The first film broke 100 million, "Poisonous Tongue Lawyer" broke the record: Hong Kong films embarked on the road of "rejuvenation"?

Author| clearly

Edit| Yuan Jiaqi

Hong Kong cinema ushered in its own "historical moment", which was brought about by a legal film that did not cost a lot of money.

Since the opening of Hong Kong, "Poisonous Tongue Lawyer" produced by Anle Film and Alibaba Pictures has set a number of box office records in Hong Kong film history: the fault line leads the Hong Kong Spring Festival file and won the box office championship for three consecutive weeks. surpassing Stephen Chow's "Mermaid", it took less than 20 days to replace last year's Hong Kong film "Tomorrow's War", becoming the first Chinese-language film in Hong Kong to exceed 100 million at the box office.

According to reports, the top 10 films released in Hong Kong in the past exceeded 100 million at the box office, and all were covered by Hollywood blockbusters. Including the box office champion "Avengers 4" (box office more than 221 million Hong Kong dollars), box office runner-up "Avatar" (box office more than 186 million Hong Kong dollars), the third to the 10th places are "Avengers 3", "Avatar 2", "Avengers 2", "Titanic", "Spider-Man: Homeless", "Captain America 3", "Top Gun 2" and "Iron Man 3". The list is dominated by Marvel and Cameron, which has a great overlap with the TOP15 box office in global film history. Since last year, local Hong Kong films have ushered in a new outbreak. "Poison Tongue Lawyer" is an important milestone.

In the mainland market, the film, which was just released last Friday, also relies on its own high-quality word-of-mouth reputation to burst out long-term potential, the current Douban and Maotao scores are as high as 7.7, 9.2 points, 9.5 points, its expected box office landing point from about 120 million, raised to the current 180 million +, after that may further rise, become a small dark horse may be. What enlightenment does it bring to small and medium-cost commercial films?

Exceeded 100 million for the first time: Hong Kong films are revived

The argument that "Hong Kong films are dead" has been shouted for years and years, but in recent years, from literary films, action adventures to comedy, there are still surprises from time to time.

Turn the clock back to the 80s and 90s, the golden age of Hong Kong films, with an annual output of more than 300 films and more than 20,000 film employees, and genre films have had a profound impact on the entire mainland, Japan and South Korea.

After 2003, with the implementation of CEPA (Closer Economic and Trade Agreement between the Mainland and Hong Kong) policy, pure Hong Kong films no longer occupy the quota of imported films, Mainland and Hong Kong co-productions enjoy preferential treatment, the number of mainland theaters and screens has exploded, and Hong Kong filmmakers have also ushered in a northern tide, they have helped the mainland film industry accelerate the transformation and upgrading of industrialization with their mature film and television production experience, and the main theme films have accelerated the typification, such as Tsui Hark's "Outsmart Tiger Mountain", "Changjin Lake & Watergate Bridge", "Operation Mekong" directed by Lin Chaoxian, Operation Red Sea", as well as the "Anti-Drug" and "Anti-Corruption Storm" series, etc.

The open market environment without a protection system means that Hong Kong films need to compete with Hollywood blockbusters. In 1992, the box office proportion of Hong Kong films accounted for 80%, and the following year, Hollywood special effects blockbusters represented by "Jurassic Park" began to be exported to the world. After 96 years, its box office accounted for less than 50%, and in 2009 and 2019, it was even as low as only ten percent, and it has gradually recovered in recent years.

After the era of "two weeks and one percent" has passed, on the one hand, the accelerated outbreak of the mainland market, on the other hand, Hong Kong's local market capacity is limited, coupled with rising costs, talent withering, green and yellow, and various complex factors have led to the decline of Hong Kong films. Turning his attention to the red carpet of the Hong Kong Film Awards in recent years, as well as the list of winners, as well as the genre films led by the filmmakers in the north, this "green and yellow" is more obvious, "old actors" such as Koo Tianle and Kwok Fucheng have repeatedly appeared, and the new generation has no successor.

In 2004, Stephen Chow's "Kung Fu" broke the local box office record in Hong Kong, and it was not until 2016 that "Cold War 2" surpassed "Kung Fu" with 66.82 million Hong Kong dollars and became the new box office champion, and since 2021, Hong Kong films have finally ushered in another wave of recovery peak, and "Anita Mui" won 62.09 million box office in Hong Kong. In 2022, "Tomorrow's War" won 81.822 million box office in Hong Kong, "Still Think You're the Best" won 77.68 million box office, "Superstar Cultivation" exceeded 40 million, "Justice Corridor" and "Family Spicy" also exceeded 30 million water level, and "Poisonous Tongue Lawyer" is undoubtedly a surprise after continuous accumulation of steady progress on this basis. After entering the "billion-level era", Hong Kong films ushered in a new revival.

