标签： 南京高端外卖工作室

Special feature of 1905 film network How long has it been since I saw a real martial arts movie on the big screen of the cinema?After 2017 and 2018, there are few martial arts movies released in domestic cinemas.

The martial arts film that went online on March 8 was originally a movie customized for Cloud Cinema, but it landed in the cinema early on March 2. Li Wei, the director, told 1905 Film Network that after a small-scale film viewing survey, he got a lot of positive feedback from the audience, so he decided to meet the cinema audience first, so that more people could see the film on the screen.

It’s a pity that the total box office of "Stranger Knife" was less than 500,000 yuan after it was released for a week. This movie, which is performed by,,,,,, and so on, should not only have this box office figure.

At present, the lack of popularity of martial arts films in the cinema market is also the main reason. Martial arts films launched at the beginning of the yearArrogant 2Originally planned to go to the cinema, I finally gave up and returned to the online platform. After the broadcast, I still gained wide acclaim from netizens, but unfortunately I didn’t get on the big screen.

The director used to explore the types of domestic martial arts films, but he said that he should not worry too much about the current predicament. "Martial arts films are a major type of China and have cultural characteristics. Thirty years in Hedong and thirty years in Hexi, it doesn’t matter, we are of this type, and we will also shoot martial arts films that are popular all over the world. "

Like Zhang Yimou’s point of view, director Li Wei still believes that martial arts films from glory to decline will be brilliant again in the future, because the audience who like martial arts films has always been there, and the key depends on whether the filmmakers can make good works.

Li Wei, director of "Stranger Knife"

Li Wei, a professional director, had just had the opportunity to write "Eight Minutes in Beijing" at the closing ceremony of the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics with director Zhang Yimou. Later, he was asked by Zhang Yimou to help Zhang Yimou shoot three films with the first assistant director.

"I learned a lot from him. From the’ Taoist magic device’, the level of Tao is to learn his awe and love for movies. The following level is how to shoot a movie better."

Li Wei benefited a lot from the Zhang Yimou crew, and at the same time got to know Zhang Yimou’s behind-the-scenes cast over the years, such as modeling director, editing director Yong-yi Li, photographer Zhongshuo, artist Cui Yaochen, etc. When he wanted to be an independent director to shoot "A Stranger’s Sword", they all came to help and jointly created this brand-new martial arts film.

PART

01

"From the early days of floating around in the bamboo forest, using the sword to plunge into the water to borrow strength, to the realistic style of seeing meat with a knife, with the change of the times and the different aesthetics of everyone, martial arts movies will also change."

In Li Wei’s view, a good martial arts film should meet the needs of the audience and also have its own unique expression. Although there are many difficulties in martial arts films nowadays, this genre still exists. Many production companies and directors are trying to create and break through, looking for the appearance of martial arts films that the audience likes now.

"In the future, and the director, the director seems to also want to shoot a martial arts film called" Knife ". So in fact, martial arts movies have always been there, and everyone is watching what kind of martial arts movie to shoot. "

Li Wei likes to watch martial arts films since he was a child. From Hero to Embroidered Spring Knife, he has always been deeply influenced by martial arts films. "When the road is rough, draw a sword to help each other, and when it’s time to make a shot, I will make a shot. I grew up with such a martial arts spirit and culture."

When he became a director, and it was the first time to make a martial arts film, he wanted to show the martial arts spirit of loyalty to the liver, righteousness and bravery in A Stranger’s Sword. "It is a poetic martial arts with more loyalty. The children in the film are less affectionate, and more brotherly and paternal. We express loyalty in this emotion."

PART

02

One of the main reasons for the decline of martial arts films is that there are too many stereotyped stories. How to tell a more fresh and refreshing martial arts story is a question that Li Wei has been thinking about.

He believes that "The Stranger Knife" has found a difference from other martial arts films at home and abroad — — "The role of selling charcoal Weng has basically not appeared in China’s films. I use a charcoal to tell a story. Tian Anye is like a charcoal. The strange knife in the movie should also have never appeared in the movie before. The knife is like a man, and the strange knife is Tian Anyi, and Tian Anyi is a strange knife, like a shadow. "

Li Wei was delighted to tell a martial arts story with a charcoal this time. "How to restore the environment in which charcoal was produced and manufactured in those years, from the birth of charcoal, through the perspective of charcoal, from outside the city into the city, into the palace, and have a relationship with people in the palace, this process is very interesting."

