Special feature of 1905 film network Compared with other domestic films in the same period, it should be an absolute topic blockbuster. Two international directors and a Grand Slam winner have attracted considerable attention since the first poster was released in May this year.
Shunji Iwai, Japanese Wong Kar-wai, the originator of Xiao Qingxin.
Debut is the peak, relying on a film to let countless wenqing know what is called "pure love."
Douban score screenshot
Later, with the help of and so on, a large number of fascinating literary goddesses — — Yuu Aoi, Anne Suzuki, Chara, Bae Doo Na … …
In the past few decades, the "small fresh filters" that Hong Kong and Taiwan campus youth films love to use have all copied him, been imitated and never surpassed.
Chen Kexin, the best director of Golden Horse and Golden Statue.
Across Hongkong, Mainland and Taiwan Province, he will shoot explosions (,,) and even love (,,).
Zhou Xun, don’t tell me.
The first "Grand Slam Winner" in the Chinese film industry, she won all the Golden Rooster, Golden Horse and Golden Statue at the age of 30. If she wants to say that she is the first in the entertainment circle, it is estimated that no one dares to say the second.
These immortal lineups, plus a group of supporting actors with high audience: Zifeng Zhang, Qin Hao, Hugh, Tan Zhuo … … Anyway, we have to start with 200 million, and cut 700 million or 800 million as usual.
However, as of the time of Xiao Dianjun’s press release, the total box office of Hello Zhihua was only 50 million yuan, which was not only overwhelmed by Marvel Comics’s masterpiece, but even Conan, which had been released in Japan for more than half a year, dumped it twice.
Screenshot from Yien data
Why does a topic with a luxurious lineup have a dismal box office?
Is it the pot of the film itself? Or is there another reason?
Our 1905 editorial department felt that this piece … … It’s really a long story.
Elephant: another spiritual prescription
This time, Shunji Iwai, who is good at curing and causing depression, has prescribed another mental prescription. He bypassed the stereotype of blind nostalgia in youth films and put forward another view: youth, no matter how long it has passed, will still nourish your life in a subtle way.
Because of this ambiguity, I no longer cling to the freshness of youth and the gloom of adult life.
So I chose to write a letter, an act that runs counter to the present society, an imaginary ceremony and a breath of fresh air.
Small pain: Feel an emotion
Although the box office is terrible, I personally prefer Hello, China.
After all these years, Shunji Iwai is as melodramatic as ever. You have to use letters to convey information, film cameras to take pictures, and you have to give in to the word "literature and art" in a fast-paced life.
Watching his movies is more like feeling an emotion. Coupled with a fixed style, people who like it will like it very much, and people who hate it will also hate it. Besides, Dalian in the film is really beautiful.
Xiaoying: Shunji Iwai-style model opera
In the Shunji Iwai-style model opera, the love triangle between two girls and a boy is Flowers and Alice, the housewife’s flower is Changyu’s letter, and the main story is simply Love Letter … …
If you change to Japanese, you may get a score of 7 through the emotional filter, but it’s a pity that the orange raw Huaibei is bitter orange. When Hugh appeared, the introspection was quiet and out of the human fireworks.
Ke Nuo: the hero’s late self-indulgence
It’s not so much an upgraded version of Love Letter as the self-indulgence of Shunji Iwai’s hero in his late years.
Letters are still there, and the pain of youth is still there, but without the snow in a small jar, the rain in April, the green wheat fields, the fireworks on the tower … His usual specialty in creating atmosphere is covered by the dry and tasteless urban fireworks, which means less scale, less meaning and less aftertaste.
Due to the cross-border and cross-regional cultural barriers, Iwai lost his truth and lost his mind when recreating the historical memory of the 1980s. Of course, there was Qin Hao’s wig and Hugh and Tan Zhuo who disturbed the second half. Strictly speaking, when he came to China for filming for the first time, he could not escape being forced to implant commercial advertisements (Hundred Years Old Mountain) in the film.
Layers of old, middle-aged, middle-aged and three generations of multi-group characters are stacked, and the drama has a thick product, which can be described as shifting back and forth and switching left and right, which finally weakens the intensity of empathy and gets twice the result with half the effort.
X.C.: Success is Shunji Iwai, and defeat is Shunji Iwai.
I don’t deny that I will be hit by some of these emotions, but when I think about it, I feel a little melodramatic. That kind of emotion is taken away by the camera when you are absolutely emotional. But if the audience is a little more rational, this emotion is cleaner than a blank sheet of paper in an instant.
