Preach in words. - Don Tears
In 2016, the mainland box office of Hong Kong-made films broke the ice collectively.
"Macau Storm III", which was first released in the Spring Festival file, won 1.116 billion at the box office, followed by "Ip Man III." released in March, followed by "Ip Man III." Broke 800 million, "My Secret Agent Grandpa" exceeded 300 million in April, "Cold War II" in July was nearly 700 million, "Dangerous City" in August was 167 million, "Apostle Walker" broke 600 million, and "Anti-Corruption Storm 2" broke 200 million in September.
Two years later, the film "Peerless", which counterattacked the National Day file, pushed the record up to 1.273 billion.
In 2019, the summer file of "Sweeping Drugs II" broke the box office record to 1.3 billion, and the "Ip Man 4: The End" of the Lunar New Year file was nearly 1.2 billion, and then only a year later, "Bomb Disposal Expert II" rewrote the record to 1.314 billion by a slight margin, and finally this year's "Fury Serious Case" peaked with a box office of 1.328 billion.
Some things, as long as there is a beginning, the back is a matter of course.
It's like Hong Kong films breaking through the billion-dollar box office mark in the mainland.
Led by "Macau Storm III", to the top of "Fury And Serious Cases", six in five years.
But numbers aren't just numbers.
Sweeping through the fog, you will find that behind each film breaking the billion box office, there are reasons.
In 2016, Macau Storm III.
Many people say that Wang Jing is the director who knows the audience's preferences and needs the most.
In fact, this itself is the basic attribute of Hong Kong films, and even the performances of most Hong Kong actors have risen and fallen on this level.
Among the films that Hong Kong films start shooting every year, gags, funny tricks, violent action and sexy genre films will account for more than 95%, and the remaining few are left to directors and actors who have some ideas to try, and there is a high probability that the box office will not be good.
"Macau Storm III." on the basis of the two previous works, the lineup and absurdity are pushed to the limit, in the words of Wang Jing, "exhausted 60 years of accumulated connections", led by Chow Yun Fat, joined the two kings Andy Lau and Jacky Cheung, followed by Zhang Jiahui, invited the popular Li Yuchun and South Korea's Uncle Bird, the final result is to win the box office and lose word of mouth.
Looking back at the top three of the Spring Festival stalls that year.
Although Stephen Chow's "Mermaid" has also been spat on by many people, the overall story is told smoothly and flawlessly, the combination of special effects and plot is quite good, the proportion of comedy plots is moderate, coupled with zhou Xingchi's word-of-mouth feelings accumulated over the years, the box office has soared.
Aaron Kwok's "Journey to the West: Sun Wukong Three Dozen White Bone Essences", the reputation has warmed slightly on the basis of the previous work, the special effects are well-made, and the main roles of Sun Wukong, White Bone Essence and Tang Monk are all well shaped, but the practice of forcibly implanting laughter points has reduced the quality of the film, if you remove the funny scenes of Xiao Shenyang and Luo Zhongqian, the film reputation will be stronger, and finally rank second in the Spring Festival file with 1.2 billion.
Chow Yun Fat's "Macau Storm III" is too farcical, all the way to the box office and eggs flying together, almost completely smashed the signboard, but based on a strong cast, coupled with the high tolerance of the audience that year, so its billion box office has some flukes.
Therefore, behind this film's over one billion is the credit of "Hong Kong-style entertainment" and "cast".
However, judging from the post-screening response, it is a kind of "subtraction" of Hong Kong films.
In 2018, "Peerless".
Director Zhuang Wenqiang has actually been hiding behind the scenes, mainly screenwriters, and the cooperation with Mak Zhaohui in the impression is also in the second place.
So when "Peerless" shined, many people realized that he was a "hermit master".
