Invest 3 billion for 10 years? From "Fengsheng", I saw the "ambition" of Chinese films

Text | Ling Hu Boguang

"Fengshen " premiered on the 10th, with a very good reputation, and now it opens on the 15th and 16th. The current selling point of the "Fengsheng" series is the same, probably in two aspects.

The first is the Chinese costume mythological blockbuster represented by "Feng Shen", and the theme of costume magic blockbuster. In the 10 years before "Wolf Warrior 2" and "The Wandering Earth", the Chinese film market was the world of costume magic blockbusters, but the quality and word of mouth were not mentioned.

The second is that the costume mythological blockbuster represented by "Feng Shen" is bound by the top film and television industry, which is the so-called special effects. I believe many netizens will say, if you don't say that the special effects are okay, I am angry when I say special effects. The previous costume magic blockbuster not only had a sparse story plot, but also the special effects were not good, and the aesthetics were even more invincible.

Therefore, now "Feng Shen" and the previous costume magic blockbuster can be said to completely coincide, the audience has suffered from the poison of domestic costume magic bad films for too long, and there are many doubts about this movie can be understood, I even saw many netizens say: Now the special effects blockbuster is not good, and the story plot is the most important.

But I want to say, why can't "Fengshen " promote mythological blockbusters? And can't promote special effects?

The special effects are sparse, and the aesthetic is not in the ocean? How Chinese mythological blockbusters were filmed badly

This problem is completely linked to the "traffic economy", and the participation of the Hong Kong and Taiwan film circles is relatively high. After 2010, there are no more films in Hong Kong, and the older generation of directors such as Wong Kar-wai, Hui Anhua, etc. have almost no works, while John Woo, Liu Zhenwei, Wong Baiming and other creative levels have declined very obviously, one is not as good as one.

Wang Jing is just an entertainment blockbuster director and can't play at any advanced level, but Hong Kong filmmakers still have to eat.

Before 2010, they could also make action movies, comedy films, gambling movies and martial arts films. After 2010, these themes were also filmed badly, from Tsui Hark's "Di Renjie", Stephen Chow's "Journey to the West", and Zheng Baorui's "Journey to the West: The Great Trouble in the Heavenly Palace" to achieve success.

As a result, the trend of Hong Kong directors shooting costume magic blockbusters began. Of course, mainland directors have also filmed, but the number is far lower than that of Hong Kong filmmakers, Zhang Yimou's "The Great Wall", "Turandot", "Asura" and Guo Jingming's "Jue Ji".

Hong Kong filmmakers have not only lost the advantages of their original films, but have not yet been able to obtain profound cultural and living nutrition from the mainland, let alone the mainland's grand themes and ideological consciousness. At the same time, it is strange that Hong Kong directors who have previously filmed traditional aesthetics such as "Qiannu Ghost", "Green Snake", "Journey to the West" and "Fengyun".

After 2010, in the costume magic blockbusters they shot, they all lost the traditional cultural aesthetics.

I once thought about why, and after thinking about the reason for their attitude of coming to the mainland just to make money, it was probably that they did not have a systematic aesthetic of traditional Chinese culture education (directors such as Tsui Hark inherited the aesthetics of directors in the past two generations of the Republic of China), and at the same time, they still have not really entered the industrial age technically.

The former Hong Kong was called the Hollywood of the East, when did the decline begin?

In 1993, "Jurassic Park 1" occupied the first place at the box office for the first time, when Hong Kong was full of talents, double week, 93 before the local box office first did not have Western films, since 93 Hong Kong films have gone downhill, Hong Kong is only a small microcosm of the world.

Hollywood blockbusters have ruled the world since then, and they are the first box office in all countries in the world to occupy Hollywood all year round, relying on stories? Is it an actor? Is it based on American values? Of course, these are also very important, but relying on digital special effects that stimulate the senses, the film is a form of cultural entertainment to the extreme.

