Chapter 327 Why can’t China produce good science fiction films?
Historically, "Ip Man" was able to emerge from the gap between three popular movies during the Lunar New Year holiday and win over 100 million yuan at the box office as a dark horse. Naturally, this has its own unique features.

The story of the movie is set in the war-torn period of resisting foreign enemies. First of all, each character in this special background is portrayed very brilliantly.

At the same time, Zhen Zidan's portrayal of the martial arts master Ip Man was also quite successful, breaking away from his previous stereotyped performances.

He portrayed Ip Man's elegance and gentleness, yet his masculinity and sense of justice, justly.

Of course, as a Kung Fu movie, the biggest attraction is of course Kung Fu.
The more than ten fighting scenes in "Ip Man" almost won unanimous applause.

The film meticulously displays the means used by various styles of boxing, such as Wing Chun, to defeat the enemy, allowing viewers to enjoy the fighting routines of Wing Chun in a pleasing way.

Especially the rain-like punches of Wing Chun made the audience stunned.

The fight scene between Ip Man and Jin Shanzhao, a northern-style martial arts master who came from the south to "challenge" him, is even more classic.

The confrontation between the two schools of kung fu in the south and the north highlights the beauty of Chinese martial arts. One school is a strong and fierce style, and the other is a calm and steady style. The confrontation between the two schools is fascinating.

Of course, the scene that excites the audience the most is the one where he says “I’m going to beat ten of them.”

After the fight scene, the audience was thoroughly satisfied.

It can be said that the whole movie is full of climaxes, making people feel the blood boiling and warmth all the time, as well as the incomparable patriotic feelings.

Especially the last point, the patriotic sentiment that concerns the rise and fall of the nation is full of tension.

However, the director did not deliberately promote the element of patriotism, but instead showed it through various details.

This makes everyone unconsciously involved in the story, which not only makes the audience feel excited, but also allows the audience to express the evil in their hearts to the fullest.

"Ip Man" can be said to be an excellent commercial film that makes people feel refreshed from beginning to end.

So three days after its release, when word of mouth about "Ip Man" spread, the box office reached as high as 30 million.

Five days after its release, the box office of "Ip Man" officially exceeded 100 million yuan.

At this time, "Mei Lanfang" had been released for eight days and the box office had barely reached 70 million, and now the daily box office has dropped to only 3 or 4 million.

The winner of the two films can be said to have been decided, and in the end, "Ip Man" had the last laugh.

At the same time, the lead actor of "Ip Man", Zhen Zidan, became extremely popular in mainland China and became a rising star.

When Jackie Chan and Jet Li are getting old, Zhen Zidan's popularity has made her the new leader of Chinese Kung Fu movies.

In fact, it is not only netizens who are bragging about this. Even the senior industry figure Sammo Hung has expressed his approval of this.

This evaluation is indeed very high.

But from the perspective of later generations, this evaluation is actually not wrong. The only one who can carry the banner of kung fu movies is Zhen Zidan.

As for Wu Jing who came later, he already belonged to another track, mainly focusing on military films and had never made a serious kung fu movie.

However, compared to the admiration for Donnie Yen, the industry is more amazed at Golden Harvest's vision, film operations and profound heritage.

It is obvious to everyone that Golden Harvest Group did not think highly of "Ip Man" at the beginning. At that time, Golden Harvest Films' Hong Kong branch was still in charge of the promotion, so the momentum was not great.

But just about half a month before its release, the movie "Ip Man" was taken over by Golden Harvest Group and carried out large-scale publicity.

Obviously, Golden Harvest Group saw the potential of "Ip Man" and intervened in the Lunar New Year holiday that they were originally planning to give up.

Later, they even bundled poet Chen and "Mei Lanfang" for promotion, which directly made "Ip Man" popular.

Although Golden Harvest did not take the initiative to do so, it gave people the feeling that the two films were promoting each other, so everyone blamed Golden Harvest for this.

But the most important thing is that the movie "Ip Man" was really a hit and had very good reputation.

This is just a movie that Golden Harvest Group has made, but it has caused a stir in this year's Lunar New Year box office.

