In 2015, on December 31, "Detective Chinatown" was released in the New Year file, with a box office of 823 million.
In 2018, on February 16, "Detective Chinatown 2" was released during the Spring Festival, with a box office of 3.398 billion.
In 2021, on February 12, "Detective Chinatown 3" was released in this year's Spring Festival file.
The box office broke 1 billion on the opening day, 3 billion in 4 days, and 4 billion in 10 days, breaking 18 consecutive records in film history and driving more than 80 million viewers into the theater.
Looking at this set of data alone, Chen Sicheng's "Tang Detective" series is undoubtedly the most profitable film project in China in the past 10 years.
In business, the "Tang Detective" series is successful, leaving aside all this, in the history of Chinese film, how can we objectively and truly define its value and status?
Pigo will answer this question in three parts.
01、
The values in the Tang Detective series have changed 3 times
As early as the filming of the first "Tang Detective" in 2015, Chen Sicheng already knew that in order for Chinese audiences to be able to laugh and be thrilled in suspense, it was necessary to use ups and downs to superimpose the plot of laughter.
The sense of contrast is the first key to the success of the "Tang Detective" that Chen Sicheng touched.
Starring Wang Baoqiang and Liu Haoran, is the original source of this sense of contrast -
With a mouthful of yellow teeth and dark skin, the city servant uncle, wearing a fresh white shirt and a sunny and handsome face, stuttered fresh meat, and became the most contrasting detective combination: Tang Ren and Qin Feng.
Chen Sicheng put Qin Feng in charge of the meticulous and serious reasoning plot, while Tang Ren interjected during the period, often accidentally hitting the middle way to break the mystery. Thus, the earliest comedy + reasoning style genre in the "Tang Detective" series was born.
In order to make the series have more memory points, such as Qin Fan Tang Renba, classic old songs with playful pictures; cos scenes of men dressed as women, and reasoning processes composed of cool transitions, there is no uneasiness inserted into every "Tang Detective" film since then.
However, the three "Tang Detective" films in the entire series are not static, but constantly rise in vision and gradually mature in genre.
The first case in Bangkok, Thailand, with Tang Ren and Qin Feng as the main body of the detective, through a secret room murder case, and finally traced back to the inner darkness of the little girl Si Nuo. That is, the so-called light and darkness of human nature are in the blink of an eye.
The second part is in the metropolis of New York, let Tang Ren, Qin Feng and Song Yi form a trio of detectives, and use the murder of the Five Elements Altar to tell the horror of the gaze of the evil abyss. The sentence at the end of the film, "Qin Feng, are you a man or a beast", is still unforgettable.
However, in the end, the first two parts only explore the complex human nature at the individual level, while the third part rises from the individual to the home country, from the present back to history.
Ostensibly, "Tang Detective 3" is about a team of four detectives investigating the murder of Katsu Watanabe in Tokyo. However, in the climax of this film, Chen Sicheng borrowed the mouth of Kobayashi Asuna to tell the historical legacy of the Japanese invasion of China in that year, the life and death of the "pioneer group" group.
The so-called "pioneer group" was that in order to colonize the northeast region, the Japanese invaders migrated a large number of families from within the country to the region, so as to exploit the peasants in the northeast and encroach on their land and property in order to achieve a "great blood exchange" in the human race.
But after Japan's defeat, these pioneers either committed suicide or suffered discrimination after returning to Japan and could not survive.
The situation of their descendants is even more tragic, in the film Yukazu Miura played by Katsuru Watanabe was abandoned in tohoku after his parents returned to Japan, and later returned to Japan with his wife and daughter, but he was forced to get involved in a family marriage, and the tragedy of his abandoned wife and daughter was also born, and the heart of the young daughter Kobayashi Kobayashi Shinna was even more seeded with hatred.
From the change of evil at the personal level to the tragedy of revenge caused by the history of war, Chen Sicheng has made the big IP of "Tang Detective" get a more sinking emotional accumulation.
As some netizens said, at the end of the film, the elderly Watanabe Katsu kneels on the judgment bench, which is only a guilt for his daughter Kobayashi, but also a deep apology for the history of the invasion of China.
Looking at the changes in the values of the Tang Detective trilogy, it is not difficult to find that the "Tang Detective" series is becoming a carrier for filmmakers to send their Chinese voice to the world. It is growing into Chinese own film brand.
