In the Spring Festival file 3 months ago, director Rao Xiaozhi openly called the theater in order to improve the schedule of the movie "Surging Crowds".
Please don't cut down our number of times, let's come little by little, maybe there can be some feedback to the theater!
From Rao Xiaozhi's words, the melon-eating masses seem to be able to learn the "truth" of the low schedule of "Surging Crowds":
The pre-sale results of the movie are not good, and the theater feels that it does not make money, so it does not give the film schedule.
Isn't this ironclad evidence that profit-seeking capitalists are suppressing literary and art workers? Rao Xiaozhi's words aroused the indignation of many melon-eating masses, and many netizens even spontaneously organized to watch the movie, so that the attendance rate and scheduling rate of "Surging Crowds" have been improved to a certain extent.
As early as 2016, when the well-known director Wu Tianming's posthumous work "Hundred Birds and Phoenix" was released, film investor Fang Li knelt down in order to make "Hundred Birds and Phoenix" broadcast several times.
However, the lack of scheduling of "Hundred Birds and Phoenix" is a little different from that of "Surging Crowds", because "Hundred Birds and Phoenix" is a literary and artistic film about the inheritance of The Technology of Oh Na, with a small audience, and regardless of the quality of the film, the scheduling rate and attendance rate will not be high.
And "Surging Crowds" as a Spring Festival commercial film, there is no problem of small audiences, if the quality of the film is really very good, will the theater put the box office at your fingertips, do not have to suppress "Surging Crowds" for ulterior motives?
In addition, Fang Li and "Hundred Birds and Phoenix" have no direct interest relationship, he is out of respect for Wu Tianming, only in the process of live broadcasting revealed his true feelings and kneel down to beg for the film. Compared with Rao Xiaozhi, who is the director of "Surging Crowds", who issued an article calling on theaters to give some films for the sake of box office, Fang Li's behavior is even more valuable.
Comparing the differences between the situations of the two films when they openly begged for the film, it is not difficult to see that Rao Xiaozhi threw the pot of the low schedule of the film to the theater, which is actually not completely correct.
Of course, the pre-sale results are not satisfactory, and the theater line has reduced the initial schedule, which is indeed a very important reason.
In this year's May 1st file, "Your Wedding" starring Xu Guanghan has obtained a very good initial schedule by relying on super pre-sale results; on the contrary, Ren Suxi's "Looking for Han Ji", due to the poor pre-sale situation, the scheduling rate is negligible.
It can be seen that between the acting school and popular stars, the latter is obviously more able to affect the performance of the pre-sale box office. If "Surging Crowds" could have invited some popular students to help, it is estimated that the pre-sale box office would not be so miserable.
But the high pre-sale box office does not mean that the movie will necessarily become a hit, or take "Your Wedding" as an example, although the initial box office is good, but the quality of the film itself is not good, can not ignite the word of mouth, resulting in box office and word of mouth falling every day, and finally won by "On the Cliff". The quality of the film is not recognized, and the more people watch it, the easier it is to form a word-of-mouth reaction.
Although "Surging Crowds" did not perform well at the pre-sale box office, through Rao Xiaozhi's operation, it successfully increased the scheduling rate in the last few days of the Spring Festival file. However, the movie did not usher in the expected popularity, and the Douban score dropped a lot.
It is not difficult to see that the real level of "Surging Crowds" is actually not as good as Rao Xiaozhi thinks, and the judgment of the theater line according to its pre-sale results is not optimistic about the movie is still very accurate.
So, what's the biggest problem with The Crowd? As a remake, the plot is undoubtedly the first reason.
As we all know, "The Crowd" is a remake of the 2012 Japanese film "The Way to Steal the Key", although the latter is an unknown "minority film" in the impression of many domestic audiences, but in fact, the film has a fairly good reputation, with a good reputation of 8.5 points on Douban Film, and was also nominated for the Golden Jubilee Award at the 2012 Shanghai International Film Festival.
Therefore, like most remakes, "Crowded" will undoubtedly face the problem of localization adaptation in terms of plot.
So what are the obvious flaws in the localization adaptation of "Surging Crowds"?
