article: Mingsheng
Hong Kong once held the Chinese film and television works, and it has always been known as Oriental Hollywood, but unfortunately everything has become a thing of the past; just watching more than 200 Hong Kong films released in the 1990s in a year, reducing to less than 60 in recent years, fully reflecting the shrinking degree of the industry, and there is no supply because there is no demand. Recently, the 8-year-old science fiction masterpiece " Tomorrow War " has been released, which makes people pay attention to whether Hong Kong films can regain their strength and start again - very regrettable, the preliminary answer seems to be no.
Hong Kong box office is impressive!
Mainland box office lost?
"The Legend of the War" has a good box office in Hong Kong. The movie was released for three weeks and earned HK$60 million, becoming the box office champion of Hong Kong films this year and ranked among the top ten box office lists in history. The outside world is unanimously optimistic that this film has the opportunity to challenge a higher position, and even breaks the record of HK$66.82 million set by the top " Chills II".
However, to analyze Chinese movies, we cannot just watch Hong Kong's local achievements. After all, the mainland is the largest market - especially considering the 400 million cost of "The Legend of the War of Tomorrow", Hong Kong alone will definitely lose money and not make any profits. The mainland is the main battlefield of the movie. The box office of this film is about 700 million yuan, which is not a shame to some extent. However, compared with another masterpiece "The Lonely Moon" released at the same time, the box office of the latter exceeded 3 billion yuan. In addition, another Hong Kong-produced film " Detectives' War " earlier also received more than 700 million yuan, which shows that "The War of Tomorrow" is really disappointing. "The Legend of the War" with a cost of
.4 billion was not ideal. Why is
? "The Legend of the War" is based on Hollywood-level special effects, but in fact, the film was filmed as early as 2017 and was later produced in Hong Kong for 4 years. Many special effects scenes in the film may be out of date. Furthermore, the mainland is not Wu Xia Amon. The production level has improved a long time ago, and there are many similar science fiction masterpieces. " Wandering Earth " released in 2019 is an example - irony, the film happened to be filmed in the same year as "The War of Tomorrow", but the latter was released three years later.
failed to break through the theme
Eat old money problem is serious
or ask, even if the results of "The War of Tomorrow" are disappointing, does the success of "The Detective" prove that Hong Kong films are not dead? The symbolic significance of "The War of Tomorrow" lies in whether this movie, which is attracting "the largest science fiction masterpiece in Hong Kong's history", can open up a new world for Hong Kong films; on the other hand, "The Detective War" is a well-known police and gangster film for Hong Kong, and the same is true of "Rage", which last year's box office in mainland China. In terms of macro terms, Hong Kong's economy mainly relies on the financial industry, and has always been criticized for being "old capital". It seems that it is powerless to develop innovative technologies; from a micro perspective, Hong Kong's film and television industry is also "old capital", and there is no survival skills except police and gangster films?
Many Hong Kong directors are quite popular in the mainland and have a wide range of subjects; however, their works are often not purely Hong Kong films, but co-productions mainly filmed in the mainland and led by mainland actors. For example, although " Changjinhu " which tops the box office in mainland history, is directed by two Hong Kong directors, Tsui Hark and Lin Chaoxian , " Red Sea Action " directed by Lin Chaoxian was once the top box office. In addition, " Mermaid " by Stephen Chow , " Chinese Captain " by Liu Weiqiang , " Chinese Captain " by Zeng Guoxiang 's "Youth", etc., in all kinds of movies, there are very few Hong Kong elements involved, and many people do not call it Hong Kong films. Pure Hong Kong films need to be in the mainland for a prosperous place. It is not that there is a lack of successful equations, but it is not enough to rely solely on a successful equation for police and gangster films. In particular, from " Infernal Affairs " in 2002, as well as "Plan A" and "Police Story" in the 1980s, the innovation space for Hong Kong-style police and gangster films has become increasingly narrow and gradually reaching its end.
