Just after the box office of "On the Cliff" broke through 1 billion, the "Sniper" co-directed by Zhang Yimou and his daughter Zhang Mo was scheduled for July 30, rather than the previously rumored Eleventh National Day file.
This also means that the film will compete head-on with "Changjin Lake" directed by Chen Kaige, Xu Ke and Lin Chaoxian in the summer file.
Can the old strategist win this time?
On May 20, director Zhang Yimou's personal box office broke through the 5 billion yuan mark, ranking 21st among domestic directors, and the first in the list was Chen Sicheng, a 10 billion box office director who issued an important official announcement at 520.
And even if the personal box office exceeds 5 billion, the box office of all Zhang Yimou's films is still not as good as a "Wolf Warrior 2" or "Hello, Li Huanying".
But "Sniper" may allow Zhang Yimou's personal box office to take a big step forward. Although "Sniper" is not an epic war blockbuster like "Chosin Lake", after the word-of-mouth and box office win-win of "On the Cliff", everyone believes that Zhang Yimou is difficult to lose in a visual war film.
The question is only, this time, how many viewers will pay for the old strategist again.
A huge positive for the film is that Zhang Yimou ai will play Zhang Yi again in this old man's film.
But a huge unknown is that Zhang Yi did not play Zhang Dagong, who was previously rumored to be based on Zhang Taofang, a special hero of the Chinese Volunteer Army and a second-class sniper hero, but only played a veteran as a special actor.
Playing the male number one in the film is a newcomer actor Chen Yongsheng.
Another unknown in the film is that Liu Haocun's support will clarify that Liu Haocun did not participate in the "Sniper" by his mentor Zhang Yimou. Perhaps for some fans, this is also a good thing for the film.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="78" > Zhang Yimou to shoot the cutest person, to face three obstacles</h1>
The theme of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea is, of course, a challenge, even if the challenger is Zhang Yimou, a 71-year-old national teacher.
And "Sniper" to explode, the first level to pass first, is the type level.
That is to say, what kind of movie Zhang Yimou made "Sniper" into.
The film was originally titled "The Coldest Gun", a title full of texture, hardness and artistic beauty that was once widely acclaimed, but when it was announced that it would start, it was renamed "Sniper".
The name change was also questioned by Li Xuezheng, the producer of the "Circuit Prosecutor's Group", who posted: "The military network movie "Sniper" has achieved great success in iQiyi and has become famous, and Zhang Yimou has done (typo) as a big coffee director, and the first "Coldest Gun" was suddenly renamed "Sniper", which made the producer of "Sniper" feel very helpless, so many good names, as a big director (still a typo) Why do you have to repeat the movie names that people have used? Really puzzled. ”
Finally, advertise your own film. Questioning the fame of the old man's rubbing heat, the military network movie "Sniper" probably has this style.
Such accusations certainly do not make any sense.
Because this is not the first time that there are domestic film and television dramas with the name of "Sniper", before the Director Ofo Xixi, Tong Da starred in a drama is also called this name, is not Director Gao Xixi can also send a Weibo, questioning "Excellent domestic drama "Sniper" has achieved great success, has been famous, so many good names, as a big producer why do you have to repeat the name of the TV series used by others? ”
But Li Xuezheng's questioning does reflect the problem of "Sniper": that is, it is likely that in order to meet the market demand, the filmmakers would rather sacrifice the artistic beauty of the original title, but also give the public a simpler and more direct title, so as to avoid the recurrence of the situation that the title of "One Second" is not concise enough to affect the box office.
Otherwise, after the release of the film, while getting some viewers to understand, there will be netizens who will question: what does the coldest gun mean, the gun is cold? Is the gun hot okay?
Isn't that funny, but that's the reality of the Chinese film market that Zhang Yimou has to face.
But this trade-off itself also brings out a huge hidden danger: when the veteran director Zhang Yimou also has to consider market factors, then "Sniper" will also make creative adjustments or even compromises in order to meet some market demand?
