6 years ago, there was a suspense film released in China.
The box office was 170 million, and Douban was 8.8, and then it was shortlisted for the 70th place in the TOP250 Douban movies.
Six years later, a remake of it was released.
Douban score 6.2, compared with the original version, one in the sky and one underground.
But.
The box office is 164 million, but it is on par with the original.
Bad money chasing good money?
In fact, there is a lot to be done:
Hide from the world
Sorry, this movie is a little late.
In fact, I didn't plan to talk about this remake, after all, the quality is worrying, and it doesn't seem to be worth mentioning, but when I sorted out the data with my friends a few days ago, we found that this year's domestic remakes have seen an unprecedented surge, as many as 11.
In the previous 4 years, they were 6, 3, 8, and 3.
△ Click to view a larger image
Why are domestic films rushing to the road of remakes?
It's just that the ability to be original is insufficient?
So, following "Hiding from the Sky and Crossing the Sea", today I will talk about this year's domestic remakes.
And trying to answer a question:
Why is everyone shouting for remakes.
On the contrary, their box office is getting higher and higher, and more and more people are willing to wade into this troubled water?
01
If you haven't watched "The Invisible Guest", but just walked into the theater for the filmmaker's promotion, there is a high probability that you will not find that "Hidden from the Sky" is a remake:
It's only when the lights come on and the subtitles are almost finished that you'll see a line on the screen that reads "Remade from The Invisible Guest."
Why is it so hidden?
In addition to the fact that the reputation of domestic remakes in recent years is really bad, it is more that the original version can be called a masterpiece in the eyes of many people, although the box office is not high, but the reputation is outstanding, Douban 1.3 million people scored 8.8, the more people watch, the higher the score.
This is a Spanish low-budget film.
The story begins with a murder case in a locked room, in a hotel room in the snowy mountains, a woman is killed, surrounded by a large amount of cash, and in this room, her mistress, a businessman of a successful business.
The whole house was locked from the inside, no one had the key, and the only suspect was the merchant.
In order to get rid of suspicion, the businessman hired a female lawyer who was about to retire at a high price to defend himself.
So the main line of the movie only takes place in one night, focusing on female lawyers and businessmen combing through the case and preparing for the elimination of suspicion.
Frankly.
The creator of "Hiding from the Sky and Crossing the Sea" chose "The Invisible Guest" as the remake object, which is actually understandable, because the most popular part of the original work has strong reproducibility: 5 reasoning, 4 reversals, exquisite and complex, meticulous reasoning, and the truth comes to an abrupt end when it is revealed, which is very shocking.
And because of this.
After the release of the film, many countries launched their own remakes.
The Douban score is arranged as follows:
1. The 2018 Italian version of "Death Without Proof", a 100% reproduction at the pixel level.
It was released in China in September 2020 and got 30 million, and even won the nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay at the 64th Italian David Awards in my country, which is a little speechless.
(This version of the cast is quite strong)
This version has the highest remake score, with 7.3 on Douban.
2, Indian version, "Revenge", a remake of the sexual transfer.
Released in 2019, with a duration of 120 minutes, the suspense points remain the same, the reversal is retained, the rhythm is still the same, and the change lies in the gender of the characters: the death is the heroine's lover, the heroine lied in order to save her family and career, the deceased has also changed from a young man to a child, and the female lawyer who came to "help" has become a male lawyer.
But the place where the story took place was changed to the United Kingdom (Indian), and there was almost no localization, Douban 6.6.
(PS. There is another version of "The Invisible Truth" in Telugu in India, but the changes are quite large)
3, the Korean version of "Confessions", a sequel remake.
added local elements, mainly the female lawyer, which disrupted the rhythm of the appearance, and the biggest change was that the original film abruptly stopped, adding nearly 20 minutes of follow-up. adds another touch to the evil of the businessman, and also allows the audience to see that the evidence of the real hammer has been found.
Four words, there is no danger, and the evil does not prevail over the good, which is in the same vein as the original film, but there are 2 more reversals than the original.
(This version is very good-looking, starring Su Ji-sub and Lin Zhenna)
Finally, this year's domestic remake of this version, which currently has more than 40,000 people scoring 6.2, the third highest number of ratings.
Xu Guanghan, Zhang Junning, Hui Yinghong, Yin Zheng starring, adaptation, more ambitions:
There are no local elements (Southeast Asian background, it should be necessary to pass the trial), partial sexual transformation (female lawyer becomes male policeman, the victim changes from mistress to mistress, mistress struggles to get rid of crime), character line expansion (adds the character's past experience, such as the heroine's childhood experience, etc.), and adds social issues (rich and poor, class, original family).
Especially changed the protagonist from male to female, allowing Zhang Junning to break through the path of a femme fatale.
