"If you can't save a whole city, save the people in front of you." - Excerpted from a line spoken by Zhang Jin in the movie "Stranger Knife".
Not long ago, Wu Jing said this on an important occasion: "Not many people are willing to pay for our current martial arts action movies and kung fu movies. If you pretend to be a hero, no one will watch them. "
From what Wu Jing said, we can basically judge that the film he mentioned should be "Defiant 2" starring Xie Miao. It was originally planned to be released during the Spring Festival, but it was later directly withdrawn to the streaming media platform for broadcast.
However, some film companies know that there are tigers in the mountains, so they prefer to go to the tiger mountains. It is impossible to bow their heads without being disgraced. This is the martial arts film "Stranger Knife" starring Zhang Jin.
So, how was the box office performance of this film? How good is the reputation and quality performance? Where is the future for our kung fu and martial arts films? Let Brother Fei come along one by one.
1. The box office was a hit.
The box office of "Stranger Knife" can be described as "miserable"! The film
was released in mainland theaters on March 2. In the same period, there were films such as "", "Mrs. Spider: Awakening", and "The Killing", but this film was at the bottom of the box office.
only received 166,000 box office on the first day, 157,000 on the second day, and dropped to 30,000 on the third day. The film schedule data has been maintained at around 0.5% to 1.4%. In cities below the third tier of theaters across the country, it is almost difficult to watch. to this movie.
It can be said that this film was beaten so hard by Ethan Juan 's "The Three Evils".
After eight days of fierce competition, the cumulative box office of "Stranger Knife" has reached 477,000 yuan, and the daily box office has dropped to more than 6,000 yuan, and it is already in the state of release.
Two films during the Spring Festival did not perform well at the box office after their opening, and they were withdrawn and re-released to solve the problem. One is Andy Lau's "Mr. Red Carpet", and the other is "" starring Peng Yuchang and Li Gengxi. Let’s shake the sun together 》.
The producers of "Stranger Knife" did not continue this method and directly announced that it would log on to the streaming media platform on March 8 and adopt an online box office model, hoping to use this method to reduce losses.
It is an indisputable fact that the box office has been a hit. With a total box office of 470,000, based on a 36.68% account sharing ratio, the film studio will receive a net income of 159,000. Compared with a theater movie, this box office income is simply a drop in the bucket.
learned that the total budget cost of this film is 30 million. Zhang Jin’s salary will be between 3 million and 5 million. The box office share of 159,000 is not enough to pay Zhang Jin’s salary. This film caused the producer to lose money. Everything is turned upside down.
2. Movie review.
has such a huge box office performance. Is there a quality problem?
I can give a definite answer: "No!"
The director of "Stranger Knife" is Li Wei. This person has a great background and was the first executive director of the movies "One Second", "Above the Cliff" and "Solid as a Rock" He was the assistant director, and Zhang Yimou gave him a lot of work. Many styles in
's film are highly consistent with Zhang Yimou's films. For example, the art style is very similar to the previous "Shadow", and the last martial arts scene is the same as "The City of Golden Armor".
Screenwriter Li Meng is also very popular. He has participated in the screenwriting work of theater movies such as "The Detonator" and "Desperate". Zhang Yimou adapted and produced the popular "Article 20" during the Spring Festival based on his script. The main creative cast of
includes Zhang Jin, Geng Le, Xia Meng, Jiang Luxia, Liu Hua, Liu Fengchao, Feng Lei, Zhu Shimao, etc. Such a lineup can definitely go to the theater.
The plot summary of "Stranger Knife" is as follows:
The background of the story is set in the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. The old emperor passed away. The King of Qi, played by Zhu Shimao, wanted to kidnap a young emperor to order the princes, and then secretly executed the prince and his family. destroyed, but the prince still has heirs among the people.
During the escape, the prince's wife Nie Linger (played by Xia Meng) and her son asked for help from a charcoal seller on the roadside. The ones who rescued them were the protagonists of the film, Tian Anye played by Zhang Jin and Liu Hua. Zhao Qiansun.
At this moment, the retainers outside the palace also joined in. The representative figure is Aunt Qin, played by Jiang Luxia.
If you want to leave the city gate, you must pass through Dunhuafang, Xiushanfang, and Jiashanfang before you can reach Quy Nhon Fang. In this way, you can get out of the city gate once a day. This is a way for traditional martial arts movies. Zhengfang wants to take this mother and son with him. After leaving the city gate, the enemy wanted to catch them all.
During the battle, Tian Anye's secrets were also dug up. It turned out that he was the coach of Modao Army, and Zhao Qiansun's son Zhao Huaian was working under him. Previously, Tian Anye wanted to exchange his son's life for a The city was eventually defeated and the entire army was annihilated.
Tian Anye, who had saved his life, returned to Zhao Qiansun and became a charcoal burner to provide for him in his old age.
At the same time, the truth about the people of Liangcheng who died in the city was also revealed...
"Stranger Sword" is a typical martial arts film that follows the chivalrous spirit of "drawing your sword to help when the road is rough" and has a high degree of completion, especially Zhang Jin's action scenes are one of the highlights of this film.
