interviewing industry insiders, sorting out 7.8 million words of material, watching various documentaries and competition videos, and revising scripts many times.
More than 8,000 domestic group performers and 2,200 foreign group performers participated in the filming. Such a number of extras has broken the record of sports-themed movies.
The main creative team carefully restored many details:
At the entrance of the State General Administration of Sports, the same bus No. 41 is exactly the same as that year.
After the 95-year men's team championship and runner-up match in the film, Ma Wenge, Liu Guoliang and others pounced on Wang Tao in the same order as that year.
In order to restore the national table tennis competition in the 90s as much as possible, the crew made nearly a thousand sets of clothing. Among them, there are 699 sets of Chinese and foreign team uniforms, and 1119 sets of costumes of leading actors, special actors and extras.
In addition, Cai Zhenhua (the prototype of Dai Minjia, played by Deng Chao) and his wife also provided real items such as watches, shirts, and game tactical books for the film.
2. Iteration of shooting techniques
Table tennis is small and very fast.
As a sports-themed movie, the shooting of high-speed action is both the focus and the difficulty.
How do you shoot a ball?
For this, they invented some equipment for shooting.
The camera is mounted on the air pump so that the speed of the machine ejection can keep up with the speed of the ball, but this shooting method relies on manual manual capture.
"Basically, some of our most important balls can take a day to get a shot. There is also a 360-degree display shot in the movie, and we made a huge shelf in front of the ping-pong table, making it rotate around the table 360 degrees with the camera. ”
3. Group portrait actors pay
In order to reflect professionalism, the crew invited former world champion Ma Wenge to serve as the film's table tennis technical director, and invited 18 table tennis coaches to specially train the actors' action techniques, and the training time was up to 8 months.
I also found many table tennis experts and designed 98 balls together, all of which have appeared in history. Each actor divided his own ball and went to practice separately.
The entire crew, as far as the eye can see, there will be ping-pong.
Everyone consciously rolled in, practiced their skills hard, and at three o'clock in the morning, there were still people who grabbed the table.
In addition to doing a good job of technical checks, the crew is also rigorous enough in the part where the actors fit the prototype characters.
Xu Weizhou completely subverted the image of "jade-faced little student", with dark skin and capable hairstyle. Ma Wenge could see at a glance that it was him who was playing.
Duan Bowen worked hard to gain nearly 30 pounds in order to get close to the body of the prototype Wang Tao.
In order to play the lean and capable Ding Feng, Cai Yida lost more than ten pounds.
And Deng Chao, who is both a director and a starring actor, has also experienced several months of hard ping-pong training.
In order to be able to integrate more into the role of "Dai Minjia", Deng Chao had to give up the habit of using his right hand and used his left hand for a long time.
Left hand grip.
Left hand picking.
Left hand smash.
There is no other way than to practice with your lives.
Big back, gold watch, gold necklace, handsome tweed coat.
Deng Chao used the appearance of temperament, the state on the field, and the extra points in performance to make up for many differences in appearance.
【III】
In the opinion of the pickpocket sister, "Chinese Table Tennis" really should not be missed.
Even, we need this movie greatly.
How good it is and why it is good, and listen to the pickpocket sister in detail.
The men's table tennis dream team has always been a constant victory in the eyes of the Chinese people, and the most associated word is either "champion" or "winning". But Deng Chao and Yu Baimei really told us:
Chinese men's table tennis is not all smooth sailing, they also have a dark history.
In 1988, at the Seoul Olympics, the men's singles did not qualify for the top 4.
In 1989, the Dortmund World Table Tennis Championships, the men's 4 events were all destroyed.
In 1991, at the Chiba World Table Tennis Championships, the Chinese men's team fell to a record low and ranked 7th.
How hard was it then?
Swedish men's table tennis sprang up in the 80s of last century, firmly occupying the dominant position in the table tennis world, and won three consecutive World Table Tennis Championships men's team championships, and Chinese men's table tennis is difficult to parry.
Cai Zhenhua, then the head coach of the Chinese men's team, recalled that history and mentioned,
"It is said in the world that if the Chinese men's team wants to get back on its feet, it will take at least ten years."
The media at that time was even more hyped,
"The era of Chinese is completely over."
Because of the targeting of foreign referees and the toughness of the opponent, how many head coaches were forced to resign under pressure, and Chinese table tennis once fell into a trough.
This is a dark past that has been almost forgotten by us in the 21st century, a person who has been overwhelmed by the flowers of table tennis champions.