Hong Kong movies have the problem of "food old capital" in terms of themes and actors.
Another problem exposed in "The War of Tomorrow" is not only that there is no breakthrough in the theme, but also that the actors have exposed the problem of "food old capital". Isn't it? The protagonists of Hong Kong stars in the film are 52-year-old Louis Koo , 58-year-old Liu Qingyun , and 57-year-old Carina Lau ; as for the younger ones, they are all mainland actors. Just as mainland film and television works have already emerged, a large number of new generations of "post-00s" have emerged, but Hong Kong is still wearing armor by a group of old Huang Zhong from the previous era. It’s not that Lian Po is useless, but that Hong Kong’s situation is not worth worrying about. In fact, the Hong Kong directors listed above are all over 60 or even over 70 years old, and the youngest Zeng Guoxiang is also 42 years old. Last year, the two male protagonists in "Rage" were ridiculed, who was 40 years old, to compete with Donnie Yen, who was nearly 60 years old; in this year's "The Detective War", the three protagonists, Andy Lau, Charlene Tse, and Lam, are all over 40 years old.
In addition to movies, Hong Kong stars who have been popular in mainland TV in recent years, such as those invited to participate in programs such as " Sisters Riding the Wind and Waves " and " Brothers who Overcome Thorns" and other programs, were mainly active in the 1990s. From another perspective, what active Hong Kong stars born in the 2000s can enter the mainland market? The answer is not no. One type is to go north completely and no longer pay attention to the Hong Kong market; the other type is to be in full swing, such as the new singers attending "The Voice of the Continuous" and whether they can succeed remains to be verified. There is no doubt that the above-mentioned Hong Kong stars in the 1990s were fortunate to catch the last bus that was still popular in the mainland for Hong Kong films, Hong Kong dramas and Hong Kong Philharmonics; with the decline of Hong Kong films, those born in the 2000s would not receive tickets.
The new singers attending "The Voice of the Continuous" are still to be verified whether they can succeed.
or ask, is it considered success to succeed in the mainland? The definition of success should of course not focus on the mainland. In recent months, in addition to the aforementioned "The War of Tomorrow" and "The Detective", there are actually many Hong Kong films that have recorded 10 million box offices in Hong Kong, including "My Mom Has the Second", "Family Spicy", "Farmer's Stories", and "Road Mountains". I believe that mainland friends will be unfamiliar with these movies. The reason behind its improvement in box office is not ruled out that it benefits from the "anti-epidemic and epidemic labor". Citizens who are trapped in small Hong Kong urgently need to find entertainment. Compared with the Hong Kong films that have earned tens of millions of box offices in the past two years, there are only 3 and 5 respectively, which shows how the box office has been "unusual" these days. In addition, the success of related films in Hong Kong highlights another dilemma in the Hong Kong film and television industry - politicization.
Politicized disasters Hong Kong movies and TV
Narrow vision, blind support, and difficult cooperation
Hong Kong, which has experienced major political turmoils, has become a pan-politicized and highly politicized society. The so-called general politicization refers to the pervasive political thinking, including looking at film and television works and even artists from a political perspective; the so-called high politicization means that the party is attacked by the enemy and the enemy, and they will stop watching, boycott, and even organize cyber troops to attack the other party due to different political views. At the same time, they will blindly praise the peers and sing to support the stage regardless of their quality. In fact, the above-mentioned movies that entered the mainland are all called "blue silk films" and are also equated with co-production films; on the contrary, those who are voluntarily or forced to enter the mainland are regarded as "yellow silk films", including actors and directors who are loved by the yellow silk to participate in the production.
Hong Kong film production is getting worse and worse. In addition to not advancing, it will retreat, and the politicization is also the source of the disease. Whether to enter the mainland is not the key to success; however, if there is not enough box office revenue, how can we support more scale and higher quality production? It is not necessary to deny that if "The War of Tomorrow" is not supported by the mainland's 100 million box office, it is impossible for investors to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to shoot. On the contrary, if the box office is expected to be only millions or tens of millions, the movie is destined to be limited to rice and rice. This is a very realistic question.When the budget for dramas on multinational streaming platforms is often as high as hundreds of millions of dollars, it is really worth it if Hong Kong-made films stay at a small scale of hundreds of millions of Hong Kong dollars!