The first action scene is the dyeing workshop "Tie Shu Yin Hua".
Seeing weak women and innocent children being chased, Zhao Qiansun decided to take them out of the city. The children's cries provoked the guards, and tensions were about to break out. Tian Anye made a simple tool with shoelaces and scarves.
After being burned by the fire, sparks flew out when dancing. Yes, the creator integrated the "iron flower" from the intangible cultural heritage into Zhang Jin's action scenes. The set of fighting moves was smooth and smooth, and it was so good.
The second action scene is "Mo Dao Zhan" in Linglong Pavilion.
The murderous Mo Dao cut three thousand, and the sharp blade killed the God of Death.
Linglong Pavilion is surrounded, Nie Ling'er performs a dance for his benefactor Tian Anye. At this time, knives, arrows, crossbows and other cold weapons come into battle. At the critical moment, Tian Anye calls out the Tang Dynasty Modao.
It is even said that no one can defeat him within ten steps. This Mo Dao can not only block crossbows, but also defend against countless enemies. After a few rounds, the two masters were defeated. This Mo Dao was tricked by Zhang Jin and Guan Yunchang " The momentum of "Qinglong Yanyue Sword".
The core of "Strange Knife" is to adhere to morality and not fear power, which vividly embodies the hero's righteous spirit. Brother Fei personally gives it three stars, 6.5 points.
3. Zhang Jin was crushed.
Speaking of Zhang Jin, everyone will think of the term "suited thug". Yes, as early as 2015, Macau tycoon Xie Mihua invested in a Hong Kong cinema movie " Sha Po Lang 2 ".
also invited Wu Jing, Tony Jaa, Simon Yam and other stars to join in the starring role. Originally this movie was intended to promote Wu Jing to the top, but after the release of "Slaying the Wolf 2", Zhang Jin unexpectedly became popular.
Zhang Jin became popular just like Zhang Songwen became famous with "Kurst". During that time, almost everyone was discussing "suited thug" Zhang Jin. In the
movie, when you are fighting in a suit, you are simply not too handsome. Even if you are losing ground, your aura, hairstyle, and suit must not disrupt the rhythm. The gentleman Zhang Jin perfectly portrays the warden Gao Jin.
Since then, Zhang Jin has had a place in action movie theaters. Donnie Yen's " Ip Man 3" also invited him to play the role of Zhang Tianzhi. Huang Baiming and Donnie Yen were right to choose him.
Zhang Tianzhi and Ip Man are both descendants of Wing Chun, but his temper concept cannot be dealt with by Ip Man. In "Ip Man 3", Zhang Jin's performance is remarkable.
He not only showed excellent martial arts skills in the fighting scenes, but also had a good grasp of emotional expression and character personality, which made people feel satisfied.
"Ip Man 3" achieved good word-of-mouth and box office success after its release. Later, Oriental Pictures also created a spin-off " Ip Man Side Story: Zhang Tianzhi ", which opened an IP specifically for Zhang Jin. The second part will be released in 2024 Released in the year.
But recently, Zhang Jin’s works have been completely suppressed.
First of all, "Stranger Knife" was crushed by Ethan Ruan's "Zhou Chu Destroy Three Evils".
Upon closer inspection, "Zhou Chu Destroys Three Evils" can be regarded as a modern martial arts film. The film was screened and promoted before it was released. Due to scale issues, it was screened for three days and was urgently replaced with a Scissorhands hard drive.
became very popular, and the topic discussion reached the hot search rankings many times. Except for not getting a high-ranking film on the first day of release, it directly occupied the three seed movies "Article 20" and "Flying Speed" during the Spring Festival during the rest of the time. The film schedule share of "Life 2" and "Hot and Spicy".
"The Three Evils" has been ranked the single-day box office champion for eight consecutive days with a daily film scheduling rate of more than 30%. On the ninth day of its release, the box office exceeded 300 million, and the box office is predicted to be as high as about 600 million. You must know the popularity of this film Media resources are already flying everywhere.
On the other hand, looking back at "Stranger Knife", the daily schedule before the start of filming was only about 1%, and the film studio's announcements were also in a state of confusion. Many people did not know that Zhang Jin's movie was being released. It is normal for this situation to be crushed. .
Secondly, he was crushed by Chen Guokun.
On the eve of the Spring Festival, Chen Guokun starred in an online movie with a very straightforward title, which is synonymous with Zhang Jin, "Thugs in Suits". The current box office has reached 16.19 million.
You tell me, what is the name of this movie? It has to be called "Thugs in Suits". Besides, Chen Guokun's acting is quite good. He earned more than 16 million at the box office even before it was released in theaters. Doesn't this completely block Zhang Jin?
Zhang Jin probably felt unspeakable after seeing this movie. Why not invite him to star in it?
4. The way out for martial arts films.
Recently, Donnie Yen was talking about why he continued to film the "Ip Man series". He said that when he attended the Oscars last year, many producers liked his role as Ip Man.