At least for now, Zhang Yimou still maintains his consistent creative stubbornness, especially the film casting, but this brings out the second hurdle: the actor off.
Can young actors play our sniper heroes?
Judging from the content, the film takes the cold gun movement to resist the United States and aid Korea as the background, and tells the heroic story of the sniper squad of the volunteer army and the enemy's death-defying duel. The filming location is in the Baishan Mountains of Jilin Province, and the whole ice and snow are filmed in real time, close to the real historical scenes of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea.
Most of the actors will be newcomer actors, and "On the Cliff" is the same as the group portrait play, Zhang Yimou said in an interview, the choice of new people is the need of the story, the theme needs.
Previously, on Douban, the cast of "Sniper" was Zhang Yi, Zhang Yu, and Liu Haocun.
However, there are also sources that Zhang Yi is only a cameo performance, not a starring actor.
In the two films starring in the old man in succession, Liu Haocun, who played "Little Red Flower" with his four-character brother, and Liu Haoran, who played "Four Seas", did not star in "Sniper".
The real main actors of the film are Zhang Yu, who starred in "I Am Not a Medicine God", "The Unknown Generation", and "The Wind and Waves", and another newcomer actor, Chen Yongsheng (Nortel Level 17).
Zhang Yu's acting skills do not have to worry.
But Zhang Yu did not play the core character of the film, Zhang Dagong, it was Chen Yongsheng who played Zhang Dagong.
The outside world generally believes that the prototype of Zhang Dagong is Zhang Taofang, who is known as the "Hero of the Cold Gun" and "the Sniper God of Shangganling".
Born in 1931 in Xinghua, Jiangsu Province, Zhang Laoying joined the Chinese People's Liberation Army in 1951 and entered the Korean War in September 1952.
Throughout the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, he killed 214 enemies with 436 bullets in 32 days, creating the highest record for the volunteer army to kill the enemy in the Korean battlefield, and was known as the "volunteer sharpshooter".
In "Sniper", Zhang Dagong is still a young man of about twenty years old, and the previous fan nomination list includes: Yi Qianxi, Wang Junkai and Liu Haoran.
If it is any of the above performances, I believe that whether it is the performance effect, box office or market popularity, it can be guaranteed to a large extent, but in the end, Zhang Yimou chose the unknown Chen Yongsheng.
Previously, the young actor had only played supporting roles in the Qingming file's popular "My Sister" and The Douban 3.2-point Version of Zhang Yishan's "Deer Ding", and it was obvious that the audience did not leave any impression.
Although the movie is a group play, "On the Cliff" is also a group play, and in the end, it is won by the excellent performance of the two core protagonists Zhang Yi and Yu Hewei, if Zhang Yu and Chen Yongsheng are compared, can the performances of these two be able to reach the level of Zhang Yiyu and Wei?
The bigger challenge is: as a war film that focuses on portraying characters, there will inevitably be a lot of space in the film to show the growth process of the characters, so if Chen Yongsheng handed over Liu Hao's passing acting skills in "On the Cliff", will this still be a classic?
Because whether it is for ordinary audiences or military fans, playing such a legendary hero, just passing the acting skills, is far from enough.
But there is a third hurdle for the film: the director off.
It can be seen that the team behind the film is all Zhang Yimou's "old guy".
The director of photography is Zhao Xiaoding, who participated in the "Ten Faces Ambush", the art director is the "Eight Hundred" team, the editing director has been the editing of the movie "Burning Heart of the Sun" and "The Pursuer", and the modeling director is Chen Minzheng of "The Biography of Zhen Huan", and any one of them belongs to the TOP level of the film and television industry.
The only screenwriter, Chen Yu, who is not a blockbuster, has also collaborated with Zhang Yimou on "Rock Solid".
What can make Zhang Yimou choose two is most likely a fierce role like Yu Hewei Zhangyi.
Zhang Yimou's own grasp of war films does not have to worry.