And when he and Mak Siu-fai joined forces for many years, he also began to try to fly solo, the first work was "Flying Sand Wind Transfer", which won the Hong Kong Film Awards for new directors, and then the second was "Peerless", this time more powerful, becoming the most nominated film in the history of the Academy Awards, and won three awards and four technical awards for best director, best film and best screenwriter.
Review the National Day file of that year.
Before the release, following the previous comedy films such as "Shy Iron Fist" and "The Richest Man in Xihong", "Li Cha's Aunt" was pinned on high hopes, and the opening game was grabbed with a 35.8% scheduling, followed by Zhang Yimou's "Shadow" with a 22.4% schedule, and "Peerless" only scored 18.8% of the scheduling, slightly winning the "Fat Man Action Team" with 0.3 percentage points.
However, the next day, "Peerless" achieved a counterattack on "Shadow" in the case of the film being diverted again, and even more on the third day, it achieved a counterattack and won the single-day box office champion in the schedule, but the schedule has not obtained an overwhelming advantage, until the end of the holiday, its single box office has been equal to the sum of several other films, and the schedule has only opened up by eight percentage points.
Therefore, in this case, it may be understood that the energy of "Peerless" has not been fully released.
"Peerless" adopts a narrative structure of less "reversal" in Chinese films, which has high requirements for the connection of the plot and the performance of the actors, and there is a clear difference between the conventional police film that only pursues scene stimulation and fast-paced entertainment, especially the narrative goes back and forth between true and false, and the multi-faceted and complex characters make the audience dizzy.
In terms of performance, Chow Yun Fat's aura and Aaron Kwok's "technology" are perfectly matched, one is calm and calm, the other is treacherous and changeable, which is a famous scene in the history of Hong Kong film performance, and it is also Aaron Kwok's acting leap after "Cold War" partner Leung Ka Fai.
When it comes to "Peerless", it has to be refuted again again against the "plagiarism theory" that has been repeatedly brainlessly stamped on the Internet.
The 1995 Hollywood film "Very Suspect" is indeed very exciting, the director gathers all the clues in an interrogation room, blatantly shows the audience, but cleverly completes a public trick performance, everyone turns a blind eye, so the reversal at the end of the film is shocking.
So why has "Peerless" been repeatedly identified by some people as "plagiarism"? Because the two are both crime themes and use the same reverse narrative structure, if you look closely, except for the same narrative structure, there is no similarity at all in the core and direction of the plot between the two.
As mentioned above, the brilliance of "Very Suspect" lies in the fact that the clues are concentrated in front of the audience but people are blinded, and the strength of "Peerless" lies in the perfect integration of the true and false interweaving of the narrative and the multi-faceted integration of the characters, so that the story is repeatedly reversed.
Therefore, the reason why "Peerless" broke through the billion is the combination of "Hong Kong-style business", "powerful script" and "excellent performance" and "excellent director".
In 2019, "Sweeping Drugs II".
If you remember well enough, you will remember that the final release time of "Sweeping Drugs II" was July 5, 2019, when "Eight Hundred" was withdrawn, and it was originally scheduled for July 25, only one day after the early release of "Nezha's Devil Boy Descending".
The film story is lackluster, the typical traditional model of Hong Kong films, with the bursting and fast-paced advancement of the scene, cover up the weak plot, the characters become facialized, completely driven forward by the plot, all for the car chase, gunfight and explosion of the movie scene service, in fact, is a kind of inversion, after the release of the word-of-mouth situation relative to the previous work can be called collapse.
But the combination of Andy Lau and Gu Tianle is extremely powerful.
These two actors are typical idols, and the commercial entertainment genre in the works accounts for more than 90%, especially Gu Tianle. They are also almost the two most film-participating actors in Hong Kong, accumulating a considerable number of fixed moviegoers over the years. Driven by these two factors, a strong attraction is formed.
In one fell swoop, the film broke through a billion, and slightly broke the box office record of the previous "Peerless".
Discussing the factors behind it is the work of "Hong Kong-style entertainment" and "cast".