In the past, most of the blockbuster movies produced by Golden Harvest Group were produced by the Beijing branch of Golden Harvest Films, but this time it was the Hong Kong branch that made the effort, giving people the feeling that the Golden Harvest Group is in full bloom.

However, there is no doubt that with "The Disciples" in the past and "Ip Man" now, no one in the industry dares to underestimate Golden Harvest Films Hong Kong Company, a company that focuses on making Hong Kong films.

Time flies, and in the blink of an eye it is December 16th.

At this time, the Lunar New Year movie season is still in full swing, and Feng Kuzi's If You Are the One is ready to join the Lunar New Year movie season.

But on this day, the industry's attention was diverted by another incident.

Liu Zhou's sharing and exchange session on the shooting of science fiction films was held in the auditorium of China Film Group.

Almost all directors and even photographers in the industry who are interested in making science fiction films attended this exchange meeting.

Big directors like Zhang Yimou, Xu Ke, Ning Hao, and even Feng Kuzi, who had a feud with Liu Zhou, came.

There were also other directors, big and small, and even students from the film academy, nearly two hundred people in total. Liu Zhou had already seen several familiar faces.

This also shows how much shock and temptation the huge success of "The Martian" has brought to the industry.

In fact, science fiction movies have always been a very alternative category in domestic films.

In the original time and space, more than ten years in the future, people kept asking:
Why can't China produce good science fiction films?
Many people have given various reasons, some saying it was due to special effects, some saying it was due to talent, some saying it was due to the film industry, and some even saying it was due to inheritance, and so on.

But most of them miss the point.

Currently in the world, apart from the United States, only polar bears have been making science fiction films, and they all have their own style and system.

Both of these countries were great powers and technological powers in the last century!

After all, science fiction films are the perfect fusion of technology and imagination.

In addition to technology, there must also be enough market, whether it is the local market or the overseas market that can radiate.

After all, science fiction films, especially big productions, are very expensive. Without a sufficient market, it is impossible to support the science fiction film genre.

What many people may not know is that science fiction films were first created in France.

But now, not only in France, but in the whole of Europe, there is almost no local science fiction.

When Hollywood science fiction blockbusters were rampant, European countries also tried to make science fiction blockbusters to compete.

But the final result was a disastrous failure, and a large part of the reason was that the markets in various countries were completely insufficient.

So the core of science fiction blockbusters is:

Technology and market!
Indispensable!

In fact, the current science fiction movies of polar bears are just barely supported, because their film market is not big. There are more than 3 million people in the entire polar bear country, but in the past ten years or so, the highest-grossing science fiction movie is "Terminator " with million US dollars.

This result is worse than that of the mainland now or even five years ago.

However, the market for polar bears is not very large, but the cost of filming sci-fi blockbusters is not very high either.

Because they are filming the movie, they will receive full support from the space agency and various departments.

For example, the famous space trilogy of Polar Bear has received full support from the space agency.

All the equipment needed for the movie was real, and the space agency pulled them all out from the warehouse.

But the quality of the films produced is very good, and some people even think that "Space Rescue" is better than "Gravity".

This movie really has the style of a fighting nation, using a sledgehammer to repair a spaceship in space, it's really cool!
In fact, it stands to reason that in the next few years, the mainland will have sufficient soil for the survival of science fiction blockbusters.

At that time, the Chinese film market had surpassed Japan to become the second largest film market in the world.

In addition to the market, technology has also kept up and can get sufficient support and technical references.

Not only the market and technology, but even the special effects are actually sufficient. The level of special effects in later generations of China is really not bad.

The core of special effects is still rendering. Now we can use supercomputing, and in the future there will be cloud rendering.

Just like "The Wandering Earth", Huawei Cloud was used.

Therefore, the mainland has all the conditions needed for the birth of science fiction films.

But the final result was that only one "The Wandering Earth" appeared.

why?
The main reason is still the creative concept!

Except for Zhang Yimou, the fifth generation directors cannot make science fiction films. Not only do they lack the ability to do so, but they are also deeply rooted in the idea that art is supreme, which makes them disdain making commercial films such as science fiction films.

Only Zhang Yimou, although born into the fifth generation, has not been confined by his thoughts and has been trying new types of films.

For example, the historical "Three Shots Surprise" was also an attempt of his, but because of Zhang Weiping's arbitrarily interference, the movie ended up being a big flop and also became a stain on Zhang Yimou.