No matter how much controversy there was about the quality of "Jinling Thirteen Chao" at that time, the war scenes shot by Zhang Yimou were recognized as reaching the level that modern war films should have, and also presented a heavy sense of history.
In terms of directorial level, Zhang Yimou's quality control should not be lost to the same classic, Jude Lowe starring in "Soldiers In the City".
But in addition to Zhang Yimou, the director of the film has one more person, that is, Zhang Yimou's eldest daughter Zhang Mo.
Zhang Mo was born in 1983 by Zhang Yimou's first wife, Xiao Hua, and his parents divorced when he was 7 years old. Since 2009, Zhang Mo, who returned to China, has been working around his father, serving as an editor and subtitler in "The Surprise of the Three Guns Shooting", and as an assistant director, editor and subtitler in "The Love of hawthorn trees", "Jinling Thirteen Chao" and "Return".
In 2016, Zhang Mo independently directed the fantasy romantic comedy film "28-year-old minor", which won the Best Debut Award at the 14th Changchun Film Festival, but the female director obviously lacked the experience of independently directing large-scale commercial action films, and the father-daughter cooperation, whether it was a plus or the X factor of the film, obviously will not be revealed until July 31.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="122" > will the audience pay for the big director this time? </h1>
And this will also be the 71-year-old Zhang Yimou once again accept the test of the market.
As one of the important figures of the fifth generation of directors, Zhang Yimou has maintained the rhythm of producing a new film every few years in the past, but in recent years, Zhang Yimou has obviously accelerated the pace of shooting. This may stem from a sense of creative urgency.
From the first film he directed in 1987, "Red Sorghum", to "On the Cliff", which has helped him enter the 5 billion mark at the total box office, his works have basically remained above 7 points, although the personal box office seems to be inferior to the new generation of directors, but in fact, the "Red Sorghum" that triggered the movie boom in that year is enough for a "Wolf Warrior 2" to be released now.
But the old director still has to face the new market.
The past decade has been a decade of accelerated iteration of the Chinese film market, and a decade of Zhang Yimou's continuous exploration of the market.
"Return" became the highest-grossing literary film at that time, "The Great Wall" let him fall into the controversy of word-of-mouth, and "Shadow" allowed him to surprise the market with the aesthetic style of the film again, but for ordinary audiences, the film had a certain threshold for watching movies, and the box office trend of the National Day file at that time was not as expected.
In "One Second", Zhang Yimou must also face the huge embarrassment brought about by the audience iteration: the high-reputation films of veteran directors are no longer necessarily winning the market.
This year's May Day "On the Cliff" is in a sense a turnaround battle at the market level of Zhang Yimou, what about next?
"Sniper", released on the eve of the Founding Day, will be the best test of Zhang Yimou's current box office appeal, young audiences may not buy into the "old rivers and lakes", and the films of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea may not be able to seize the box office of young audiences. 2016's "My War", which tells the story of the four major battles of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, starred Liu Ye and Wang Luodan, invested 150 million yuan, but the film was not well received, and the box office was only 36.08 million.
Can Sniper explode? The key lies in the film's final reputation, whether it can bear the huge market expectations.
It is true that the new generation of audiences does not necessarily pay for the old rivers and lakes, and the films to resist the United States and aid Korea do not necessarily win huge box office, but the audience will definitely pay for high-quality content, and once a good domestic war blockbuster stimulates audience empathy, the box office has almost no ceiling.
It is a pity that Zhang Yisheng was more than ten years earlier, otherwise Zhang Yi in the "Soldier Assault" period was definitely the best candidate for the film's starring role, and now the "coldest gun" must be handed over to the new generation of "snipers" such as Zhang Yu and Chen Yongsheng.
Whether their performances can accurately hit the hearts of the audience will also determine whether the audience will pay for Zhang Yimou's first film on the theme of resisting US aggression and aiding Korea.
Whether it is wang fried, more than two months later, it is the moment of bright cards. I hope that Zhang Yimou's old gun can sound this time.