In the film, Tian Anye, the former head coach of the Mo Dao Army, became a charcoal seller. He is also a symbol of charcoal. "Although he is usually ruthless and really wants to burn, he will ignite himself to warm others."

The film also extended many interesting ideas through charcoal. For example, Qiansun Zhao, a fortune-teller who lived alone with Tian An’s powers, was like a fuse. "With Qiansun Zhao’s fuse, Tian An’s powers were ignited, and Tian An’s powers picked up a strange knife again, which restored justice and helped heaven," Li Wei said.

PART

03

An excellent martial arts film must be "both civil and military", the literary drama should be brilliant, and the action scene is the most important.

The action feature of The Strange Knife lies in the strange knife. At first, the length of the stranger’s knife was 2 meters 1, and the master felt that it was not murderous enough. Finally, the length of 2 meters 6 was set, weighing 40 pounds. Max Zhang, a martial arts athlete, has mastered many weapons, but this is the first time he has played such a big knife, and he has spent a lot of time training for it.

Through this creation, Li Wei realized the difference between martial arts films and martial arts films. Martial arts films like "A Stranger’s Sword" need weapons, so it is very difficult to design.

"What kind of professional attributes, character, and what kind of weapons to take, all action designs are logical." Li Wei revealed that the characters, weapons and fights in the whole movie were all set by a set of logical thinking.

For example, Tian Anye’s strange knife is fierce; Qin Gu’s basic knife is unsheathed, very neat and clean; At the head of Zhang Xuqing, there was pressure from the king of Qi, while at the bottom, there were eyeing deputy heads, who were excluded from each other, so he was relatively flexible, so he designed the long and short knives as his weapons.

Based on this complete set of action logic, before each scene is filmed, the specific how to fight has been designed. The final showdown between Tian Anye, played by Max Zhang, and Zhang Xuqing, played by Geng Le, is the climax of the whole film. Li Wei said that in this scene, "it is necessary to study how to fight broadsword and long and short knives. In fact, it is a spatial distance, and it is a close combat. According to this distance, a set of specific styles of play is extended."

In the last big battle, there was an action competition on one side, and Nie Linger, the widow of Prince Xia Meng, was dancing. "One is dancing, and the other is martial arts. What kind of sparks will collide between dancing and martial arts?" The director hopes to add a little romance and poetry to the film, and cross-edit the two scenes together to present different visual enjoyment to the audience.

A friend of Li Wei called to tell him that his two sons came home after watching the movie and took toy knives as strangers, learning the incantations in the movie and fighting each other.

"Let the next generation of young people see such martial arts movies, and they will be satisfied if they like them." If there is an opportunity, Li Wei wants to continue to make martial arts movies. "Like I was influenced by previous martial arts movies, I will continue to convey the martial arts spirit flowing in our blood and influence the next generation."

After the brief "carnival" of the National Day, the mainland film market ushered in a state of silence for nearly one and a half months. Hollywood blockbusters with high hopes were withdrawn in turn, and domestic high-quality new films were scarce, making November, which has always been unpopular, even more sad. This state was not partially alleviated until the release of "Eliminating Violence" last Friday. The film was written and directed by Ho Leung Lau, a Hong Kong director, and invited two powerful actors, Daniel Wu and Wang Qianyuan, to sit in the town, and continued the well-known setting of "duel between two heroes" in Hong Kong films. Although the word-of-mouth performance of "Eliminate Violence" was poor, it still earned nearly 200 million box office in the first weekend, which was related to the distribution strategy selected by the actors in the early stage.

Under the setting of "Double Heroes",

What are the highlights and shortcomings of "Eliminating Violence"

Since November, due to the serious shortage of new films, the film market has been in a downturn for several weeks. At the worst, the daily box office once fell to 20 million. Compared with the same period in previous years, the box office revenue in November this year was the highest in the past seven years. On the one hand, the release of many new Hollywood films lags behind, and on the other hand, strong domestic films are scarce, which jointly caused the cold and cheerless situation of the film market in November.