But wait.
Speaking of which, do you realize a question: this remake method seems familiar?
That's right, if you have watched "Manslaughter" and "She Who Disappeared", you will find that this is almost a work that can be added to the "Chen Sicheng Universe".
And when Chen Sicheng changed his style and filmed "The Three Teams".
And we found out.
More domestic remakes are on the road of imitating Chen Sicheng, and they are never tired of it.
02
There has been such a sentence circulating on the Internet, "Question Sicheng, understand Sicheng, and become Sicheng", which is our view of Chen Sicheng's suspense films.
Why?
Because his creative model really "works".
And it's easy to copy.
Among the films produced by Chen Sicheng, there are three works that have become popular because of similar styles:
"Manslaughter" is a remake of "Manslaughter", "Manslaughter 2" is a remake of "Imminent", and "Disappearing Her" is a remake of "A Trap for Bachelors", and their box offices are 1.3 billion, 1.1 billion, and 3.5 billion respectively.
The rules of its creation are nothing more than the following:
Southeast Asian themes, crime suspense style, and social issues are displayed, and they are all in three aspects: scale, viewability, and emotion.
This can't help but make some creators "red-eyed".
Take "Hiding from the Sky and Crossing the Sea" as an example.
It can be seen with the naked eye that unlike the remake of "The Invisible Guest", which is secretively remade, it strives to rely on "She Who Disappeared" in terms of publicity:
The poster is almost uniformly composed.
The release tidbits also emphasize the stimulation of plasma.
And the remake method also increases the scale and mood.
If you make a metaphor, "The Invisible Guest" is like a mature middle-aged man, while "Hiding from the Sky" is a rebellious teenager pretending to be an adult.
There are no big eyes in "The Invisible Guest", and there is no bravado that pretends to be calm.
All the details are laid out unhurriedly and eloquently.
And in "Hiding from the Sky and Crossing the Sea", the police officer played by Xu Guanghan said viciously more than once:
I'm a bastard cop who just wants to pit your money.
It's like to emphasize to the audience that I'm really not the one behind the scenes.
So from the beginning of the movie, one is pitiful and the other is dangerous and cunning.
This kind of too obvious setting of the strength of the threat and the threatened has actually spoiled the strength and weakness of their true identity from the beginning.
More important.
It's about the presentation of violent scenes.
The original "Invisible Guest" is a cold and calm style, with almost no violent bloodshed scenes.
And what about the remake?
For fear that the game at the psychological level is not obvious enough, he also uses the "Rashomon" style narration to construct scenes and memories of scenes of plasma violence, making the game at the psychological level concrete and violent.
You can see with the naked eye how intense its emotions are.
Exceptional?
No.
This orientation also exists in other suspense remakes.
For example, "Save the Suspect".
Viewers who have watched this movie should remember that the second half of the movie portrays the scene of female victims being abused a little too hard.
The use of a large amount of plasma, the display of violent spectacle, and the rape scene full of logical holes.
Although the rapist Dan Wen was improvised, the logic of his actions before and after could not withstand scrutiny.
Why did a pet clerk suddenly get furious, and said when he was harmful, I'm not bad.
When the victim struggled, why did Danwen go from the original rape to murderous intent, and was it the victim's words that stung Danwen?
In this scene, not only do we not see enough reasons, but what is even worse is that the police did not check the victim's mobile phone when they later investigated the case.
The original rape scene uses a stylized audio-visual, handheld camera, the camera switches quickly and shaky, and the main focus is to create the most terrifying scene with the least amount of plasma.
The purpose of this adaptation is obvious.
is to mobilize the audience's "emotions" and make the audience "indignant" like the characters.
So you see, both "Hiding from the Sky" and "Saving the Suspect" have achieved a good box office, one is 160 million, and the other is 570 million.
In this year's domestic films, it can be regarded as a winner.
But at the same time.
The more elements you want to cram into, the more bloated the originally neat and meticulous suspense line becomes, resulting in a weakening of the viewing interest.
Not only is the reputation unsatisfactory, a 6.2 and a 5.9.
It even raises a lot of questions.
△ The picture above "Hiding from the Sky and Crossing the Sea", the picture below "Saving the Suspect"
In the final analysis, at the moment when winning Douyin will win the box office, domestic remakes are gradually moving towards a fragmented and emotional road.
For creators.
This seems to be an attempt to make the film "localized" and more suitable for Chinese audiences.
But here's the thing.
Is the so-called "localization" equal to "Chen Sicheng"?
Do we have any misunderstanding of the word "indigenization"?
03
So the question is: what is localization?
This seems to be a word that everyone knows, but everyone doesn't know where to go.
In "Sunshine Sisters", changing the college student movement to the city management war is localization? In "Legal Partner", changing the ending of cheating to heterosexual marriage is localization?