Hong Kong, which has experienced major political turmoil, has become a pan-politicized and highly politicized society.
In fact, politicized thinking has also narrowed the horizons of Hong Kong films. Some people think that Hong Kong films (yellow silk films) only need to take care of local (yellow silk) audiences. Let’s break out of the political framework first. The reason why the Korean film and television industry has attracted much attention in recent years is that it is because it is not only popular among the Chinese, but also has become famous overseas, and has won awards such as the Oscars (movies) and the Emmys and (TV). If on the one hand, they praise the development of Korean film and television and directly denounce Hong Kong's must learn, but on the other hand, they only know how to keep warm in the fire, and their eyes are willing to give up the overseas market, then will Hong Kong films be destined to shrink? The reason why Hong Kong films were so popular in the past was also because they captured every Chinese region, and every Hong Kong star was well-known in the world. Today, it may be difficult for Hong Kong to return to the past, but at least we have a broader vision and we will not be wrong in targeting the Greater China market.
There is also a bad phenomenon related to politicization, which is the support culture. There is a trend now, and it is necessary to support every Hong Kong film, especially yellow silk films. After all, young people are the majority of viewers entering the theater, so yellow silk films are easily benefited from this, and the blessing effect of blue silk films is relatively small. The crowd support may have a stimulating effect on short-term box office, such as the above mentioned movies of tens of millions of box office; however, the deep impact of blind singing cannot be ignored. It is true and wrong, and if there is something, it will be corrected, and if there is nothing, it will be encouraged. This is the driving force that encourages the continuous improvement of the film and television industry; whether it is good or bad, it will lead to a downward quality in the long run. I thought that I could attract the audience by just using the banner of "yellow silk", and it might be effective for the time being, but the so-called "yellow economic circle" is gradually declining, and in the final analysis, there is still a natural fragrance of musk. The quality of Hong Kong films has declined, and "The Legend of the War" is also a reflection of the fact that it attaches too much importance to special effects and overly despises other fundamental connotations such as scripts, which is also the main reason for the poor reputation of the movie; the movie has a high box office in Hong Kong, but is relatively inferior in the mainland box office. To some extent, it is a result of supporting the culture, so that the movie lacks soulmates except Hong Kong.
The dispute between yellow and blue has evolved into a "strife of generations".
Politicization also brings a dilemma, that is, the film and television industry is no longer united, and it is difficult for different camps to cooperate. It is difficult for actors to have the same stage and frame between actors, and directors, producers, and even film manufacturers also go their separate ways. The impact is that not only does the audience's source shrink and smaller due to the split, but the supply sources are also inconsistent. For example, it is difficult to find old actors in yellow silk films, which are mainly young, so the quality of performance is lowered; blue silk films in blue silk films, which are mainly old actors, lack freshness due to the lack of new actors, which is also one of the reasons why "The War of Tomorrow" has to find young mainland actors to support them. Hong Kong's politicization has evolved into a "generational dispute", which has also damaged the development of film and television under the pan-politicization and high politicization. Film and television platforms with different political views and age groups seem to have to fight to the death, and the situation is much more serious than the so-called "people walking like enemies". Only when elders promote younger generations can we ensure the transition between the young and the yellow race; at the same time, younger generations respect elders, which is also a natural meaning of the passing of the torch.
Where does Hong Kong film production go? "The War of Tomorrow" attempts to provide answers, but it is not a success in itself. Perhaps, failure is the mother of success. Only with the experience of "The War of Tomorrow" can latecomers better adapt. This movie was not made incorrectly, and the footprints left behind will lead Hong Kong films to go more steadily and further.