It was not until the release of "Eliminating Violence" last Friday that the downturn in the film market was partially alleviated. In the early publicity, the film featured Daniel Wu+Wang Qianyuan. Although they cooperated for the first time, their chemical reactions were also expected by the outside world because they had played the roles of positive figures and villains for many times before. In the eyes of many viewers, the biggest attraction of "Eliminating Violence" was the duel between Wang Qianyuan and Daniel Wu.

In "Eliminating Violence", Daniel Wu plays a gangster, and once again assumes the villain role after "New never to lose", while Wang Qianyuan, who once played the villain image in films such as "Save Mr. Wu" and "Break the Bureau", takes a positive role as a criminal police in this film. Perhaps because he is familiar with the excitement of the audience, or perhaps because of his many years of experience in the Hong Kong film industry, Ho Leung Lau, the director of this film, deliberately turned "Eliminating Violence" into a "double hero" play in the early stage of his creation. In the film, he designed many gun battles and fighting scenes for the two of them, and the climax scene of "Bathroom Hand-to-Hand Fighting" is the best in the film, abandoning the "fake style" of the same type of films in the past and fighting from boxing to meat.

In recent years, Hong Kong-made films, including "Cold War" and "Warriors", have always continued the classic setting of "Double Heroes" and gained good market response. In "Eliminating Violence", Daniel Wu and Wang Qianyuan have also subverted their previous images to a certain extent, especially for Daniel Wu, who once again plays the role of a gangster. In the film, he appeared with a long head of mullet, and when he appeared, he was full of pique, and his gas field was fully open, which corresponded with Wang Qianyuan’s ferocity and courage, further strengthening the tension between them. With his previous creative experience in the field of police and bandits films, director Ho Leung Lau also devoted many hearty scheduling scenes in the first half of the film, such as "Fighting Banks" and "Confrontation between Police and Bandits".

However, in addition to the "two heroes" setting and scene scheduling, there are also some problems in the drama. For example, the film relies too much on action scenes and weakens the confrontation between the two people. Most of the time, the purpose of "communication" between two characters in different time and space is achieved through editing. Although the large-scale gun battle drama enhances the sensory experience, it also makes the story adapted from real events lose its documentary and unconvincing.

In addition, limited by the length of the film, although there are many hearty fighting scenes in "Eliminating Violence", in less than 90 minutes, the protagonist has been pushed away by the plot. As a director, Ho Leung Lau neglected to pave the way in emotion and details, which led to some plot logic that could not stand scrutiny. For example, many questions such as how the criminal police quickly knew that the gang committed the crime was the Eagle Gang and how the Eagle Gang handled the huge amount of money robbed were lacking. While immersed in the excellent acting and beautiful body of the leading actor, the plot paving and connection became the soft underbelly of "Eliminate Violence", which further led to the film’s average word-of-mouth performance after its release. On Douban, "Eliminate Violence" only scored 6.5 points.

Sink the market, announce the help,

"Eliminating Violence" uses high-profile films to make up for the disadvantage of word of mouth.

Although the word-of-mouth after the release was not satisfactory, judging from the announcement before the release of "Eliminate Violence", the excellent performance of the film at the box office on the first weekend can still be traced.

Content quality is often the key factor to determine the box office trend of a film, but how to maximize the commercial value of the film depends largely on the distribution and marketing methods of the film in the face of insufficient content or word-of-mouth failure. For "Eliminating Violence", the biggest selling point of the film undoubtedly comes from two powerful actors, Daniel Wu and Wang Qianyuan. For this reason, after the film entered the official announcement stage, "Eliminating Violence" released a number of two-person production specials and tidbits, and created hot topics in Weibo and Tik Tok, continuously increasing the volume of the film’s topics.