In order to promote Chinese film culture and introduce Chinese Kung Fu to the world, we will continue this series.
In the final analysis, " Ip Man " is not a martial arts film in the true sense, and can only belong to the category of kung fu films.
There are currently very few pure martial arts films. The last time it was discussed on the big screen was Yuan Heping's "Qi Men Dun Jia".
Before that, there were Peng Yuyan's " Once Upon a Time: The Hero Has a Dream" and Wang Baoqiang's "One Man's Martial Arts" created by Donnie Yen. In the past ten years, Zhang Chen's "Xiu Chun Dao" and Liao Fan's "The Master" were also produced wait.
In the past five years, almost no interesting martial arts films have been released. During the Spring Festival, Xie Miao's "Defiant 2" is going to be released in the Spring Festival. After comprehensive consideration, it is better to go to the streaming media platform, which is less risky.
The main reasons for the scarcity of martial arts films are related to three aspects.
The first aspect is that Hong Kong movies are lonely.
As we all know, in the golden age of Hong Kong films, more than 100 films were produced every year, involving various genres, and they were all industrialized, concentrated in the 1980s and 1990s.
During that time, many popular martial arts films were created around the novels of Jin Yong and Gu Long. Typical representatives are Jet Li , his "Once Upon a Time" series, "Fist of Fury", "Heaven and Dragon Sword", etc.
After Jet Li became popular, he gradually moved to Hollywood and made fewer and fewer subsequent movies. In addition, Hong Kong's film output decreased year by year. In the end, there were not many filmmakers specializing in martial arts movies.
The second aspect is that action stars are scarce, or they may not be able to hold up the box office.
Before, we had Jet Li, Jackie Chan and Donnie Yen, who made a lot of martial arts movies.
Nowadays, Jet Li is almost in a state of retirement, and the quality of Jackie Chan's later works has been criticized. Since the failure of "Guan Yunchang", Donnie Yen has begun to concentrate on the "Ip Man" series and fashion action movies.
Wu Jing is engaged in industrial blockbusters and has no spare time at all.
The action stars of their contemporaries include Yuen Wah, Yuen Biao, Sammo Hung, Ti Lung, Yuen Kui, Billy Chow, etc. They are all old and really can't be beaten.
Zhao Wenzhuo, Zhang Jin, Chen Guokun, and Wu Yue of the slightly younger generation are still unable to handle the box office of theaters. The younger ones Xie Miao and Shi Xiaolong are busy working in online movies. As a result, professional action actors are gone.
How can we make martial arts movies? We can only use outsiders.
The third aspect is that no investors are willing to take the project.
Just like what Wu Jing said, what kind of era is it now? How can you pretend to be a hero and fight back and forth? How can there be an audience?
, a theatrical movie, has been a popular element for a while. For example, if superhero movies became popular, 22 Marvel movies were created in those 11 years; if "I'm Not the God of Medicine" became popular, money would flow into reality. For movies based on the theme, if the movie "Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea" becomes popular, they will all rush to make war movies.
The current period is a gap period for martial arts movies, and investors are afraid to spend big money to get involved in martial arts movies. Movies like Zhang Yimou's "Hero" and Ang Lee's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" need a leader to lead them again.
The martial arts movie is lonely, what should I do?
In fact, China still has such talents, including Xu Haofeng, who specializes in martial arts movies. However, it is difficult for his movies to be released publicly. "The Back of the Blade" was sent to the film festival in 2017 and has not been released yet.
Wu Jing's martial arts film "Knife" has been successfully approved, but has not yet started filming. Previously, the main producers were Yi Yang Qianxi and Liu Haocun. Now it is rumored that Wu Lei will star. The specific progress is almost zero.
The other thing is Tsui Hark.
Last year, Tsui Hark made a high-profile project for a pure martial arts film - "The Legend of the Condor Heroes: The Greatest Hero". The cast cast non-action actor Xiao Zhan, who will play the role of Guo Jing, and Zhuang Dafei will play Huang Rong.
If this movie succeeds in word-of-mouth and box office, it will definitely set off a wave of martial arts craze. By then, martial arts movies will spring up like mushrooms after a rain, overwhelming the audience.
5. Conclusion.
"Stranger Knife" has become a box office failure. This situation is caused by multiple factors. It doesn't matter if Zhang Jin can't get up for a while. After all, many viewers are waiting for your "Zhang Tianzhi 2".
Besides, there are many highlights in Zhang Jin's action movies. He can basically do the moves of Donnie Yen and Wu Jinghui, including thugs in suits, heroes, and various moves, including swords, guns, swords and sticks.
Three of the four great martial arts masters, Jin Yong, Gu Long, Liang Yusheng and Wen Ruian, have passed away. Real martial arts blockbusters hope to reappear on the big screen one day, and filmmakers like Tsui Hark and Zhang Yimou need to develop them.
Because you are great heroes and serve the country and the people!
wishes that Chinese kung fu movies, action movies, costume martial arts movies, and fashion action movies will continue to be brilliant and that the chivalrous spirit will last forever!
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