Many people should not have expected that the first new film with a box office of more than 100 million yuan on May Day this year turned out to be "The Siege of the Kowloon Walled City" with the title "rustic".
With its good reputation and high attendance during the screening period, it has accumulated a box office of 80.61 million yuan before its official release on May 1, so even if the pre-sale is not dominant, it is still the first to achieve the "small goal".
Before the screening, this film was not favored. After all, the box office performance of Hong Kong films in the mainland has been declining in the past two years.
The last Hong Kong film with a box office of more than 1 billion in the mainland can be traced back to "Rage: A Serious Case" in 2021.
Of the 15 Hong Kong films released last year, only one had a box office of 500 million+ and one had a box office of 300 million+, and most of them had difficulty even exceeding 100 million.
Especially because of the backlog of films released in a centralized manner, Hong Kong directors represented by Qiu Litao and Hong Kong stars represented by Andy Lau and Louis Koo inevitably gather to meet the audience.
is the so-called overkill, and aesthetic fatigue quickly consumes the appeal of Hong Kong films.
However, "The Siege of the Kowloon Walled City" strongly reversed the downward trend of Hong Kong films.
The film first achieved good screening results in second, third and fourth-tier cities, and then detonated word of mouth at its premiere in Beijing. On April 30, the film only used 8% of the film schedule to gain 18.9% of the box office, showing its dark horse appearance.
On May Day, with the release of many new films, "The Siege of the Kowloon Walled City" received a box office of 50.66 million yuan, ranking fourth. The proportion of the box office has also declined significantly. On Douban, more than 20,000 people participated in the score of 7.5.
The quality of the film is basically confirmed. If with the determination of word-of-mouth and the elimination of film scheduling, "The Siege of Kowloon Walled City" can break through the circle of comics, it still has the possibility of long-term sales and impact 1 billion.
The text is based on fiction and the visuals are based on comics
In the post-screening interaction at the Beijing premiere, director Zheng Baorui said that the script creation of "The Siege of the Kowloon Walled City" was based on the novel "Kowloon Walled City" written by Yu Er, and during the shooting, the visual elements such as scenery, modeling, shots, and scenes were heavily referenced in the comic book version drawn by Szeto Cambridge.
The reason why the subtitle "Siege" was added to the film is to distinguish it from the online movie "Kowloon Walled City" (directed by Cui Yanlong, starring Shi Yanneng and Yu Lang) launched on iQiyi in 2021, and on the other hand, it also leaves room for the development of sequels or prequels in the future.
Why does the audience's intuitive feeling of this film have a strong sense of comics? Because the original novel is deeply influenced by Hong Kong comics.
The author Yu Er's main job is a comic screenwriter, and he has participated in more than 30 works. Writer Tian Hang once commented that his novels are "expressions that feather comics into paragraphs and words".
As a cult novel that combines fighting, friendship, revenge, and comedy (referring to novels that are not mainstream and may not be well-known but have a fandom of fandom), it itself contains a strong comic and movie thinking.
After Szeto Cambridge adapted it into a comic, it did not lose its essence at all, and not only did it sell well in China, but it also won an award in Japan.
It's just that due to the limited volume of the original work, this comic has not been serialized for many years like the classic IPs in Hong Kong comics, "Crazy Boy", "Fengyun" and "Dragon Tiger Gate", and has continued many chapters.
One of the biggest advantages of having a base for novels and comics is that there can be many characters without messing up.
This film is a typical worldview structure, surrounding the Kowloon Walled City, a total of four forces. Each force is played by a veteran Hong Kong star as the eldest brother, namely Louis Koo played by Tornado, Sammo Hung played by the big boss, Ren Xianqi played Di Qiu, and Huang Debin played Brother Tiger.
The story of the film is triggered by the enmity and interest competition of the four bigwigs, but it is the next generation of young people who are involved in the whirlpool of fate, namely Chen Luojun played by Lin Feng, Xinyi played by Liu Junqian, Twelve Young played by Hu Zitong, Sizai played by Zhang Wenjie, and Wang Jiu played by Wu Yunlong as the ultimate villain.
The grievances and hatreds and brotherhood of the same generation, as well as the seizure of power and spiritual inheritance between the two generations, have been condensed into the same film.
It is precisely because of the condensation of the plot that many characters have inevitably been cut a lot of scenes compared to the original work.
However, these deleted scenes have also become nourishment for actors to shape roles and screenwriters to write lines. In other words, the original book provides the most reliable biographies of the characters.
Whether it is an experienced Mesozoic actor or a new generation of actors, they all know very well what the past and charm of the characters they play. This sense of clarity in the mind makes the characters' lines and actions full of vitality.
For example, when the four boys appeared before the final battle, they had an action of lifting their hoodies. Just looking at this action, it is very ordinary and casual, but in the movie, combined with the character's shaping in the first hour or so, it will make the audience feel very burning.
In order to make a breakthrough in the play, this film specially hired Kenji Tanigaki as the action director.
Born in Japan in 1970, he trained martial arts at the "Kurata Action Club" founded by Kurata Hoaki before coming to Hong Kong in 1993 and gradually grew up to become the only Japanese movement instructor in the Hong Kong Action Stuntmen Guild after joining Donnie Yen's "Zhen Family Class".
Kenji Tanigaki's most successful masterpiece is the live-action series "Rogue Kenshin" that he participated in after returning to Japan.