After watching the original version of "The Method of Stealing Keys", I think there are three main points:
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="35" >01, love drama pulls crotch, forced motives are overcorrected</h1>
The storyline of "The Crowd" is basically the same as that of "The Way to Steal the Key", the most obvious changes appear in the story line of the male and female protagonists, and the most complaining plot in "The Crowd" is exactly here.
In "The Way to Steal the Key", the heroine Mizushima Kanae, played by Ryoko Hiromi, is a single woman who is not good at socializing, and because she wants to marry before her father is seriously ill, she is eager to find a suitable marriage.
In "Surging Crowds", Li Xiang, played by Wan Qian, is the mother of the list, and her experience of being disappointed by the negative hearted man in her early years has led to her lack of love for many years, plus she hopes to give her son a warm home, so she wants to find a reliable man to marry.
On the surface alone, the motivations of the above two characters are valid, and there does not seem to be much worth complaining about.
But when the two motivations are integrated into the overall plot to understand, it is obvious that the original setting is more natural and reasonable:
Kanae Mizushima saw that her father's health was getting worse every day, and she couldn't find a suitable date at all, so she could only try to associate with Kondo, who looked honest and reliable.
But she never expected that Kondo, played by Teruyuki Kagawa, acted honestly because of amnesia and mistaken identity, he was a big liar before the amnesia, and the skill of deception made both black and white mistakenly think that he was a mysterious cold-blooded killer.
Straight hates marrying a young girl who falls in love with a amnesiac slippery-headed liar, and although the story is exaggerated, it is not untrue, which is both in line with black humor and can lead to deeper philosophical thinking.
After all, it is only a matter of time before Kondo recovers his memory, so when he remembers his true identity, will he remember his feelings with Kanae and change his ways, or will he abandon Kanae and return to his old business?
Man is inherently good in nature, but it is easy to go from good to evil. So, is it really feasible to change from evil to good? The love line between Kondo and Kanae provides a meaningful philosophical reflection for the film, and it is not a simple love scene.
In contrast, in the plot of "Surging Crowds", Li wants to believe in a stranger for the sake of children and longs for love, which is not only irresponsible to the child, but also does not conform to the personality she has been abandoned by the negative man.
Although she and Zhou Quan, played by Andy Lau, can also form the same relationship as Kanae and Kondo in terms of identity, Li's motivation to fall in love with Zhou Quan is too weak, making it difficult for the audience to believe that the two will have the possibility of love, and it is even more difficult to extend other thoughts.
In order to increase the motivation of the two to fall in love, the film deliberately made a fuss about the child and engaged in a plot that heated up the relationship between the two.
Li Xiang's children participated in the speech contest when they imagined a father who was an astronaut, and Li wanted to make the child unpunished, begging the crew to steal the astronaut props costume of "Wandering Star Body" and pretend to be the child's father in order to make the child unpunished.
Let's not talk about how unreliable it is for a dragon suit actor to steal a valuable set of astronaut props, let's say that it is a setting to pretend to be the astronaut's father to win full applause, is this not encouraging children to be vain and lying?
Such a distorted value plot can actually become the introduction to the deepening of the relationship between the two, compared to the movie itself, such an arrangement is even more absurd and ridiculous. The crotch of the love drama has made the intention of "Surging Crowds" a lot shallower, and the plot of forcibly creating motives has become a major failure, and it is suspected of spreading inappropriate values every minute.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="35" >02, the male protagonist is too perfect, the background is not clear and difficult to justify</h1>
In addition to the love drama of the male and female protagonists pulling the crotch, "Surging Crowds" sets the thoughtfulness played by Andy Lau too perfect and is not too good.
When Chen Xiaomeng, played by Xiao Yang, and Zhou Quan evaded the pursuit and escaped into Zhou Quan's safe house together, by observing the layout in the safe house, it can be found that Zhou Quan is actually a typical elite class figure:
Graduated from a prestigious university, learned five cars, agile, the most important is more gold handsome, such a person is 007 in the United Kingdom, in Hollywood is Ethan Hunt, but in "The Crowd" is just a "performance" to pick up the liar?
In "The Way to Steal the Key", Kondo was originally just an ordinary grocery store owner, who was useless except for being cautious, and in middle age, he also encountered a marriage crisis that led to the breakdown of the family, and only after losing everything did he decide to take the risk of being a liar.