From the above-mentioned Hong Kong film hits, dark horses, it is not difficult to find that feelings and local temperament are the key to their favor by Hong Kong fans, "Still Think You Are the Best" presents the story of eating men and women, dinner table stories, "Superstar Cultivation" tells about professional managers who come back to popular young singers, "Family Spicy" tells about a family starting a business to sell chili sauce during the epidemic, these Hong Kong films are mostly a combination of new directors + well-known actors or traffic, and three of them are funded by the Hong Kong Film Development Fund, ensuring the cost control and commercial prospects of the film.

The strong regional color of "Poisonous Tongue Lawyer", as well as the popularity and appeal of the starring Huang Zihua in the Cantonese-speaking area, determine that the Guangdong-Guangzhou region will be its most important box office, and the current Maoyan Professional Edition shows that Guangzhou is its largest box office city, which in turn determines its limited box office ceiling, which has previously been verified in a series of dialect films. The difference in the legal systems of the two places also determines that court dramas have a certain "cultural separation". In addition to Cantonese culture, how to find other universal commonalities has become the key to whether such local Hong Kong films can go further in the mainland.

The "light solution" of legal themes, the correct way to open small and medium-sized costs

"In the past, everyone said that everyone was equal before the law, but today, everyone has changed their words, saying that before the law, three, six, nine, etc."

The theme of law has always been a bonanza for film and television works, depending on the size of the incision and the depth of the idea, it can explore justice, human nature, the legal system, society, and retreat can depict the middle-class mid-life crisis. Looking at classic works, the United States has "Legally Blonde", "Coquettish Lawyer" and "The Good Wife", South Korea has "The Defender", "Juvenile Court" and "Very Lawyer Yu Yingyu", TVB has "Street of Rage", "No. 1 Royal Court", "Blind Barrister" and so on. Last year, China also ushered in a wave of legal fever, "War of the Roses", "Lady's Law", "The Algorithm of Justice", "Out-of-Court Overboard" and other legal dramas were broadcast, "Ordinary Road", "All the Way to the Sun", "Above the River" and "No One Witnessed" were waiting to be broadcast.

Under the coat of legal films, "Poisonous Tongue Lawyer" actually has certain flaws in logic and professionalism, but it is still a script, mature performance, and a highly completed movie, the lens language is more "unpretentious", in addition to cost considerations, there are also considerations of returning to the story position, the protagonist from waste judges, waste material lawyers to the character arc who upholds justice after awakening, taking the "small people counterattack" route that TVB is good at, and the theme of fighting against powerful families to protect civilians and overturning cases for wrongful convictions also hits the emotional point, Therefore, there are also comments that it is a "cool film" - such a content configuration effectively lowers the threshold for the public to watch movies.

As the climax of the whole film's court debate drama, the question of "whether the law equally protects the poor and the rich" is directly and sharply thrown, realizing the literary drama and martial filming, but also amplifying the audience's emotional resonance, from the global explosion of "Squid Game" and "Parasite", "class antagonism" and "wealth difference" are undoubtedly the topics that can hit the universal emotional resonance the most.

The talented Huang Zihua is undoubtedly the soul of the two films "Still Think You Are the Best" and "Poisonous Tongue Lawyer" and the main force at the box office. He starred in "Agent Dong Du" and "Grandmaster of the Dynasty", which were released in the Spring Festival in 2018 and 2020 respectively, and were the box office champions of Hong Kong films of the year that year. He is also the ancestor of the Hong Kong stand-upcomedy.

He said in an interview: "In fact, all comedies, I do them as dramas. Whether it is Mo Zuodong of "Dong Du Detective" or Yu Lotian of "Male and Female Love", there is no type difference in my heart, because every time, I start from the role itself to act. ...... It's just that no one came to me to act in a drama before. ”

And the success of "Poison Tongue Lawyer" has undoubtedly brought corresponding enlightenment to small and medium-cost films: not only sci-fi blockbusters such as "Tomorrow's War" can win the audience, whether it is a single scene of "Still Think You Are the Best" is a single scene of dinner table dialogue, a series of sitcoms, or a limited scene like "Poisonous Tongue Lawyer", relying on emotional value rather than big scenes to impress the audience, small and medium-cost films are actually more likely to achieve a high return on investment effect with small broad, four or two pounds.

Director and screenwriter Wu Weilun is the screenwriter of many successful commercial films such as "Cold War 2", "Informant", "Guild War", "Kill the Wolf" and so on, using genre films to complete the script of this legal film, while adding some Hong Kong-style humor as a spice, this film is his directorial debut, proving the importance of returning to the basic position of story and content value.

Looking at the mainland box office rankings, big special effects and big scenes seem to have become the standard for head films, and this high-cost gameplay undoubtedly means that it is difficult to return to the cost and high risk. "Tomorrow's War" was also difficult to return last year, relying on Gu Tianle's miserable marketing to fill some gaps, but it also encountered backlash. In fact, a mature market should be rich and diverse, both the head blockbuster and the "small film" with the exquisite script and small incision to win, in order to attract more audiences with diversified tastes.

In the era of short videos, movies are still looking for new breakthrough possibilities. Human hunger for stories will always exist, and for the mainland film market, the way "Poison Tongue Lawyer" tells stories is undoubtedly refreshing.