At the end of April, "About the Ghost and I Became Family" was released in Hong Kong.
As expected, "About Me and the Ghost Becoming Family" (hereinafter referred to as "Me and the Ghost") exceeded one million Hong Kong dollars in the first week, ranking second in the single-film box office list, continuing the good performance of Taiwanese films since "Moon Old"; Coupled with the launch of the 4K version of "City of Sorrow", two Taiwanese films, new and old, are competing for Hong Kong theaters at the same time, which not only allows the audience to get a glimpse of the style of works of different generations, but also contributes to the rapid recovery of the local film market.
The premiere was well received, and Taiwan's box office set a new record
According to the statistics of Hong Kong Box Office Co., Ltd., "Me and Ghosts" was officially released on April 27, with a total of HK$3.59 million in the first four days of the first week; If the revenue from the previous small-scale screening is added, the cumulative figure of "Me and the Ghost" reaches HK$4.54 million. In the weekly rankings, "Me and the Ghost" was second only to "Super Mario Bros. Movie", which appeared in the past month, and beat the two popular Hong Kong films "Murder" and "Forty-Four When the Body Dies".
This achievement also continues the box office performance of Taiwanese films in Hong Kong in recent years: in December 2021, "Moon Lao" starring Ke Zhendong, Wang Jing and Song Yunhua was released, and it received a total of nearly 2.88 million Hong Kong dollars in the first three days of the first weekend, ranking third in the "Christmas file" single film, second only to "Spider-Man: Homeless" and "The Matrix 4"; As of December 27, "Old Moon" has accumulated more than HK$4.99 million in the first five days, far exceeding another new film "Spencer" that appeared at the same time. This time, "Me and the Ghost" will continue to open a red plate, which is expected to attack the goal of 10 million Hong Kong dollars.
"Me and the Ghost" is directed and co-written by Cheng Weihao, telling the story of the straight male policeman Wu Minghan (played by Xu Guanghan) who mistakenly picked up red envelopes on the ground, and accidentally linked the red line with the ghost husband Mao Mao (played by Lin Baihong)! Minghan, who has been declining all the way to the end, is forced to marry a man and a man, but he is still unable to help Mao Mao reincarnate and reincarnate, and almost screws up the anti-drug case that police officer Lin Ziqing (played by Wang Jing) has been burying threads for a long time; In order to save the crisis, the homophobic and ghost-fearing Ming Han has no choice, even if the people and ghosts have different paths, they must join hands with Mao Mao to pursue the murderer across the border, and embark on an absurd, laughing and tearful journey.
In terms of word of mouth, "Me and the Ghost" has an average score of 8.0 on the ticketing website WMOOV, which is exactly the same as the 4 stars (out of 5) on HKMovie6. At the screening site, the audience's response to "Me and the Ghost" was quite enthusiastic, and cheers broke out during the viewing process many times.
Prior to this, "Me and the Ghost" swept Taiwan's theaters on February 10, earning NT$12.43 million in Taipei in the first weekend, and NT$46.11 million in Taiwan, replacing the four-time champion "Slam Dunk" to top the list; By March 11, "Me and the Ghost" had exceeded the 300 million mark, squeezing out "The Chief Shopkeeper" (NT$305 million) 10 years ago, breaking into the top ten in the history of local films. In April, "Me and the Ghost" has successively overtaken "Saidek Balai (below): Rainbow Bridge" and "Formation", and the total box office has risen to NT$362 million by the end of the month, and is expected to continue to catch up with "When Men Are in Love" (NT$405 million) the previous year.
This also greatly refreshed director Cheng Weihao's personal record: in 2015, the feature film debut "Little Girl in Red" used thriller elements as the entry point, setting a new record for horror films in Taiwan in the past 10 years with NT$85 million; Two years later, Cheng Weihao successively launched "Witness" and "Little Girl in Red 2", with the box office exceeding NT$50 million and NT$100 million respectively. After landing in theaters in Taiwan and Hong Kong, "Me and Ghosts" will gradually enter Cambodia, Vietnam and Singapore and other markets to further expand the scope of screening in Asia.
