The Spring Festival stalls can become the largest schedule in the mainland, and the movie theaters during the long holiday are comparable to the train stations during the Spring Festival, relying on Stephen Chow's "Journey to the West" and "Mermaid" to redefine the New Year stalls.
It was expected that Stephen Chow would bring his "Mermaid 2" to the Spring Festival file of the Year of the Pig, continuing the glorious record of this IP.
However, on November 29, 2018, a movie called "The King of New Comedy" announced through its official Weibo that it would be set for the first day of the New Year, which undoubtedly stirred up a thousand waves with one stone.
On February 13, 1999, "The King of Comedy" was released in the Hong Kong New Year, winning the last annual championship for Stephen Chow in the 90s, and making this film the most beloved classic of thousands of fans. Of course, "King of Comedy" is also Stephen Chow's most important label.
Yin Tianqiu, who is a dead runner, shows tenacity, optimism, kindness, as well as his obsession and dedication to acting in the film, which provides a reason and template for countless ordinary people to pursue their dreams. And Yin Tianqiu and Liu Piaopiao's courage to love each other frankly against ordinary life, and Yin Tianqiu's responsibility to give up his personal future in order to stick to true love is even more admirable and endlessly yearning.
Therefore, on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the release of this classic, being able to see a remake directed by Stephen Chow himself is, of course, the best nostalgia for youth and the best support for idols. Stephen Chow launched a sequel at this time, and it can be said that the timing was just right.
Today's Chinese film industry, like Hong Kong in the 90s, is absolutely "yang and yin", but judging from the several trailers of "The New King of Comedy", Stephen Chow wants to make a real "big heroine" movie and create a female version of Yin Tianqiu, which undoubtedly makes fans look forward to it more when feminism is in vogue in the mainland.
The first day of the Lunar New Year in 2019 is February 5, which is only 9 days before Valentine's Day. On this day, eight films with different characteristics opened at the same time, which was unprecedented, which can be called the "eight-star annunciation", and the box office reached 1.458 billion on the same day, refreshing the single-day record set by the Spring Festival last year. In comparison, the Spring Festival in 2013 was only 760 million for seven days.
Like the classics of twenty years ago, this film tells the story of the dragon actor who struggles against fate, but the setting is set on the mainland, and the protagonist becomes a girl like a dream (played by E Jingwen). Her appearance is still so-so among ordinary people, and she is slightly stronger than Wu Junru and Mei Xiaohui when she was young, but at a time when plastic surgery technology is highly developed and 90-point beauties are all over the world, it is undoubtedly as unwise as a county sports school player who wants to win the Olympic championship - don't mention Huang Bo to me, that's a male drop!
It has been more than ten years since I ran like a dream, and I have experienced all kinds of ups and downs, sadness and injustice, but I still persist. When playing with the out-of-fashion star Marco (played by Wang Baoqiang), an accident brought a heavy blow to this buddy, but it gave birth to a shocking effect.
Rumeng witnessed the unexpected popularity of "plastic flower girlfriends", her parents' helplessness and worry about her, the cynicism of professionals from all walks of life, and the taste of being deceived and true. She was almost desperate, and just when she was about to give up her dream of being an actress completely, unexpected opportunities beckoned generously, and bad things became catalysts for good things.
"The New King of Comedy" cut 274 million on the first day, although it only ranked third, but for such a work with limited investment, the results are quite good, even exceeding the first day of "The Mermaid". Some media predict that "The King of New Comedy" has the potential to break through 2 billion.
However, the glory lasted only one day. Since the next day, the income of "The New King of Comedy" has fallen like an avalanche, falling to 9.03 million on February 13. You know, that day was the 20th anniversary of the release of the official "The King of Comedy".
On February 14, the market came to 672 million, breaking the record of 603 million created three years ago due to the pull of "Mermaid", but "The King of New Comedy" did not get any bonus for Valentine's Day, and the box office fell to 8.24 million instead.
In contrast, "A Kiss to Love", which opened on the same day, had a good score of 91.52 million. The female number one in this film is Lin Yun, the hottest post-95s star girl under Stephen Chow. Stephen Chow's choice of E Jingwen instead of Lin Yun may be a serious failure, but it is not the most serious.
In the end, "The New King of Comedy", a movie that was highly anticipated by all walks of life, ended dismally with 627 million. Is the movie really bad?