In the face of this difficult situation, the coaching team headed by Cai Zhenhua was determined to form a new army, and in this context, the "National Table Tennis Five Tigers" (Ding Song, Ma Wenge, Liu Guoliang, Kong Linghui, Wang Tao) came into being.
But at the moment, it was an unpromising team.
First, its own conditions
Huang Zhao (prototype: Wang Tao) is old, and his reaction speed and physical fitness are relatively poor;
Gong Feng (prototype: Ding Song) has high myopia, 1000 degrees in the left eye and 1200 degrees in the right eye;
Bai Hemin (prototype: Ma Wenge) has a back injury and shoulder injury, and even needs to play closed to play in severe cases;
Hou Zhuoxiang (prototype: Liu Guoliang) and Dong Shuai (prototype: Kong Linghui) are young and have no World Series experience;
They are "wounded, blind, small, old."
Second, the external environment
Insufficient funds for training, restrictions on international referee rules, glue to make rackets withheld, uneven players...
How do they do it?
In order to equip the team members with advanced training equipment, Dai Minjia took the team members to accompany the boss to drink, play table tennis with pots, flip heels on the spot, and buy equipment when they pull sponsorship.
If there is no glue for making rackets, then research it yourself and produce glue that Chinese your own.
If the strength is not enough, take the effort to make up. Crazy training, internal secret training, sending foreign clubs to train.
"If others practice a thousand times, we will practice ten thousand times."
The sweat and tears of those training were scattered on the degummed and peeling rackets, on worn sneakers, on the endless climbing of the Great Wall stairs, on the endless playground...
It is by relying on this spirit of never giving up that they have created the pinnacle of national table tennis as kings.
Sister Pickpocket feels that "Chinese Table Tennis" did not become a hit, which is a pity.
Especially seeing that many people on the Internet say, does Chinese table tennis still need to fight back? It's not bad if you don't abuse others bloodily, Chinese table tennis has always been the first three packs, and it's a shame to let other countries win the third place. Taking Chinese table tennis as a matter is better than filming Chinese football.
These problems further prove the existence value of "Chinese Table Tennis". I am very glad that China has such a sports movie, and we need a film like "Chinese Table Tennis" to wake up the public.
Those subconscious who previously thought that China's table tennis would always be the first in the world and win for granted was how wrong it was.
Chinese table tennis wins every year, and everyone else, especially the younger generation, has been rendered by the surrounding environment to take table tennis championships for granted.
Even if Chinese football enters the playoffs, it can be celebrated by the whole country, but Chinese table tennis won the Olympic Games, the World Table Tennis Championships, and even couldn't make a headline, as if Ma Long, Fan Zhendong, Zhang Jike, Liu Shiwen, Ding Ning, Chen Meng and other Chinese table tennis team members do not need training, do not need to work hard, born can backhand smash the ball, explode each other.
Win, no praise, that's as it should be.
If you lose, you will be angry, how can you lose? How dare you lose? How are you embarrassed to lose?
When many people see the title of "Chinese Table Tennis Jedi Strikes Back", they want to scold: Deng Chaoyu Baimei, you two are insulting Chinese table tennis and joking with the national ball.
But the truth is, we have lost, and we have lost miserably.
Rather than portraying success, "Chinese Table Tennis" takes more space to lay out the failure of Chinese men's table tennis and discuss how to face failure.
After all kinds of efforts, the first collective outing, Dai Minjia's phrase "win back the Svethling Cup in two years" did not come true.
It clearly tells us that there is no success, and it is a matter of course.
Sun Yingsha said, "Winning is never easy."
Liu Guoliang said that the "just to win the championship, this is too stingy".
The results of Chinese table tennis are obvious to all, but not every victory is easy, don't skimp on applauding every game.
Sister Pickpocket confessed that she was biased against Deng Chao and Yu Baimei's movies before, but this time "Chinese Table Tennis" was shot too well and changed my prejudice against him.
Many sports movies always talk about how we should win this game, but no movie tells how to face ourselves after defeat like "Chinese Table Tennis".
We really lack sports movies like "Chinese Table Tennis".
【IV】
Very seriously, the film "Chinese Table Tennis" is suitable for audiences of every age.
The generation of parents can relive the youth and beauty of national ping.
The younger generation can gain the courage and strength to get back on their feet.
Children can feel the spiritual core of the strong and strong.
See yourself, see heaven and earth, see all beings.