This year's overall decline in the Chinese film market, while lamenting theatrical films, is more and more looking forward to the expectations of those masterpieces that have not yet unveiled.
I believe that many fans, like me, must have one of the most anticipated movies in the next release - Mai Junlong's "Wind Forest Volcano".
A while ago, Mai Junlong was on the hot search and brushed up the circle of friends, but not because of his movie, but his music.
His collaboration with Dawn on "Forget, Hutchison", based on the "Hutchison Telecom" advertisement endorsed by Dawn in Hong Kong in the 90s, came to a musical current that spanned time and space.
Listen carefully to recordings of calls that deliberately flow out:
Leon: The song speaks?
Juno: "Forget" and "Remember"
Leon: "Forget" and "remember", sometimes I choose.
A pun, pinning on the past, and hinting at the introspection of the present.
Mai Junlong, as an outlier in the current Hong Kong entertainment industry, is not only because of his "rich second generation" status.
More because, Mai Junlong, who looks full of personality, has a deep "old" like snow in his bones.
In his directorial masterpiece "Zombie", it is a tribute to the Grandmaster of Hong Kong zombie films, Lin Zhengying, but although it is a tribute, the audience seems to have an unprecedented "zombie theme" impact experience.
"Strange, confused, literary" is the most popular evaluation of "Zombie", and the birth of "Zombie" is also a representative of Hong Kong filmmakers' new examination of traditional genre films.
"Life and death, death and death, love wants to produce infinite troubles."
Novelty and nostalgia, roots and innovation, coldness and heat, in Mak Junlong's body, we see the current young Hong Kong filmmakers for Hong Kong films a new thinking.
It is the big idea of "vowing to start from scratch" away from the older generation of filmmakers.
However, "Zombie" is already a 2013 film.
The subsequent "filmmaker" Mai Junlong is ultimately in a state of "absence" in terms of images.
However, it is not accurate to say that he is "absent", in 2016, Mai Junlong's "Wind Forest Volcano" began filming, and in 17 years, it officially released news to the public.
Invest 150 million yuan, snare half of the entertainment circle
The most concerned about "Wind Forest Volcano", in addition to this is Mai Junlong's second feature-length film, the overall investment of the film has exceeded 150 million, and internal sources say that the total investment in the film has increased to 200 million Hong Kong dollars.
It brings together the four major film emperors of Jin Chengwu, Gu Tianle, Liu Qingyun and Liang Jiahui, as well as the national goddess Gao Yuanyuan, as well as Wei Shiya, Du Dewei, Jiang Peiyao, Huang Weiwen, Lu Guanting, Lu Haipeng, Wang Deshun and other big coffee supporting roles.
Surprisingly, almost all of the 150 million yuan invested in "Wind Forest Volcano" was spent on production costs, and even the male god Jin Chengwu, who has rarely come out of the mountains in recent years, is only paid 20 million yuan.
It can be seen that Mai Junlong does not intend to make "Wind Forest Volcano" a mainstream-led popcorn movie.
The high degree of presentation of the work is Mai Junlong's expectation for "Wind Forest Volcano".
Because of his pickiness about the script, Liu Qingyun has popped up in the film industry for more than a year, and "Wind Forest Volcano" may be his first work to officially return to the public vision as a "good actor".
And Liang Jiahui, who frequently picks up bad films in the drama bones, will definitely be able to take his place in Mai Junlong's army.
For actors or stars, before officially entering the crew, Mai Junlong has already considered it.
"What is your purpose in making movies?" Do you want to be a star or an actor? ”
If you just blindly want to become a glamorous star who relies on traffic to attract attention, then participating in various business activities and topical occasions can bring the desired results.
But if you are exercising as an actor, then it takes a lot of time to hone the story, characters, background settings, etc.
The actor is the person Mai Junlong really wants.
What would a night in Hong Kong be like without crowds?
In 2013, "Zombie" premiered in Venice, receiving mixed reviews from international and foreign film critics, but it was not these external voices that worried Mai Junlong.
Mai Junlong, who could not sleep because of the upside-down jet lag, began to make up stories on the opposite side.
At that time, he was faced with the darkness of this Venetian night, and he felt that it was a night he had never seen in Hong Kong.
"The neon lights and street lights at night illuminated the sky brightly"
So, Mai Junlong began to ask himself a question
"How do people who don't have nights live?"
The story of "Wind Forest Volcano" was born, and its English name is Sons of the Neon Night.
From 2013 to the present, Mai Junlong has spent 5 years grinding the script.
He wanted to make a story about Hong Kong, and Hong Kong was experiencing her own "Wind Forest Volcano".
Hong Kong, it's snowing
Just as Southerners have always had obsessive expectations of snow, in theory, you can't see snow in Hong Kong.
According to the records of the Hong Kong Observatory, Hong Kong has a meteorological record of 4 snowfalls since 1967.
They were Cape Gorenchen on 2 February 1967, Tai Mo Shan on 13 December 1967, Tai Mo Shan on 29 January 1971, and The New Territories wide area on 14 December 1975.
The most recent time, Hong Kong ushered in snow, I am afraid it was in "Wind Forest Volcano".
Mai Junlong said,
"I created a very cold world because the weather, the day and the night all affect the state, thoughts and worldview of the characters. From this point of view, I slowly established the worldview of "Wind Forest Volcano". ”
In order to make everything more realistic, the crew restored Causeway Bay 1:1, and spent 3 months restoring Causeway Bay in a steel factory in Huizhou, Guangdong Province.
From the arrangement to the beef jerky sold in the store, they all strive to be real to the audience's opinion
This is Hong Kong!
"Wind Forest Volcano" was filmed across Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and abroad, from a high temperature of more than 30 degrees to a freezing test of -20 ° C, from summer to winter, from the city to the snowy mountains.
The crew even waited together to be able to shoot a real snow.
For Mai Junlong, the work "Wind Forest Volcano" is more like a process of "incubation", and he is using his way to meet a newborn of his own.
In March 2018, the crew of "Wind Forest Volcano" officially announced the completion of the film.
Until the end of 2019, we have not waited for the release of "Wind Forest Volcano".
At the press conference of "Acts 2" a while ago, Le Yiling, when announcing her confidence in the production of "Acts 2", also mentioned that the movie "Wind Forest Volcano" is in full swing for post-production.
As for the release date, it is expected that we will not be able to meet you until the middle of 2020.
What kind of unique story will Mak Chun-lung's "Wind Forest Volcano" bring to the city of Hong Kong?
Mai Junlong, who once carried the label of "Rich Second Generation", never forgot to examine himself, which made me suddenly think of what he said in a series of advertisements:
"A lot of people have asked me what I really want to prove to this day.
I don't have anything to prove.
I just want to do what I love. ”