He found the best ratio of action scenes in anime adaptations - through the character's starting style or stop-motion action after the end, fans of the original book can correspond to the classic moves in the comics, but they do not deliberately shout out the names of the moves, and the process of fighting is high-speed and uninterrupted, which well avoids the middle and second sense of comic spelling.
The fight scene of "The Siege of the Kowloon Walled City" can be highly praised, which is based on Kenji Tanigaki's manga experience. Although it is not deliberately emphasized and mentioned in the lines, if you look closely, the martial arts actions of each character in the film are divided into genres and styles in design.
The combat style fits the character's personality, which is the biggest charm of the manga work.
Zheng Baorui is not Qiu Litao
Qiu Litao, a conscientious model worker, unfortunately became the "backstabber" of the decline of Hong Kong films.
He is very efficient in filming, which leads to a lot of miscellaneous works. The current audience is not interested in the audio-visual impact of genres, and they hope to get some emotional gains when they enter the theater. The high-output Qiu Litao is indeed easy to make the audience dissatisfied with "why is he again".
Coincidentally, Zheng Baorui, who grew up working with directors such as Lin Lingdong, Yip Weixin, and Johnny To, is not only familiar with the various creative techniques commonly used in Hong Kong films, but also likes to stuff strong expressions into the genre shell.
His style is completely different from Qiu Litao's.
His "Dog Eats Dog" seems to be a large-scale action movie aimed at the video hall market, but it was selected for the main competition unit of the Tokyo International Film Festival.
"Accident", which is the shell of a thriller and suspense film, was nominated for the Golden Lion Award at the 66th Venice Film Festival.
In particular, "Wisdom Teeth", which hated the 40th Academy Awards, and "Murder", which finally won the "Best Director" at the 42nd Academy Awards, made the authorial concept of "Zheng Baorui Film", which is labeled with violent aesthetics and black texture, take shape.
The filming of "The Siege of the Kowloon Walled City" is located between "Wisdom Teeth" and "Murder", so it also has the color of "Cheng Baorui's film".
"Kowloon Walled City" is not only a novel and comic IP, but also a real existence in Hong Kong history.
Its history can be traced back to the Song Dynasty, and it was originally a stronghold for defending against foreign enemies. In 1941 and 1945, the Japanese army demolished all the walls during the occupation of Hong Kong. After Japan's surrender, street sleepers began to live here.
The long-term "three regardless" (China regardless, Britain not, Hong Kong regardless), combined with the influx of refugees and a large number of illegal expansions, has made the Kowloon Walled City, which covers an area of about 26,700 square meters, the most densely populated place in the world (estimated at 1.9 million people per square kilometer). The streets inside the walled city are as narrow as corridors, and the sanitation is extremely poor.
Until its demolition in 1993, the Kowloon Walled City was a place of filth and filth. After Zheng Baorui introduced the concept of rivers and lakes, he still retained the realistic color of its social sores and historical tumors.
At the same time, the film also points out that the evil gathers here, and the responsibility does not lie with the low-level people who live here.
Tornado's heroic attributes lie in his desire to leave a harbor for the desperate to shelter from the wind and waves. Although the Kowloon Walled City is a hotbed of illegal activities such as drug trafficking, prostitution and gambling, it is still home to tens of thousands of residents.
Tornado is both the steward and the guardian of this place. The evil of human nature cannot hide the light of human nature.
This film spent a lot of money to build a unique scene of the Kowloon Walled City, which brought a strong sense of depression to the audience.
A movie with a very comic sense in terms of story, characters, and fighting scenes, it has a bit of realism from time to time, which has to be said to be a wonderful experience.
The consciousness shown by the tornado has the pull of dramatic tension. The choice he made in the end was able to inspire the audience's strong love and hate, thus pushing the final battle to a double climax of visual and emotional.
When the audience is enjoying the refreshing feeling of playing, they can also have a high degree of empathy between the literary dramas. Zheng Baorui gave a lot of things.
Don't underestimate the heart of a champion
NBA有一句经典语录：“Don't ever underestimate the heart of a champion ! ”即“永远不要低估一颗冠军的心”。
This sentence applies especially to Hong Kong filmmakers.
Hong Kong movies used to be the champions of Asian films. Although there are ups and downs in the industry, those who have been champions will have such arrogance and stubbornness.
After Hong Kong films came out of the golden age, they were looked down upon several times, but there will always be amazing works emerging in times of crisis, temporarily stopping the downward trend. Even if you can't win the throne of the champion, you must keep the glory of the champion.
For example, at the beginning of the 21st century, when Hollywood blockbusters swept the global film market, "Infernal Affairs" was born.
When Tony Jia swept the world with "Boxer" and "Tom Yum Gong", "Slaying the Wolf" and "Fuse" immediately blocked it.
At a time when the industry generally questioned that Hong Kong filmmakers were content to make sequels, eat their old books, and do their jobs after going north, the original masterpiece "Wushuang" not only won a box office of 1.274 billion, but also reached a Douban score of 8.0.
The appearance of "The Siege of the Kowloon Walled City" not only allows us to regain the enthusiasm of comic adaptation Hong Kong films such as "Crazy Boy", "Chinese Hero" and "Fengyun", but also allows us to relive the brotherhood of "The True Color of Heroes" and the happy enmity of "One-armed Knife".
Zheng Baorui used a way to "beat" back the glory of Hong Kong films.
[Text/Full Hoard]