Wang Jing believes that "The King of New Comedy" is better than "Journey to the West". In the author's opinion, its quality is even better than "Mermaid". The film uses a seemingly absurd presentation to interpret a rather serious theme. It exposes and criticizes the dark side of society very sharply, satirizes and mocks all kinds of unspoken rules quite carefully, and also bluntly denies the cheap poisonous chicken soup of "as long as you work hard, you can succeed", and deeply reflects and tortures the persistence and choice of ordinary people, unwilling and resigned to fate.
If Wang Baoqiang is excluded, "The King of New Comedy" is completely the team of the Internet University, no matter how conservative the estimate is, the investment cannot exceed 50 million. In this way, the cast's film dares to run to the Spring Festival file and compete with the super giants "Crazy Alien", "Flying Life" and "The Wandering Earth", which is actually worthy of praise in terms of courage alone.
Stephen Chow chose E Jingwen to play the absolute protagonist and make her the female version of Yin Tianqiu, of course, there is something reasonable. E Jingwen's performance can score at least 70 points. She plays a character actor as a dead body, beaten, and a naked substitute, and her frank personality of being optimistic and moving forward is still true and powerful under the repeated neglect, denial and squeeze.
Eating a boxed lunch with the music of "Swan Lake" on the bumpy bus, talking to his parents with a smile in the celebrity dressing room, wearing a ghost in red to scare Marco, and colliding with a big truck on a rainy night after discovering his boyfriend's true face, can make the audience laugh and cry. And one person plays two roles, acting out the scene of emotional entanglement with her boyfriend, which allows us to see her good skills.
In this face-watching world, it is certainly not difficult for the audience to understand why the heroine obviously has acting skills and works hard, but she can only rely on acting as a stand-in and sculpture to eat, while the sweet-looking roommate can be the leading actor even though she can't act and doesn't want to work hard. "Only if you are strong enough, others can be fair to you", this is cruel enough, but also true enough.
Obviously, if the heroine is replaced by Lin Yun and Xu Jiao, it is impossible to have this sense of reality. The choice of actors such as Wang Baoqiang and Zhang Quandan may also have such considerations. But many people's first reaction after watching the trailer is just "The heroine is too ugly!" Who do you talk to? Can you be uglier than turkey and Amei?
The film's interpretation of father-daughter love and mother-daughter relationship is still quite attentive. Especially the father of Rumeng, from the extreme antipathy and denial of the child at the beginning, to the gradual transformation in the end, let us really feel the preciousness of family affection.
But there are still big problems with the completion of this story, the plot is too thin, the emotional drama is too bizarre, and the arrangement of the finale is not convincing. Moreover, it is really impossible to let a group of mainland actors complete the effect of Hong Kong's nonsensical comedy, and all kinds of disobedience and twisting are inevitable.
A large number of abrupt product placement advertisements make the movie seem very low, and the money-grabbing appearance is obvious. But this is actually not the most deadly, and the implantation of "Mermaid" is only a lot more.
In the Spring Festival stalls where blockbusters are gathered and stars are gathered, Stephen Chow chose the starring team at the level of the Internet University, which seems to be too confident in his influence. As everyone knows, today's audiences also have high requirements for films.
The super high box office of "The Mermaid" does not match the mediocre quality at all, which overdraws the Stephen Chow brand to a certain extent, damages the popularity of passers-by, and makes them have the intention of "revenge abandonment". And the performance of "Journey to the West: The Demon Chapter" made ordinary audiences no longer superstitious about Stephen Chow.
What's more, the abandonment of the love element in "The New King of Comedy" may well not be a wise choice, but has brought disastrous consequences to itself.
From the moment the heroine appeared with "An Actor's Self-cultivation", the tribute to "The King of Comedy" was quite intensive;
When Here We Are Again sounded on the big screen, the eyes of those who heard it inevitably moistened, and when Rumeng performed the classic drama of "I raise you" with his colleagues, I believe many people took out their tissues.
However, the more audiences like Stephen Chow's movies, the greater the disappointment may be. They originally hoped to see a bloody film that inherits the spirit of "The King of Comedy" and resists the indifference and neglect of the world with true love and stubbornness, but "The New King of Comedy" has given up on love as the main line and focuses on father-daughter affection, which is of course understandable. "It's not a world where you can work hard and succeed. However, as long as you don't surrender, it's a success. "It's really pertinent. However, this may not be what more people want.
