As of the evening of November 13th, the film "My Boxing Boyfriend", directed by Du Qifeng, starring Xiang Zuo and Wang Keru, has a box office of less than 22 million, and the number of films has been as low as 1.5%. Wait until Friday, "Charles of the Thunder" and " "Sea Pianist" is released, and the film will be completely withdrawn from the market. This means that the film box office is only more than 7 million, which is not even enough for the screenwriting and director fees of Du Qifeng and Wei Jiahui.
At the same time, the reputation of the movie is not ideal. The current Douban score is only 4.8, indicating that the vast majority of audiences are not satisfied with the movie. "My Boxing Boyfriend" is invested by Xiang Huaqiang and Xiang Tai's China Star. The purpose is obviously to hold his son Xiang Zuo, while pulling Du Qifeng into the game, and then use boxing action elements to make a box office. Fame and fortune are both rewarded, but a chicken fly egg fight.
However, from Jet Li’s "White Snake" a few years ago, to "Legend of the God" starring Xiang Zuo, and then to this "My Boxing Boyfriend", China Star-invested movies hit the street more than once, and Xiang Tai has already practiced Strong heart, but definitely a big blow to Johnnie To. As the premier director in Hong Kong, Johnnie To still attaches great importance to word of mouth.
After going north in 2003, although the quality of the works has declined, none of the works are below the pass line. Now "My Boxing Boyfriend" has been criticized by the whole network. It can be said to be a stain in Johnnie To's film career. Knowing that this is the result, he might not make this movie! But there is no chance to do it again. All we have to do now is to analyze, why is the movie so bad?
was first rejected by Andy Lau.
may not be imagined by many people. "My Boxing Boyfriend" was not originally called this name, or even this movie at all. After Tu Qifeng finished filming "Gorgeous Office Workers", the word-of-mouth and box office were not very good, and finally thought that it would be better to get a sequel, so he set his goal on "If the Sky is Love".
Anyone who likes Hong Kong movies knows that the 1990 "If there is love" can be regarded as a classic. Andy Lau plays the underworld youth Hua Tsai and falls in love with the rich lady Jojo, played by Wu Qianlian, but it turns out to be a love tragedy. The following year Wu Mengda won the Best Supporting Actor Award at the 10th Hong Kong Film Awards for this film. The director of the
movie is Chen Musheng, but the producer and producer are both Du Qifeng. It can be said that he has feelings for this movie and is familiar with it. Johnnie To wants to find Andy Lau to participate in "Tian Ruo You Qing 2", co-invested by China Star and his own Galaxy image. The protagonist Xiang Zuo, his role is actually very close to the Hua brother in the first movie. But this plan was rejected by Andy Lau. Andy Lau's reason is simple. After all, he has reached this age and is unlikely to play that kind of young guy full of blood. And appearing in the movie as a supporting role was not what he wanted.
was rejected by Andy Lau and Qifeng Tu did not give up. He still asked Wei Jiahui to write the script, but love, gangsters and actions are indispensable to pass on the story core of "If there is love in the sky". The script is very ruthless and the scale is not small. As a result Encountered resistance during the review.
You must know that there was no concept of co-production in the Mainland at the time of "Heavenly Love", and Hong Kong films have a higher degree of creative freedom. But to this day, it's impossible for Johnnie To to make movies without considering the mainland box office, but they don't want to change the script, so they give up.
was rejected by Jet Li again. The project of
"Heaven If Love 2" aborted. Xiang Tai did not give up, but kept urging Johnny To start the project. After all, the budget has been put out, and the movie should be shot as soon as possible. The plan cannot be stopped.
So Qifeng To thought, "If there is no love in the sky 2", then just change the story. He also knew that it was difficult for Xiang Zuo to be on his own, or to find a well-known filmmaker to lead him, so he asked Xiang Tai to start his relationship and find Jet Li and Xiang Zuo to partner to turn the movie into a story of a master and apprentice.
The embarrassing thing is that in 2016, "Legend of the Gods" was released. This film has a very strong lineup. Xiang Tai found a bunch of stars including Jet Li to support his son Xiang Zuo, even if Xiang Zuo played only in The less important Lei Zhenzi in the original work. And making this movie also caused her and Cecilia Cheung to have a fight, because the other party was "expelled" from the crew for "playing a big deal". Everyone knows the results of the
movie. The reputation is terrible, and the box office is not good, leading to Xiang Tai and Du QiFeng wanted to find Jet Li to set up a series of stories about the master and apprentice but failed.
So far, Du Qifeng has lost his heart for this investment and this project. He was already very busy, and this project that he couldn't figure out over and over became a burden on him. Only then has the current story of "men and women chasing dreams", which makes Xiang Zuodang's only male protagonist, Xiang Tai also happy.
can also be seen from the production record publicity form set up at that time, the screenwriter is Wei Jiahui, and the investment is China Star and China Star's investment in China Star Film. The initial outline was about a young man and a young man who met and knew each other due to debt problems and established a special creditor and debtor relationship. The man helped the woman develop his singing career. During this period, the man also worked hard for his dream of becoming a boxing champion.
It should be noted that this filing form was released in mid-2017. According to the usual creative process, the producer will first come up with the title and story outline to set up the project. At this time, it is relatively random, such as Zhou Xingchi's The name of "The New King of Comedy" was originally filed as "Plan B". Later, the agent explained that it had no practical meaning and was just a random name, in order to expose the title too early. So at this time, the script of "My Boxing Boyfriend" has not yet been written, it is just a summary of the story.
However, in December 2017, a netizen issued a Reuters photo of the crew, and the movie had been on for a while. This means that it takes less than half a year from writing the script to shooting. The speed is really fast.
You need to know that under the supervision of Ning Hao, "The Beneficiary", which was released at the same time, has been polished back and forth for more than two years. Their last "I am not the God of Medicine" also wrote the script for more than two years. It started in less than half a year, and you can imagine how rough the script of "My Boyfriend" is. As
writes here, I have some sympathy for Du Qifeng. The time is so short, and I have been tortured by this project for so long. Everyone has lost patience. What's more, Du Qifeng who can't finish the project line up? As a result, the script became very perfunctory. Not only was the story poor, but it also used a lot of his previous sections. In the end, the only thing left was Xiang Zuo's actions and the topic of being dislocated at the scene.
In the end, did Johnny To be kidnapped or fell for the sake of money? I think this is not a single-choice question. Everyone in the society has to be troubled by interests, favors, and power. Du Qifeng is even more so. He doesn't want to offend people, it's hard to refuse Xiang Huaqiang and his wife. Of course, he also wants to make money. It’s worth intriguing that in the initial "Tian Ruo You Qing 2", it was determined that China Star and Galaxy image cooperation, but in "My Boxing Boyfriend", Johnnie To was very smart withdrawing, and did not appear in the movie investors The name of the Milky Way Image, maybe he himself has estimated that the box office of this movie is not good enough!
