Why didn’t such a good movie attract attention?
The documentary "Dragon and Tiger Martial Master" and "They are Young in 1950" continued with high reputation and low box office.
Recently, two high-quality documentary films, The Master of Dragon and Tiger and They Are Young in 1950, have been released one after another. Although both of them have achieved high online ratings, they can be described as horrible at the box office. For the ordinary audience, it is still difficult to attract them into the cinema by recording movies.
"Dragon and Tiger Martial Master" directed by Wei Junzi was released on August 28th, and so far it has only made 970,000 yuan at the box office. Some netizens described the film as "an elegy of Hong Kong action movies, and a deep look back on the golden age of Hong Kong action movies." On the day of the film’s release, only 2.1% of the cinemas arranged films, and the attendance rate was as low as 1.2%. Directed by Song Kunru, "They were Young in 1950" was released on September 3rd. The film tells the memories and recent situation of 26 veteran volunteers. The online score was as high as 8.7, and it only made 2.03 million yuan at the box office in five days. On September 5, the film announced that it would donate 227,000 yuan from the two-day box office to a non-profit organization with national legal qualifications to help volunteers veterans. The official Weibo wrote: "They fought for us in the past, and we donated for them today!" Touching.
■ "Rescue" shooting is priceless.
Coincidentally, both excellent documentary films were started under the drive of the director’s personal feelings. Wei Junzi, the director of Master of Dragon and Tiger, is a specialist in Hong Kong films. When he was a film critic, he met filmmakers such as Tsui Hark and Yuan Heping, and then gradually transformed into a filmmaker, making films such as daoist magic. Shooting Master of Dragon and Tiger originated from an agreement he made with Hong Kong actor Qian Jiale in 2017, and it was also a release of his personal feelings after studying Hong Kong action movies for many years. It took him more than two years to come back and run 50 or 60 times in Hong Kong, and finally he finished filming. The film was made with Wei Junzi’s own money, and some pictures involved copyright issues. Although they were precious, the price was high, so we had to give them up reluctantly. Wei Junzi was psychologically prepared for the film’s low box office. "Documentaries have a certain threshold for watching movies, or are they too small for the public. People who come to the cinema are all post-70s and post-80s. They have feelings for Hong Kong movies, but they are not the main consumers now. "
So is Song Kunru, the director of "They Are Young in 1950", who has been shooting commercial advertisements before. At first, he came into contact with a public welfare project and met three or four disabled veterans. At that time, he wanted to simply record the words of the veterans, but in the process of doing this, friends around him constantly recommended veterans to him, and the number continued to increase. After the film project was established, he was supported by the Department of Veterans Affairs, which strengthened his determination to make this film. Song Kunru wanted to find a professional documentary team to shoot, but failed for various reasons, and finally went on his own. At the premiere, he admitted that the crew was too poor to even pay for publicity. What supported him and the team was his personal feelings and his passion for the subject.
Both films belong to "rescue" shooting. With Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung and other Hong Kong action filmmakers getting old, the industry of "Dragon and Tiger Martial Arts" has gradually declined. In addition to interviewing Sammo Hung, Yuan Heping, Cheng Xiaodong, Yuan Wah, Donnie Yen, Qian Jiale and other stars, "Dragon and Tiger Martial Arts" focuses on dozens of unknown dragon and tiger martial arts masters who have worked hard to create brilliance for Hong Kong action movies, allowing them to leave their personal images on the big screen orally, which is of great historical value.
The audience was lucky enough to enjoy the elegance of these martial artists in Dragon Tiger Warrior. The most thrilling thing was that when Sammo Hung directed Heart of the Dragon in 1985, Jackie Chan and other eight actors jumped from the seventh floor at the same time when it exploded. At that time, Weiya was not hung, and the camera was shot to the end without editing. For this reason, actor Qian Jiale almost fell to his death. There are a lot of such precious pictures in the film, which are rare to see.
"They were Young in 1950" is also a rescue shooting technique. Song Kunru, the director, said that the youngest volunteer soldier who entered the DPRK was 86 years old, and some old people died soon after the filming was finished, so it was very valuable to leave their images on the big screen. The film uses the personal perspective of these veterans and tells their war stories orally. In the seemingly calm eyes of the old people, there is a thread of the past. A netizen sighed with emotion: when watching the movie, I seemed to sit next to my grandparents and listen to their stories of that year. Another netizen said, "I feel very relieved to see this documentary, because I see that some people are still doing very sincere things."
■ "Going to the Internet" to find a bosom friend
Although the evaluation of the two films is extremely high, the box office of the films has given the answer. For ordinary audiences, there is still a lack of motivation to let them enter the cinema.
In recent years, many similar documentary films have been released, but only "Twenty-two" directed by Guo Ke really made many viewers buy tickets, which was released in 2017 and finally made a box office of 170 million yuan. The film also uses the oral history of 22 comfort women and elderly people. It must be said that the promotion of this film, the first "comfort women documentary" in China, has played a great role in boosting the box office.
It’s not easy to record a movie and get a high box office in the cinema. According to statistics, in 2019, the total box office of 23 documentary films released in the mainland was less than 150 million yuan, which was less than the box office of the film Twenty-two. Among the films released this year, documentary films such as Freehand Rock Climbing, Four Springs, Sakamoto Ryuichi: The Final Song and After Zero have a high reputation. However, the highest-grossing "Freehand Rock Climbing" only earned 36 million yuan.
From the analysis of audience types, Dragon and Tiger Martial Master and They Are Young in 1950 attract a specific audience type. Most of the audience of Master Dragon and Tiger are interested in Hong Kong action movies. In 1950, many of the audience’s grandfathers were soldiers, or participated in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea. When watching the movie, they easily put their feelings into their loved ones. The film reviews they wrote also mentioned the past of their grandfathers.
Documentary films can easily resonate with specific audiences because of their authenticity and relevance to real life. To some extent, its evaluation criteria should be distinguished from feature films. Feature films focus on stories and visual effects, while documentaries are best at being true and profound.
From the shooting method, both films are oral interviews, and then the conversations of these people are edited together. In the way of telling the story, this is a very simple way to shoot, and its difficulty lies in being able to interview people smoothly, and the interviewee is willing to speak his mind. List-based dictation can easily lead to monotonous pictures, and the story lacks overall suspense and conflict. Unlike drama films, the story is ups and downs, and there are visual wonders on the picture that impact the eye. If you are not interested in these subjects, there will be certain obstacles to watching movies.
In fact, documentary films such as "Dragon and Tiger Martial Master" and "They were young in 1950" have a very suitable channel besides long-term screening in specially designated art theaters, that is, online screening. Because of the particularity and niche of the audience, it is difficult to gather the audience in the big screen screening, especially in big cities, and there is no such problem in the network screening. At present, "Dragon Tiger Martial Master" has been announced to be launched in iQiyi on September 11th. I believe that "They Are Young in 1950" will be online soon.
Our reporter Wang Jinyue