Moreover, in the relationship with her boyfriend, Rumeng was deceived even though the other party had a lot of suspicions. This really does not add points to himself, but confirms that "there must be something hateful about the poor man." Such a design obviously cannot make the audience happy and moved.
There is no doubt that Stephen Chow's movies that can really resonate with us for a long time, without exception, all take love as the core element and the most important driving force of the plot, which can make fans cry when they watch it, and they still want to watch it when they cry.
Only love can arouse a stronger resonance among the audience and leave a deeper shock. And if you focus on love, first, it is closer to the temperament of the previous work, and second, it can also fit the atmosphere of Valentine's Day, so why not?
Could it be that Stephen Chow himself has forgotten? Or did he succumb to the pressure of the management and had to do so?
Of course, there must also be people who say, don't deify TM's love. Don't look at the Spring Festival stalls in the hands of women, the three blockbusters "The Wandering Earth", "Crazy Aliens" and "Flying Life" coincide, there is no ghost love at all, and it is still a big hit at the box office, and it still abuses "The King of New Comedy" so much that it can't find the north. What happened to "Detective Pu Songling", which has enough love elements, isn't it worse than "The King of New Comedy"?
In this way, we do not see the essence of the problem. "The New King of Comedy" could have easily brought great emotional blessings and could have maintained the popularity until Valentine's Day. But the current choice can not retain passers-by and audiences, but also makes old fans unwilling to accept it, which can be said to be unflattering to both ends.
Compared with the 160 million box office of Jackie Chan's big brother "Detective Pu Songling", Stephen Chow doesn't seem to have lost too badly this time, but he doesn't have the capital to laugh at 50 steps and 100 steps at all.
Two years ago, Jackie Chan and Stephen Chow were still the absolute masters of the Spring Festival stalls. Two years later, did the mainland audience give up on them all at once? Of course not. It can only be said that the situation is different. The failure of "Detective Pu Songling" proves that the costume fantasy that has repeatedly created brilliance is indeed at a low ebb. Otherwise, "Journey to the West" should not lose to "Kung Fu Yoga".
It is reassuring to know that these two legends of the past three decades are still persistent in sticking to their cinematic ideals and will not be deterred by temporary difficulties. We also have reason to believe that in the history of Chinese films, they will write more wonderful chapters. Retirement is far from time.
In the Chinese New Year of 2020, the new crown was raging and the theaters were closed. One piece of news has stirred up a thousand waves.
Stephen Chow's movie "The New King of Comedy", which has a poor reputation and has been scolded as a dog on the Internet, actually won three nominations for Best Film, Best Newcomer and Best Supporting Actor. But in the end, they all passed by the awards.
Exactly 20 years ago, "The King of Comedy" was only nominated for Best Newcomer at the Academy Awards. Could it be that the quality of "The New King of Comedy" is better than that of its predecessor? Anyone with an IQ of 50 or more will definitely not believe it.
It can only be said that in the past 20 years, Hong Kong films have really continued to decline and degenerate painfully.
However, in this way, all of Stephen Chow's works directed in the new century were shortlisted for Best Film at the Academy Awards.
Moreover, such a bad "Xinxi", the Hong Kong box office is still as much as 21.97 million, ranking fourth among Chinese films of the year. Of course, the top 10 of the year has been monopolized by Western films for three consecutive years, and Hong Kong films have entered a "darkest moment".
In the second decade of the 21st century, the three films directed by Stephen Chow are not even Hong Kong films strictly speaking. Don't tell Hong Kong stories, don't use local Hong Kong actors, and don't shoot in Hong Kong.
However, the Hong Kong box office of these three movies has exceeded 100 million in total, which is incredible. In contrast, Jackie Chan movies have retreated below a million.
It can only show that Hong Kong audiences are too partial to the king of comedy who grew up in poor areas. So, will they still like "Mermaid 2"?
10,000 years is too long, and five years is too long. Stephen Chow is destined to miss the Spring Festival in the Year of the Dragon, which is very regrettable. I don't know when the next time I see his work on the screen. It's really not good, let's re-screen "Journey to the West" next year.