In February last year, someone once said, "The window that Andy Lau and Donnie Yen just opened for Hong Kong films has been closed by Aaron Kwok."
In the Chinese mainland market, Hong Kong movies starring Andy Lau and Donnie Yen have broken the highest box office record for Hong Kong movies. For example, "Bomb Disposer 2" starring Andy Lau received 1.314 billion yuan in box office in mainland theaters, becoming the box office champion of Hong Kong movies in the mainland market; and then "The Fury" co-starring Donnie Yen and Nicholas Tse, the mainland box office reached 1.314 billion yuan. With 1.329 billion yuan, it not only surpassed "Bomb Disposer 2" and once again broke the mainland box office record for Hong Kong films, but also successfully won the box office championship of the 2021 summer season in mainland China.
At this time, some people believed that Andy Lau and Donnie Yen had opened the door to the mainland Chinese market for Hong Kong films. Perhaps Hong Kong films in the future could really gain a successful foothold in mainland theaters and once again reach the top like they did in the 1990s. .
However, since the arrival of 2023, I have discovered that Hong Kong movies are still happy too early. Hong Kong films did not rise because of Andy Lau and Donnie Yen. Not only that, but because of several pure Hong Kong films starring Aaron Kwok, the audience directly believed that Hong Kong films were dead.
The first Hong Kong movie of the year was "When the Wind Rises Again", which was aired in February last year. The cumulative box office was less than 50 million yuan, and the Douban score just exceeded the passing line.
Then there was "Disconnected", which was broadcast in March of the same year. The cumulative box office was less than 65 million yuan, and the Douban score was less than 5.0. It was a proper bad movie.
After that came "Anti-Drug 3", which was released in the summer. Although the total box office exceeded 200 million yuan, there is a big gap between this result and the two previous films. In addition, the film's reputation is also very good. Poor, the score is also below the passing line.
The above three movies, in addition to being Hong Kong movies, also have the same starring role, that is Aaron Kwok. Within one year, these three movies all achieved both box office and word-of-mouth success. No wonder people say "Aaron Kwok has closed the window for Hong Kong films", and some even say "Hong Kong films are dead".
Perhaps to prove that he still has a certain degree of strength, at the end of 2023, Hong Kong movies directly launched two "Kings", one is "Stealth" starring Andy Lau, and the other is "Stealth" starring Andy Lau and Tony Leung. "Goldfinger".
The release of "Stealth" and "Goldfinger" have indeed won back some reputation for Hong Kong films, and they have also become the annual runner-up and champion of Hong Kong films in terms of box office. However, the overall performance is still far behind "Bomb Disposaler 2" and "The Case of the Fury".
What's more, at the beginning of this year, Aaron Kwok once again closed the window that Andy Lau and others opened for Hong Kong films at the end of last year.
"Temporary Robbery", which was released on January 19 this year, is the first Hong Kong film to be released in mainland theaters this year. The first starring actor in the film is still Aaron Kwok, and in addition to him, there are two other powerful actors: Lam Jiadong and Ren Xianqi. Send the actor to join.
Before it was officially released, the three leading actors had done enough promotional work for this first Hong Kong film of the year, and many viewers expressed their expectation. But when the film was officially released, its daily box office still lost to the old film "The Annual Party Can't Stop" which had been in theaters for more than 20 days.
In addition to the unsatisfactory box office performance, "Temporary Robbery" also has a very poor reputation among audiences. It can be said to have a lot of negative reviews on Douban.
As powerful movie kings, there is no doubt about the acting skills of Aaron Kwok and other three people. They each performed very well in the movie.
But a bad movie is still a bad movie after all. The characters and plots in the film have no cause and effect and reasonable logical motives. The whole thing is very messy. The setting wanted black humor, but the film as a whole was not humorous at all. The only thing that could have a certain comedic effect was Aaron Kwok's "buck teeth."
There are always people and works that are closing the window for the rise of Hong Kong films. It seems that it will be even more difficult for Hong Kong films to return to their previous glory.In the future, Hong Kong films will still have to work hard and have more ideas, more ideas, and more innovations, in order to truly win the favor of the audience.
