This New Year’s Day, 62-year-old Andy Lau “steals the limelight”.
He has a total of two movies released, one is "Goldfinger", a collaboration with Tony Leung Chiu-wai after 20 years, and the other is "Stealth", but from the box office point of view, the results of these two movies are not very satisfactory. .
Both movies were released in about five or six days. The box office of "Goldfinger" was 243 million yuan, and the box office of "Stealth" was 239 million yuan, not to mention that it was not as good as the 600 million yuan of "Twinkle Twinkle". The box office is not as good as "Dark Horse" "The Annual Meeting Can't Stop".
Dapeng's "The Annual Party Can't Stop" is considered the dark horse of this "New Year's Day" release. It is already far ahead in the single-day box office. It may be difficult to catch up with Andy Lau's two movies.
"Hong Kong film is dead" is not a new statement. This time Andy Lau just once again proved to everyone the helplessness of the Hong Kong film industry. The last time it was Louis Koo who "fell".
In fact, from the perspective of lineup and sentiment, "Goldfinger" and "Stealth" can be regarded as the highest configuration in Hong Kong.
Let’s take a look at “Goldfinger” first. It has Andy Lau and Tony Leung Chiu-wai’s passion for cooperation 20 years after “Infernal Affairs”. In addition, the two frequently performed road shows to promote the movie before its release. Even Tony Leung, who is “socially afraid”, is also very fond of it. Active business operation has accumulated a lot of feelings among Hong Kong movie fans.
Looking at the cast, there are three Academy Award-winning actors, Andy Lau, Tony Leung, and Simon Yam.
Fang Zhongxin was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor, Jiang Haowen won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, and Anita Yuen was the Best Actress.
The director is Chong Man-keung, who is the screenwriter of the "Infernal Affairs", "Initial D", and "The Overheard" series. He is also the author of Hong Kong Film's masterpiece "Wushuang" in recent years.
In 2018, "Wu Shuang" became a hit, earning a box office of 1.2 billion, allowing people to see the past glory of Hong Kong movies. Zhuang Wenqiang once responded to the outside world's statement that "Hong Kong Film is in decline". He was full of confidence. I am not dead, how can Hong Kong Film die?
Now that "Goldfinger" is released, some netizens are ridiculing that Zhuang Wenqiang, who once said that he would not die if he was in Hong Kong Film, still buried Hong Kong Film with his own hands.
As for Tony Leung Chiu-wai, who was once the most famous "actor" in Hong Kong, he has already consumed the audience's filter in one bad film after another in recent years. From his previous works "Unknown" and "When the Wind Rises Again" You can tell by the mediocre response.
Although the 61-year-old Tony Leung is now very active in the mainland, it is obvious that compared to his "social fear" character and Carina Lau's emotional gossip, the popularity of his works is far less than that of a movie king. It can only be said that Tony Leung's Times have passed.
As for Simon Yam and Anthony Fong, they are both actors with "actor-level" acting skills, but in recent years they have basically played male supporting roles in movies, either in Andy Lau's movies or in Louis Koo's movies. Simon Yam last year also I went to film a big online movie.
Let's look at "Stealth" again. The cast of this film is not small. In addition to Andy Lau, Simon Yam, and Lam Jiadong, the three Academy Award-winning actors, Liu Yase, the new Academy Award-winning actress, Jiang Haowen, and Eddie Peng.
But the funny thing is that except for Andy Lau, the "evergreen tree" who is still popular in the mainland, Lin Jiadong has limited popularity among many younger generations of mainland audiences, and Peng Yuyan has long passed his peak.
Netizens commented on this movie that it is considered poor even among the worst Hong Kong movies. The plot is messy and the female characters have no charm. To put it bluntly, Hong Kong movies are still doing the same thing as they did decades ago, but The audience had stopped eating long ago.
Judging from the names, the cast of these two movies seems to be very large, but in fact only Andy Lau can really hold up the scene, and Andy Lau is indeed working very hard.
kept running road shows before the movie was released, and kept interacting with Tony Leung and Liu Yasu to create topics, but unfortunately, it still couldn't save the movie itself.
In today’s Hong Kong film industry, it can be said that the most indispensable thing is the “actor”, but it cannot be saved by the “actor”. Not only the best actor, but also Hong Kong directors are powerless. Except for Zhuang Wenqiang, Wong Kar-wai's "Prosperity" also proved it.
The decline of the Hong Kong film industry can be seen from the awards ceremony of the Hong Kong Film Awards, which was once the most authoritative awards ceremony in the Chinese film industry.
Once upon a time, mainland actors were proud of this, but for last year's Academy Awards, almost all the works nominated were Hong Kong local works, and very few mainland artists participated.
On the contrary, more and more Hong Kong artists frequently attend various awards ceremonies and events in the Mainland. Nowadays, the highest-ranking artists in the Hong Kong film industry, such as Jackie Chan, Andy Lau, Simon Yam, etc., frequently appear at Mainland award ceremonies.
Whether it is Louis Koo in the past or Andy Lau now, facts have proven that they cannot "save" Hong Kong films, they can only serve as witnesses of the "decline of Hong Kong films".