Compared with Kondo, who has never been ordinary in his life, why should he go to the gray profession of being a liar? With his origin and knowledge, he is fully capable of doing more decent work, and there is no need to do gray occupations that are despised by both black and white.
Why the male protagonist wants to become a liar, this is a plot setting that seems to have no effect, but is actually very important.
First of all, the plot of the killer and loser exchanging identities after amnesia will inevitably make the audience contrast the attitudes of the two people's lives, and understand that the reason why Loser failed is because he is too indulgent, as long as he shakes his spirit and regains his faith, he can get back on his feet.
The reason why the original male protagonist became a liar is because he was also a Loser, and he chose to take the sword to the side of the edge when he was cornered. Although his choice was biased, he did not become the god of sanhe who "lay flat and laughed".
In fact, if he does not choose the wrong choice, even if he lives another unbearable life, he can eventually live a better and better life through hard work, which undoubtedly makes the audience understand the positive energy that the film wants to convey.
But if the killer himself is a life-winning setting, and he and Loser can still live a good life after exchanging identities, it does not necessarily make people feel that this is the power of hard work.
Even after exchanging identities, the winners in life can still improve their lives with the self-discipline habits they have maintained over the years, while Loser still does nothing even if he has a lot of money, and the difference in the starting line between the two causes them to eventually return to their respective fates even if they accidentally deviate from the trajectory of life.
This seems to have become a fatalistic proposition, far from the main thrust of encouraging hard work, and even a little lost.
In addition, "The Method of Stealing the Key" investigates Kondo's identity through Takeshi Sakurai, revealing why Kondo became a liar. This design naturally explains Kondo's background as a liar, and on the other hand, it makes Sakurai Takeshi's performance more in line with a real person, after all, who would not seriously do some homework before imitating another person?
In "Surging Crowds", Chen Xiaomeng did not want to know who Zhou Quan was in the past, and after being forced to work by the underworld, he did the stalking work without saying a word, if he could enter the drama so quickly when he did the dragon running set, it is estimated that he would not be so depressed, right?
I don't know if the director and screenwriter deliberately set it so perfectly in order to please Andy Lau's fans. But from the perspective of film appreciation, the perfect character of the whole is a subtraction point, which makes the height of the film drop by one level.
In fact, Andy Lau will not mind playing the original Kondo setting at all, with his years of accumulated acting experience, perhaps playing the original Kondo's rich role will be more exciting.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="35" >03, the female protagonist's sense of existence is weak, and it does not play its due role at all</h1>
In "The Way to Steal the Key", the heroine Kanae is an unobtainable character, she is not only the best candidate to redeem Kondo, but also the key person in the ending to make the protagonist group turn the danger into a disaster.
But in "Surging Crowds", the heroine Li wants to be a completely dispensable existence. The crotch of the love line can not play a complete effect of redemption, and finally although the corpse was played to help Chen Xiaomeng deceive the underworld, but think about it carefully, there are so many abandoned models on the scene, why do you have to use a real person to play the corpse? Wouldn't it be better to observe in secret and see that the situation was not right and call the police in time?
As the editor-in-chief of the magazine, Kanae, through her expertise in luxury jewelry, saw through the operation of the profiteers to transfer property by buying luxury jewelry, and successfully saved Kondo and Takeshi Sakurai from the gangsters.
Li wants to be the editor-in-chief, and there is also the image of an independent woman, but he did not think of using his knowledge and contacts to help Zhou Quan and Chen Xiaomeng, and finally both of them were about to be killed, but they only knew how to cry and fight, and even called the police to help their sons remotely.
Such a non-existent heroine, I don't know what the director and screenwriter have in mind to set it this way.
Through the above comparison with "The Method of Stealing keys", we can clearly see that the localization adaptation of "The Crowd" is actually quite a failure, although for people who have not seen the original version, such a story of identity exchange seems very novel.
But for friends who have seen the original version, the plot of "Surging Crowds" is too difficult to withstand scrutiny, the details of the repair are very rough, all rely on The acting skills of Andy Lau and Xiao Yang to pull up the average, the theater line does not give high-ranking films a little injustice.
I am a wooden branch of the dangerous building, what do you think about "the Spring Festival stalls in the past 3 months, you can spit under the "surging crowds": the low row of films, don't blame the theater line"? Feel free to leave your comments below.