The mainland gives Hollywood two as punctuation, one is 1994 "Titanic", the other is 2010 "Avatar 1", these two films have occupied the first place in the Chinese box office list for several years, almost unmovable mountains, are these two stories good? Is it novel? Are actors good at acting?

Of course, it certainly is, but it mainly relies on special effects and intuitive imagination.

Are there no good movies in China here? Don't you have good actors? How does it compare to Hollywood blockbusters?

The audience went to Hollywood blockbusters, and the money was earned for Hollywood. At the beginning, Hollywood relied on this film and television industry, and the starting point of Hollywood's take-off was inseparable from industrial light and magic, and it was a complete film industry system, which we must learn.

Guo Fan is independent, Wuershan seeks foreign aid? The road to the film and television industry of "Feng Shen", is it wrong

Hong Kong directors lost to Hollywood blockbusters, and mainland directors are better off, after all, backed by the world's fastest-growing and largest mainland market. Otherwise, how could Zhang Yimou's "Heroes" open the era of Chinese commercial blockbusters.

But the problem is that Zhang Yimou and other mainland directors, like Hong Kong directors, really do not have a systematic understanding and construction ability for this film and television industry. The approach is basically the same as that of Hong Kong directors, looking for foreign special effects companies and then casually integrating the model.

And because of the era environment, if Hong Kong and Taiwan directors just don't understand, mainland directors are "yin and yang weird".

This situation did not begin to change comprehensively until young mainland directors began to grow up, and they really met all three major conditions. Aesthetically, he received systematic traditional Chinese cultural education, expressed the self-confidence of a great power that accompanied China's comprehensive rise, and had industrial cognition and the ability to build.

If you look at commercial special effects blockbusters alone, this team is also Guo Fan's director team (including "Assassination of a Novelist", "Walking on the Moon Alone" and "Ten Thousand Miles Home" participated in by the same team, and then to Wuershan team and the sixth-generation director Guan Hu team and a few others. Others like Xu Zheng, Chen Sicheng, Han Han, etc., these are not called commercial special effects blockbusters.

Guo Fan's "The Wandering Earth 1" and Wuershan's "Fengshen Trilogy" are films of the same period, but the two are different in the route of the film and television industry. At that time, there was no precedent for success in Chinese science fiction, and Guo Fan was a blockbuster newcomer; And Chinese costume blockbusters are still sold for money, and Wuershan also has the successful "Dragon Hunting" to support.

Therefore, Guo Fan has no money to choose to be independent, and Wuershan's "Feng Shen" chooses to ask for foreign aid.

This is also a point that many netizens criticize, that foreign special effects companies can not do Chinese aesthetics, this learning Hollywood is not a bad thing, the current world film is only Hollywood's business model is the most successful, in fact, from Wu Jing's "Wolf Warrior 2" box office success is precisely from this time that Chinese people began to learn the shooting mode of Hollywood blockbusters.

At the same time, everyone may not believe it, Wuershan's "Fengsheng" mode probably belongs to Tsui Hark in the new era, when Tsui Hark was filming "The Legend of the New Shushan Swordsman" invited industrial light and magic, and the special effects of "The Legend of Shushan" in 2001 were still industrial light and magic.

It is the core level of Hong Kong filmmakers responsible for directing, art, serving the Tao, music, and scripts. And the special effects level please Hollywood.

In the final analysis, that is, Hong Kong filmmakers can't do anything in the film and television industry, so they have to ask for foreign aid.

Wu Ershan's "Fengsheng" also found a domestic film and television company to do special effects, but the result was also unable to do it. Therefore, Wuershan chose to set up a special effects company, the core creators are domestic filmmakers, while controlling the main direction, while learning the American film and television industry, now with the experience of "Fengshen Trilogy", the next film will definitely be much more independent.