02、
Three movies + a web drama, "Tang Detective" this game of chess has just begun
As we all know, in the past decade, the international film industry has grabbed the limelight, undoubtedly those very large-scale blockbuster film IP, such as "Fast and Furious", "Transformers", "Marvel" series, etc., these IP can not only be able to control many parts of the film with ease, but also can achieve the gradual progression of the pattern and storyline, and finally form a neat and orderly grand network.
The "Tang Detective" series is forming a film universe with a unique Chinese style. This "Tang Detective 3" is the origin of the universe.
Fans who have watched this film know that in addition to the protagonists Tang Ren and Qin Feng, Japanese detective Noda Hao and Thai detective Jack Jia all occupy a position that cannot be underestimated in the film.
Noda Hao's golden and seductive personality, Jack Jia's rude and reckless, and extremely high martial arts image all make this film add a lot of color in the process of solving puzzles.
The reason why Chen Sicheng arranged these two roles is not a "human head tactic", the more the better, but to use these detectives with different styles and different images to play a big game, laying the foundation for the subsequent potential "Tang Detective" IP extension.
In addition to these four protagonists, Si Nuo, played by Zhang Zifeng in the first part, Kiko in the second part, and Lin Mo in the web drama "Detective Chinatown", all appeared. Their appearance not only has a wonderful chemical reaction with the plot, but also in the form of an Easter egg, which makes people very happy.
Not only that, since the second part, the identity of Q, the big guy behind the scenes who has always touched people's hearts, has also received unexpected answers in the film, and even competed head-on with Qin Feng.
Whether it is the detective group that appears in a positive image or the Q that is shrouded in negative colors, it is vividly displayed in "Tang Detective 3". It is also based on this that Chen Sicheng finally built the Tang Detective Film Universe in five years with the volume of three movies and one web drama.
03、
The future direction of the Tang Detective series
The cooperation between domestic films and foreign filmmakers has actually existed for a long time.
And Tony Jia and Asano Tadanobu in "Tang Detective 3" are old friends of our Chinese film and television circles, often appearing in Chinese films.
In fact, since the first part of the "Tang Detective" series, it has continuously deepened its cooperation with foreign filmmakers and film companies.
In the first part, the audience was impressed by the cooperation with some local Thai actors, especially the police chief who appeared on the electric scooter. At the climax of the film, Tang Ren and Qin Feng ride three bungees in the bustling streets of Thailand, reflecting their efforts to accommodate foreign cultures at the production level.
In the second part, the number of actors from all over the world, the expansion of outdoor scenes, and the ridicule and entry into American culture, in addition to making us feel the speed of crazy burning of funds, more importantly, it is like the words tang Ren said when riding a carriage on the streets of New York: This is called a blockbuster!
Waiting for the third part of this time, Chen Sicheng intends to integrate Japanese elements into the film more deeply.
Masami Nagasawa, Tadanobu Asano, Tomokazu Miura, Honami Suzuki, and Shota Someya, covering the japanese luxury lineup of all ages, all made their debuts.
In addition, the Akihabara cos parade section, the crowds of people in shibuya streets, as well as Japanese yuba culture, sumo wrestling, swordsmanship, two-dimensional and other elements are all displayed in the film.
On the one hand, this is due to Chen Sicheng's ability to schedule large scenes and control the balance of genre styles; on the other hand, it also reflects the resource integration ability of the production team behind the film, which is invaluable for the current Chinese film industry.
Director Chen Sicheng once mentioned the huge gap between the Chinese film and television industry and the hundreds of billions of dollars in market value of Hollywood Disney. We should see where the gap is, and why can the film industry be one of the seven pillar industries in the United States?
From Chen Sicheng as the supervising producer of "Manslaughter", in order to create a box office dark horse, to the "Tang Detective" web drama being polished and produced by high standards, to the development and innovation of the "Tang Detective" series peripheral and related derivative cultural industries, we have seen the rapid rise of this Chinese original big IP, and the future can be expected.
Therefore, "Tang Detective 3" seems to be just a box office success under the National Carnival of the Spring Festival, in fact, the entire Tang Detective Film Universe built from it will bring us greater surprises and joy in the next five or even ten years.
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