According to the Cat’s Eye Professional Edition, since November 20th, "Eliminating Violence" has been ranked first in the broadcast of materials (trailers, MVs, tidbits, etc.) for several consecutive days. On the Weibo, topics such as # Daniel Wu’s acting skills # and # Daniel Wu’s fighting bath towel don’t drop # occupy the forefront of the hot search list; On the Tik Tok, the topic of # Movie Eliminating Violence has accumulated more than 700 million times, which is more popular than the films released in The Sacrifice and One Second in the same period. Making full use of social networks to achieve the effect of topic communication is the first homework done in the early stage of the release of "Eliminating Violence", and it has gained a good response.

In addition, a week before the official release of the film, "Anti-Violence" also opened a large-scale screening in several cities. It is worth mentioning that, unlike previous films of the same type, the first round of screening of "Anti-Violence" covered a number of second-and third-tier cities, and all of them were concentrated in the northern region. In the past, the market performance of films such as Anti-drug 2 and Apostle 2 proved that the audiences of such Hong Kong-made films were mostly concentrated in the south, especially in Cantonese. The radical approach of "Anti-violence" can be said to be to find the possibility for the film to further break the circle on the premise of maintaining the basic disk.

Facts have proved that this point-and-shoot strategy selected by "Eliminate Violence" has also achieved miraculous results. According to the professional version of Cat’s Eye, in the first weekend, "Eliminate Violence" continuously gained more than 41% of the proportion of films, and the proportion of golden fields and attendance rate were also far higher than those of the films of the same period. Compared with other films of the same type, the box office revenue of "Eliminate Violence" in the second and third lines has also been significantly improved. It is precisely because of the good foundation laid by the previous screening that "Eliminate Violence" took the advantage of arranging films in advance before the word-of-mouth collapse, and finally the film won more than 200 million box office revenue in the first weekend of release.

Type film IP+ strength actor,

Hong Kong films become a good medicine to save the market.

All along, Hong Kong films are potential stocks in all periods. In 2018, the National Day film "Warriors" won more than 1.27 billion box office and became the biggest winner in the same period. "Anti-drug 2" released in the summer of 2019 has accumulated 1.31 billion box office, ranking among the top ten in the annual domestic box office list. Facts have proved that Hong Kong-made genre films usually have great appeal to the audience, and with the help of powerful actors’ wonderful interpretations, they can often achieve box office success.

Take "Anti-drug 2" released last year as an example. The film inherited the IP of "Anti-drug 2" released in 2013, which once revived the Hong Kong-made crime genre film, taking advantage of anti-drug elements to shoot brotherhood and a sense of rivers and lakes, and harvested 240 million box office in the cold season of November of that year; Since then, this IP has made a comeback, and Qiu Litao, the director of Hong Kong genre film geek, was invited to direct the film. Louis Koo, who just won the Academy Award the year before, continued to return to play the leading role and compete with Andy Lau, another actor. The "Double Heroes" duel between two established Hong Kong stars also became the biggest attraction of the film.

In addition to the attraction brought by the IP blessing of Hong Kong films and the confrontation between powerful actors, the reason why Anti-Drug 2 can attract the audience into the cinema lies in its excellent action scenes. Director Qiu Litao put the gun battles and car chases that were common in the past in different backgrounds for interpretation. In previous Hong Kong crime films, car chasing scenes were mostly staged on open roads, but in the climax scene at the end of Anti-Drug 2, the protagonists Yu Shuntian and Di Zang staged a thrilling car chasing scene in a closed subway station, and two cars shuttled through the crowded subway station, bringing amazing visual effects.

In the long-term studio practice, Hong Kong directors have accumulated a set of effective genre film techniques. Thanks to the excellent scene scheduling of director Qiu Litao, the tense action scenes of the film and the chemical reaction among the actors, Anti-Drug 2 has continued the success of its previous film, successfully captured more than 600 million box office in less than a week, and finally gained more than 1.31 billion box office revenue, making it one of the most outstanding Hong Kong-made films in recent years.

Conclusion

Despite the poor word-of-mouth response, with the pre-occupied film arrangement advantage, the box office performance of "Eliminating Violence" still made many people shine, and also made the market have more expectations for the subsequent Hong Kong-made films. Next, the audience will also see Shock Wave 2’s "money empire: The Battle of the Peak" and other Hong Kong films appear, expecting that there will be explosive films with both box office and word-of-mouth in these films.

— THE