Spell a lot: the Japanese bring their own things to mourn, and the Chinese context is really lacking.
The biggest question in Hello, China is not whether Japanese feelings can be expressed by China actors. Of course, this is also a question in the film — — In the suicide note as an important prop, what kind of adults will we become when summer is over? The Japanese bring their own mourning for things, and the Chinese context is really lacking.
The biggest problem is the rush and emptiness of the film. There is no full story to carry the theme of regret, missing, growth and so on that Shunji Iwai wants to express.
But there is one thing I like very much, about Nan, the protagonist who is not present, who has failed for 30 years after continuous Excellence. This is the strength of Japanese directors, which warmly shows you a negative energy world.
Looking at the above contents, it is not difficult to see that this is a controversial literary film, and the controversy mainly revolves around the content of the film itself, such as stories, characters, styles, shots, emotions and so on.
There is no doubt that Hello, China is full of distinctive director style, and the setting, filters, details and interests of "Shunji Iwai style" are everywhere, which invisibly divides the audience into camps.
For fans who are familiar with and like him.Despite the use of China’s cast, those delicate and tender narratives, those endless feelings, are still the original formula, or the familiar taste, which is the China version of Love Letter.
For fans who are so familiar with it that they expect to see surprises.This is a collection of Shunji Iwai’s works, funeral, letter writing, love triangle … … These scenes are so boring that they seem to be frying cold rice. This is "Shunji Iwai’s movie", but it is not the "Shunji Iwai’s movie" they want.
butPassers-by who are not very interested in Shunji Iwai.Perhaps they are directed at their favorite actors, perhaps because of their friends’ Amway, or perhaps because they are interested in the fame of the main creator, but most of them are almost dissuaded by "movies are too literary".
The word "literature and art" is a double-edged sword for Hello, Zhihua.
On the one hand, it needs such a unique temperament to consolidate its fans, but on the other hand, it is a tonality dilemma that the film’s main creation and announcement can’t escape.
According to the box office data of urban movies in the first three quarters of 2018, although the box office market in the north, Guangzhou and Shenzhen is very large, the growth rate has been overtaken by the second, third and fourth lines.
The picture comes from the movie box office, right?
Explosions such as "Lover", "Ex-3" and so on all captured the appetite of young people in small towns and thus seized the box office.
And "Hello, Zhihua", as a Japanese pure love live-action film, its own type limits its box office trend to be not strong enough.
Aragaki Yui, who once had "10 million husbands in China", starred in a light comedy. In the end, the box office in the mainland was only 18 million, and the "original" Shunji Iwai won more than 40 million. The audience already bought it.
Screenshot from Yien data
Although the content style of literary films limited the audience to enter the cinema, the box office of "Hello, China" was not just the pot of the film. Their propaganda team did not lower the threshold at all, and almost gave up potential incremental users.
All the core materials, that is, posters and trailers, are developed around the three main creations. Even the final posters are spliced by a group of actors, and the viral materials are spread by a large number of literary languages.
From mid-May to mid-September, the poster was issued, the first notice was finalized, and then the national roadshows in several cities were launched from October to early November, until the release on November 9, and the planning and publicity with memory points was almost zero.
On the cooperation platform, the "Hello, Zhihua" team also takes the route of "standing tall" and "pushing hard", such as the Bazaar dialogue between Zhou Xun and Chen Kexin, and the Zhihu Salt club dialogue in Shunji Iwai. How many small town youths will watch these platforms? It is estimated that it is very small.
These publicity activities not only failed to clarify the theme and topic of the film, but also did not arouse the interest of passers-by. They just kept strengthening the inherent fans of the main creation and style, and did not mean to precipitate downward and expand incrementally.
The previous groups of virus materials were simple and rude, but the tonality of the film was clarified, and the lower users were opened up, which even catered to the interests of the fan group.
The "positive energy" public service advertisement released by "Venom" in the same period is also very memorable.In the big environment where everyone has to publish koi fish and Fantastic Animals have to rely on "sniffing" to make money, and everyone is competing to tell jokes in Tik Tok and Aauto Quicker, "only children with enough soil can have sugar to eat", and the still "high cold" announcement is undoubtedly giving away the heat and flow.
Of course, it is impossible to sell literary films, but they will still enter the cinema and the market.
However, if the marketing promotion of a movie is just talking to itself on an insulated platform and disconnecting from the audience’s distribution and materials, it is simply useless to maximize the effect.
No matter how stylized the visual image is, no matter how meaningful the postmodern narrative is, it can only be confined to the deep alley to admire itself.