Of course not.
The creators of domestic films have been working in the direction of "localization", but it is clear that they have all misunderstood the term.
They will think that localization is to cater to the popular mood:
It's like "Hiding from the Sky and Crossing the Sea".
They assume that domestic audiences like to watch conflict, and the film reinforces the conflict between the rich and the poor.
In the film, Qiao Wenna said that only with money and power can we have a good life now.
And the mother played by Hui Yinghong said directly, don't think that you can do whatever you want if you have money, you rich people can't imagine what we poor people can do for our families.
But the problem is that the rich Qiao Wenna also came from a humble background, and the so-called poor person in the film is also a primary school principal.
This makes people in a trance: the rich in this movie is not really rich, and the poor is not really poor.
At the same time, creators will also think that localization is in line with mainstream values:
For example, "Your Wedding", which will be re-screened in two days.
The domestic version uses fireworks on the roof of the dormitory building and the confession of the typhoon day to set aside the realism of the original work.
Same play.
The original male protagonist has let go of his childish past and announced that he is going forward:
I've been really happy lately
It's also fun to teach children
That's all thanks to you
Because of you
I have new dreams
The national version is still immersed in the past, telling the emotional chicken soup of pretending to be sad:
To be with you
I did a lot of stupid, impulsive things
But I was lucky
Because we used to love each other so much
If only I could have grown up earlier
Isn't it going to lose you
The reality of youthful growth.
It became a self-touching to turn over old accounts.
Coupled with all kinds of pixel-level copying, as well as the plot that is not adapted to the water and soil, this is not so much localization, but rather a shortcut speculation.
There is only one purpose, and that is to pile up "valid words".
So what exactly is localization?
We can't give a precise answer, but at the very least, there is one word that must be present and should be at the top of the list:
Reality.
In a realistic, touchable and perceptible world, we can believe that a character is truly alive, and once such a real space is missing, then the story of the character will become a castle in the air.
For example:
Most of this year's 11 remakes (not counting the re-release of "Your Wedding") hovered around 6 points, and only two of them exceeded 7 points.
They are "Hachiko the Loyal Dog" and "I Love You!".
What is the reason for their good reputation?
The biggest reason is, of course, that we are indeed infected by the stories here, but the premise of the infection is actually that they create a certain sense of reality for us in the hardware in the first place.
For example, "Loyal Dog Hachiko".
The place where the story takes place is changed to Chongqing, and the male protagonist takes the train every day to take the ferry.
The turning point of tears has also been replaced by the demolition of the old house that you and I are more familiar with.
"I love you!" is even more intimate.
Twists and turns, undulating terrain, densely built old buildings, homes full of miscellaneous items, green teahouses and parks everywhere, and grandfathers with crooked strings on deck chairs......
Especially the Guangzhou Zoo (the one in the city center) where several old people get along with each other, although it is old and the animals are a little tired, it is familiar and real, like a "date place" that the elderly will go to (free tickets for people over 65 years old, 60-65 half price 10 yuan a piece).
is also because of this solid and real life, which sets off the belated but sincere friendship and love between several old people, which is a little cruel.
But what about remakes with less than 6 points?
Screenshot:
It is full of empty model rooms, cutouts, and emptiness.
Of course, we don't actually reject remakes, just as the glory of Hong Kong films is also due to Hong Kong filmmakers' Xi of Hollywood and Japan, and later the rise of Korean films, there is no less experience from Hong Kong films.
Through remakes, learning Xi absorb the essence of the original work, which is a necessary process for the upgrading and progress of the film industry in a region.
Remember the previous years.
Even if it is a domestic remake, there have been some excellent works.
For example, in "Twelve Citizens", in terms of lines and character settings, these twelve citizens have mercenary commissary owners, real estate practitioners with iPads for office, security guards, and taxi drivers...... The degree of localization is very high.
For example, "Crazy Stone", borrowing the shell of "Two Big Smoking Guns", is filled with its own story, which can only happen in China.
Even if you look at the Hong Kong movies of the eighties and nineties, you will find that a large part of the classic movies are remakes.
"The True Color of Heroes", "A Chinese Ghost Story", "Huang Feihong", "Across the Seas", "New Dragon Gate Inn", ......
But.
When domestic remakes gradually become opportunistic, become eager for quick success, and become what they like.
We can't help but ask:
What's the point of such a remake?
Just watching a foreign language interpreter? Just watching a piece of social news? Instead of watching such a "copycat version", why don't we go to watch the original version?
So.
Compared to those calculations in business, minute by minute, compared to those who are emotionally incited.
We actually want to see more.
is a creator, sincere from the beginning.
And this.
The same applies to all domestic films.
The picture in this article comes from the Internet