The premiere has exploded in word of mouth, and China's special effects blockbuster has reached a new high? Are you optimistic about "Fengsheng"

Wu Ershan and Guo Fan did the same thing, only the direction and route of departure were different, but the end point was the same. Chinese films should definitely pay attention to industrialization, but in the final analysis, films are cultural products, and industrialization can increase the refinement of cultural products, the degree of realization of imagery, the cost and the optimization of processes, but that's all.

Why "The Wandering Earth" succeeded, while the previous domestic costume magic blockbusters failed.

Because films still have to follow the cultural aesthetics of the audience, Chinese films should still follow the essence of cultural products, strengthen cultural research (including strengthening the study of the characteristics of cultural categories), do a good job in selecting themes and materials, aesthetics and content, take this as the core, and then consider the market.

As a cultural product, "The Wandering Earth" is a science fiction series, with less cultural conflicts and less cultural background requirements, coupled with coolness, it can be directly connected to the eye, so it has its particularity. It is difficult for non-science fiction series to refer to it, because at least it is necessary to walk the eye-one-sense one-brain connection or the eye-one-brain-one-sense connection, not to mention the thought-and-mind.

And "Feng Shen" is a costume mythological film, and we all know that Chinese culture is completely different from Western traditional culture.

In recent years, with the comprehensive rise of China's national strength, cultural self-confidence, national self-confidence, and aesthetic self-confidence have risen in an all-round way. Although the costume mythological blockbuster that was damaged by the previous aesthetic has achieved a high box office in China, it is not a work based on Chinese culture in terms of aesthetics, technology, and content.

The reason was written at the beginning, Hong Kong directors and mainland directors are not so systematic in all aspects, and they are behind the times.

Chinese filmmakers have a clear audience positioning for their works, and if they are positioned as the Chinese public, good works will inevitably be loved by the domestic public. So if he only targets foreign people and uses Chinese scenes to point to overseas audiences, how should he interpret his works?

Of course, it is possible to find works that are recognized by both Eastern and Western cultures, but it is more according to their cultural preferences and distorts the national scene in the works - this is not inference, speculation, and malicious speculation, but the fact that a large number of Chinese literary and artistic works are customized.

There are actually many examples in recent years, "Lion Boy", Tsinghua Academy of Fine Arts, Chinese costume dramas and so on.

In contrast, this domestic costume magic blockbuster that is not in the ocean has a bit of an ancient feeling. So did Urshan "Fengsheng" do it? According to the current materials, trailers and premiere announcements, the film and television industry will definitely become a new high for Chinese films together with "The Wandering Earth".

And the aesthetics are controversial above, but in fact I have seen materials, teasers and various analytical representations. This is due to the fact that there are too few such Chinese costume mythological works (especially the style set in the Shang and Ming dynasties). Instead, this work is a breakthrough and attempt in aesthetics based on traditional Chinese culture.

Limited to space, there is no information listed here, if you are interested, you can go to the official below to see popular science articles. What everyone thinks is not restored, it is an attempt to restore, technicalize, film and television according to traditional Chinese culture.

Chinese audiences have not yet established this aesthetic, and when the feature film can naturally lead its style.

Invest 3 billion and take up to 10 years to produce? The ambition of Urshan "Feng Shen" cannot be hidden

At this time, some people must say that a high box office is nothing, special effects are nothing, the film and television industry is nothing, and a good story is king. That's 2023, you are tired of Hollywood special effects bad movies, just as you are tired of domestic costume magic bad movies, which is putting the cart before the horse.

To put it simply, now if anyone can shoot the new era "Titanic", "Avatar 1", "The Matrix" and "The Lord of the Rings". Of course, these works had better scripts, but the film and television industry was also epoch-making at the time.

So the question is, do you want to watch such commercial special effects blockbusters as the new era?

In fact, it was Chinese movies that handed over the answer, which was previously Guo Fan's "The Wandering Earth" series. Now I am sure that it will soon be Wuershan's "Fengsheng" series, which are all benchmarks for Chinese heavy industry blockbusters and will surely lead Chinese films to the world.