Therefore, as long as Zhang Yimou is exposed to and learns the shooting techniques, it will be easy for him to get started.

Apart from the fifth generation, let alone the sixth generation of directors, they are not as good as the fifth generation.

As for Hong Kong directors, they don’t know how to shoot. Although Hong Kong movies have many classics, they generally give people a petty feeling.

Therefore, Hong Kong directors are almost unable to make this kind of grand science fiction film.

Therefore, if mainland science fiction films want to develop in the future, they will need to rely on the current young generation of filmmakers, or even those who are still in school.

Because the older generation of directors have almost become stereotyped, only the new generation is more receptive to new things.

Although the mainland has historically had all the conditions necessary to give birth to science fiction films, the spark of science fiction was very weak.

The main reason is that we started too late. By that time, the current young generation of directors had actually already been stereotyped.

For example, Ning Hao, although he went to Hollywood to study with Guo Fan, he was unable to make a pure science fiction movie.

His movie "Crazy Alien" is just a science fiction movie, but it is still a comedy at its core.

By that time, although the entertainment industry market was so large, there were not many new directors emerging, and most of the resources were still occupied by those already famous directors.

So at that time, even if new directors had a stronger ability to accept new things, it was useless because opportunities would never fall to them.

Right now, the timing is just right.

The mainland film market is on the eve of taking off. By then, there will be many opportunities in the circle, and the current young generation will be able to obtain resources more easily.

What's more, Liu Zhou has set a good example for science fiction films and has brought up the science fiction atmosphere. Major companies in the industry have already poured more resources into science fiction films.

Therefore, with the right time, place and people basically in place, Liu Zhou also attached great importance to this experience sharing and exchange.

Liu Zhou spent nearly half a month's worth of evenings organizing his own shooting experiences and some shooting techniques.

This is also a summary of himself. When sorting out these experiences, new ideas always pop up in Liu Zhou's mind from time to time.

The ancients said that reviewing the past can help you learn new things, which is true.

This sharing and exchange lasted for two days. The first day was about talking about the things Liu Zhou had sorted out, and the second day was about using "The Martian" as a specific example.

From project establishment, early preparations, special effects production, to filming in the middle and post-production in the later stages, combined with what he said the day before, Liu Zhou explained in detail the complete production process of a science fiction film.

However, Liu Zhou did not simply apply the Hollywood model, but instead combined the current situation in the mainland to talk about how to make a science fiction film.

The simplest example is special effects. Hollywood uses CG wherever possible, but here, because labor is cheap, we will definitely use physical special effects wherever possible.

If the conditions were not available in the country, Liu Zhou really wanted to let them participate in the practice.

After all, theories are just theories. Only after practical operation and verification can these theories become the knowledge and skills that you truly master.

If all the people were asked to participate in the practice, Liu Zhou might not be able to do it, but some of them might be capable.

So at the end of the sharing and communication, Liu Zhou announced publicly that if you are interested, you can sign up with Golden Harvest Group. Golden Harvest will select several good seedlings and send them to Hollywood for internships to truly participate in the production of science fiction films throughout the entire process.

Although Summit Entertainment currently produces only a few films, including "Lucy", Liu Zhou will not necessarily send them only to Summit Entertainment.

Hollywood film companies like Lionsgate and Warner, which have good relations with Golden Harvest, produce more films each year.

If Liu Zhou assigns a few people to their crew, they will definitely give Liu Zhou this face.

The decision finally announced by Liu Zhou immediately caused some commotion among the audience.

Many people did not expect that there would be such a good opportunity to study in Hollywood. There was almost no such channel in China before. It seems that now only Golden Harvest has the ability to send people there.

Liu Zhou saw that many people in the audience looked excited, so he didn't want to discourage them.

There will definitely not be many people sent there the first time. Although anyone can sign up, the final list will inevitably consist of people with connections.

However, Liu Zhou did not do this just once. He would send people there from time to time, and they were not limited to directors, but also included behind-the-scenes talents like photographers and prop masters.

Only when there are more science fiction talents in the country and more science fiction films are produced, can the domestic film industry be gradually established.

(End of this chapter)