Unfortunately, word of mouth could not be synchronized.
In 2019, Ip Man 4: The Finale.
One of the best characters Zhen Zidan has portrayed in his career is Ip Man, who is elegant, gentle and strong inside.
It is also the best personal work of director Ip Wai Shin.
The series is also a typical example of "art is higher than life", and it has the magic of Jin Yong's brushwork, based on the archetypal characters, combined with the surge of the times, the story line is gradually laid out, although the story is mostly fictional, we seem to follow the movie, to fully appreciate the temperament and spring and autumn of a generation of masters.
Zhen Zidan was also nominated for the 28th Academy Awards with "Ip Man", but unfortunately met Zhang Jiahui's "Witness".
When filming this "Ip Man 4: The End", the media broke out that its film remuneration was as high as 100 million, which is also a groundbreaking figure, and there should have been only a precedent for Jet Li to take over the filming of "Submission of Fame" with 100 million films.
In the follow-up series of the film, although the plot is gradually separated from the real experience of the characters, it is reasonable in terms of art.
The film exceeded one billion because of the "director's skill", "archetypal fame", "Hong Kong-style action", and "actor performance".
2020, Bomb Disposal Expert II.
Three years ago, "Bomb Disposal Expert" box office is ordinary, although it won the championship of the same file, but the number of 400 million is not particularly eye-catching, and the plot is quite criticized, in fact, I did not think that this movie would open a sequel, because Andy Lau's character Zhang zaishan was killed at the end.
But the sequel is still coming, this time is still the usual backdoor sequel routine of Hong Kong movies, the protagonist actor remains unchanged, but the role and story are new, and the previous "Eavesdropping" series and "Sweeping Drugs II" are the same.
The film's publicity at that time was very fierce, such as "the best Hong Kong film after "Infernal Affairs" and "comparable to "Peerless"", "the best commercial film after "Peerless"" and so on, but in all fairness, the advantage of "Bomb Disposal Expert II" still comes from the traditional plot rhythm, the tension of the scene and the tension of the bomb disposal story itself, and when it comes to the depth of the film itself, it is not very good.
Its plot design can not be as complex and exquisite as "Infernal Affairs", "Peerless" and "Cold War", and there is no refreshing deep creative performance in the performance, Liu Qingyun even seems to be devoid of energy, but the explosion special effects can be taken out separately, and the visual effects are really good.
Therefore, it refreshed the box office of "Sweeping Drugs II" by a slight advantage, which lies in the three achievements of "Hong Kong-style entertainment", "cast" and "scene special effects".
In 2021, "Fury Case".
Director Chen Musheng's posthumous work is also the style he has always adhered to, especially the Commercial Crime Action Film with Hong Kong flavor.
Today, when Jackie Chan and Jet Li faded out, Zhen Zidan is indeed the last only action superstar, basically the last sign in the field of action, and director Chen Musheng himself is an expert in making action movies, so this movie can be understood as a strong combination of two Hong Kong film signs.
And Chen Dao's works have always hoped to inject some human dilemmas into the works, no matter what the final result is, but at least this sincerity is sufficient, and it is also reflected in his works over the years, such as "Heavenly Love", "Three Forks", "Boy's True Colors" and "Sweeping Poison", or tragic endings, or emotional difficulties, or love and righteousness dilemmas.
Nicholas Tse has made very few films in recent years, and his performance in this play is ordinary, not as accurate and smooth as "Informant".
The main reasons for the film's rise to the top are "Hong Kong-style entertainment", "action signboard" and "Chen Dao's legacy".
These are six Hong Kong movies in five years, on the scale of a billion.
It may be concluded that "Hong Kong-style entertainment, burst scenes and cast" are common elements.
Coupled with excellent scripts, directors and actor performances, it is a box office and word of mouth, just like the movie "Peerless".
Add and subtract, each takes what is needed, but each success cannot be copied.
Only quality remains.