This spring, "The Brilliant She " starring Hui Yinghong and Liu Haocun "tricked" many viewers into tears. This family-themed drama is adapted from the highly acclaimed Korean film "Grandma Season of Spring " - it is also the second film to appear on the mainland's big screen in just over a month after the Spring Festival film "Hot and Spicy ". A remake of a movie.
In recent years, remakes of foreign films have become a growing new channel in Chinese film creation. However, in practice, how to localize the remake and achieve both word-of-mouth and box office success is still a difficult problem.
Emotional and suspenseful films are popular targets for domestic remakes
On March 15, the movie "Brilliant Her" was released. In the promotion, the film studio generously revealed the "life experience" of the film - the Chinese version of "Grandma Jichun". "Grandma Ji Chun" is a movie released in South Korea in 2016. It was nominated for 3 Actor Awards at the 53rd Korean Film Daejong Awards and received a high score of 8.5 points on Douban. As of 16:00 on March 21, "Brilliant Her" had a box office of 68.556 million yuan in its seven days of release. It has been in the top three of the single-day box office list for four consecutive days recently - it is not a hit, but its performance in the off-season is still good. . The film has not yet been rated on Douban, but it has a score of 9.5 on Maoyan, with more than 89.1% of ticket-buying viewers giving it a full five-star rating.
In June last year, " I Love You!" also starring Hui Yinghong! "" is also adapted from a Korean movie. The Chinese translation of the original work only has one less exclamation mark than the remake. Both movies tell the story of the "Red Sunset Love" between four old people who depend on each other for their lives, and both of them are popular because of the superb acting skills of the veteran actors. "I love you! "The two leading actresses Hui Yinghong and Ye Tong were nominated for "Best Actress" and "Best Supporting Actress" respectively at the 36th China Film Golden Rooster Awards. The total box office of the film was 427 million yuan.
"Hot and Spicy", which was released during the Spring Festival this year, is a more successful remake case. The film is adapted from Japan's highly acclaimed work "Hundred Yuan Love", with a cumulative box office of more than 3.4 billion yuan. Although Sakura Ando was in the lead, Jia Ling was able to withstand the pressure. "Hot" not only became the box office champion during this year's Spring Festival, but its reputation also withstood the test of more than 70 million viewers. The current Maoyan score is 9.2.
"Not So Passionate", adapted from the Spanish film "Basketball Champions", is also a sports-themed inspirational film. This film, which was released during the Mid-Autumn Festival last year, is considered to have inherited the humanistic spirit of care behind the laughter of the original film, and the film received box office success. 175 million yuan.
In addition to delicate emotions, "strong plot" films characterized by romance and suspense are also popular targets for domestic remakes. For example, "The Disappearance of Her ", released in June last year, is a remake of the former Soviet film "Trap for the Bachelor". It starts with a huge suspense story: the man's wife disappears, and he wakes up sleeping next to a strange woman who calls herself It's his wife... The film has a total box office of more than 3.5 billion yuan, ranking 13th on the Chinese film box office list, and is currently the highest-grossing remake. Previously, the famous remake of the same type was "Manslaughter", which was released in December 2019. It was adapted from the 2015 Indian film "Manslaughter", with a box office of 1.333 billion yuan, which is also a model of making a big difference with a small amount.
In addition, "Rescue the Suspect", which also takes the suspense route, is adapted from the Korean film "Seven Days". The latter was directed by Zhang Yimou's daughter Zhang Mo and was released in November last year with a total box office of 560 million yuan; it was adapted from the Spanish film "Seven Days". "The Invisible Guest" was released in December last year, with a total box office of 165 million yuan.
There are ways and bounds for localized remakes.
Remakes cannot copy the originals. This is almost a consensus in the film and television industry. However, each company has its own operating methods on how to better localize adaptation, and the results achieved are also different. For example, "I Love You!" about the love of the elderly! "The Chinese adaptation of "The Movie" is not a big deal, but because the actors' performances are right, the film's reputation is not bad.In comparison, "Brilliant Her" has been greatly adapted on the basis of the original "Grandma Ji Chun". For example, Liu Haocun's "granddaughter" character is more bitter than Kim Go-eun's character in the Korean version, and the overall story is more tragic and sadistic. As a result, many viewers On the contrary, they didn't buy it, criticizing it as "intense" and not as shocking as the original version, which was more emotionally restrained.
Jia Ling's "Hot and Spicy" has also had mixed results in localization. Because of the "transformation" of actress Jia Ling herself, many viewers even interpreted "Hot and Spicy" as a "weight loss film." But "One Hundred Dollar Love" actually has nothing to do with weight loss, and its ending is not even "inspirational" in any way. However, considering that the Chinese version will be released during the Spring Festival, Jia Ling's more positive localized adaptation is obviously suitable. In fact, the film has also been recognized by the Chinese market.
"The Disappearance", which also received financial support from a large number of viewers, added the topic heat required for film marketing during the localization process. The story incorporates social cases such as the "Thai Pregnant Woman Falling off a Cliff Case", as well as foreign urban legends such as "Freak Show" and "Ga Yao Zi", creating a "strong topic" in addition to the "strong plot". Therefore, the film became a hot topic on short video platforms before and after its release, and launched a successful marketing campaign.
In March last year, the Chinese version of " Hachiko " starring Feng Xiaogang won praises from many viewers because of a localized detail. In the Japanese original version of the film "The Story of Hachiko" and the American remake "The Story of Hachiko", "Hachiko" is an Akita dog. But in the Chinese version, "Hachiko" became "Hachiko" and the Akita became the Chinese pastoral dog "Dahuang", which made the Chinese audience feel more familiar.
There are also films that have encountered difficulties in the process of localization, such as "Second Hand Masterpiece" which was released in October last year. The film is adapted from the American film "The World's Greatest Dad", which tells the story of a loser father and son. The remake made the story of the father and son less "tragic", but it still failed to resonate with many ordinary viewers. Fortunately, Yu Hewei's acting skills were as good as those of Robin Williams, and in the end the film still grossed over 100 million yuan at the box office.
There are also remakes that have been severely criticized, such as "What's in the Zoo" adapted from the Korean movie "Secret Zoo". Some viewers commented: "I have seen the original version. The plot is reasonable, the character motivations are sufficient, the props are passable, and the shooting and editing are good. It is a movie worth watching. But the remake completely subverted all the valuable parts, and all the behaviors of the characters were completely different." There is no motive, the costume props are so fake that they are no better than a bear, and the relationships and connections between people are so weak that there is no connection..." Obviously, this work did not find the right way to localize it.
During this year’s National Two Sessions, Mai Jiazeng, a representative of the National People’s Congress and vice chairman of the Chinese Writers Association, commented on the “remake trend” in an interview with the media: “There is nothing wrong with appropriate remakes. If the trend of remakes intensifies and becomes a phenomenon, we must be vigilant. Restrictions and norms." How to make remakes help rather than harm the original spirit of literary and artistic creation is an issue that the industry should seriously consider.
text｜Li Li intern Zeng Zhixiang
pictures｜stills
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