It is worth mentioning that "City of Sorrow" directed by Hou Xiaoxian also launched a 4K digital version, which was returned to the Hong Kong big screen by Gao Xian Film Trading, covering well-known theaters such as Broadway, Emperor and MCL, ranking among the top ten daily screenings. In fact, "City of Sorrow" was first re-screened in Taiwan in February, with Taipei closing at NT$1.75 million in the first weekend, and NT$3.5 million in Taiwan, ranking sixth in the box office list that week; By the end of April, "City of Sorrow" had accumulated more than NT$16.36 million.
New and old movies compete on the same stage, helping the theater line to accelerate the recovery
From the classic re-screening of "City of Sorrow" to the popular "Me and the Ghost" in the first week, Taiwanese films show the different faces of creators of different generations.
As the first winner of the Chinese Venice Golden Lion Award, "City of Sorrow" is famous in film history for its first presentation of the "228" incident on the big screen, and is regarded as a landmark work of Taiwan's "New Wave" films. However, from 1989 to 2023, with the changes in the social environment and the advancement of historical research, the evaluation system for "City of Sorrow" is gradually broadening and deepening, and rare negative voices were heard during the re-screening of Taiwan earlier; Under the new conditions of time and space, classic films represented by "City of Sorrow" are facing more angles of scrutiny, providing a reference model for the evolution of values at the film and television level.
In contrast, "Me and the Ghost" picks up many of the most popular hot issues at the moment, blends comedy, suspense, fantasy and same-sex genre elements, and has become the Taiwanese box office champion that triggered a movie-watching boom this year, based on the background of the era of sexual equality. Before "Me and Ghosts", in recent years, many Taiwanese films have boldly tried various themes and received positive feedback from audiences and media in the market, while "Me and Ghosts" has further developed the genre mix and match; This kind of new film, which is very different from "City of Sorrow", has gradually risen to become the backbone of Taiwan's big screen.
Although the target audience is not exactly the same, "Me and the Ghost" and "City of Sorrow" have both contributed to the recovery of the film market: when "Me and the Ghost" opened, Taipei's weekend box office soared to NT$26.32 million, more than 102% higher than the same period last year; Two weeks later, "City of Sorrow" was re-screened, helping Taipei's weekend box office reach NT$30.8 million, which is also better than the 2022 "Spell Return 0 Theatrical Version" leading the week. As of the end of April, the cumulative output of all cinemas in Taiwan in 2023 reached NT$2.763 billion, about 76% more than NT$1.566 billion in the same period last year, taking a solid step towards returning to normal market conditions.
Coincidentally, the entry of "Me and the Ghost" and "City of Sorrow" into Hong Kong coincided with the accelerated recovery of the local film market. At this time last year, after a full 104-day shutdown, the Hong Kong cinema line did not resume operations until April 21; However, due to factors such as attendance restrictions, the box sales in the first half of 2022 were only HK$358 million, down about 65.78% from the same period in 2019. After a number of new films joined the competition, Hong Kong cinemas gradually recovered from the summer season, and recovered to HK$786 million in the second half of 2022, which is equivalent to nearly 90% of the same period in 2019. With the lifting of social distancing measures and mask orders, the Hong Kong box office has maintained an upward curve this year.
Similar to Taiwan, the recovery of the Hong Kong market is also inseparable from the repeated successes of local films: in the middle of last year, "Tomorrow's War" and "Attack on the Heart", released two weeks apart, sold well at the same time, reaching a cumulative total of 81.82 million and 77.34 million Hong Kong dollars respectively, both surpassing "Chill 2" to set a new record high for Hong Kong films; At the beginning of this year, "Poisonous Tongue" not only continued to break through the 100 million yuan mark in one fell swoop, but also entered the top ten single-film box office in Hong Kong over the years, approaching the Hollywood giant "Top Gun: The Lone Ranger".
After appearing at the Hong Kong International Film Festival, "Me and the Ghost" and "City of Sorrow" are competing for Hong Kong cinemas at the same time, contributing to the rapid recovery of the Hong Kong film market in the past year.