Chapter 439: Moon and Box Office
"Little Big Soldier" only earned 15 million on the first day, less than half of "Moon".

The next day, the box office did not increase but decreased, just like "Sword Rain", taking in only 11 million and almost falling below 10 million.

Not only did "Little Big Soldier" have lower box office than "Moon" and "Sword Rain", its reputation was also far inferior.

This is still a classic Cheng Long kung fu comedy, but it is covered with a layer of ancient military skin, and it is also a fictional Warring States historical background.

First of all, this fictional background makes people feel a little unreliable, and Cheng Long may be thinking about transformation. In recent years, his movies have obviously been gradually weakening the fighting scenes and instead strengthening the inner thoughts of the characters.

The most intuitive way to demonstrate this is that Jackie Chan can now die in movies.

But to be honest, for Cheng Long, the fighting scenes are his biggest highlight. Exploring his inner thoughts is really not what he is good at, so forcing it in would make people feel a little bit uncomfortable.

"Little Big Soldier" is a typical example. The first hour of the movie looks a bit dull. Although Jackie Chan has been trying hard to be funny, it is not in harmony with the overall solemn and majestic visual style of the film.

Cheng Long’s anti-war theme in "Little Big Soldier" is quite good, but he chose the wrong historical background. War and unification were the mainstream in the late Warring States Period.

Moreover, when Cheng Long expressed the anti-war theme, it gave people a feeling of forced sensationalism.

In addition, the acting of Wang Lihong and a South Korean actor who played his younger brother in the movie was particularly awkward, especially the latter, whose eyes and tone ruined the atmosphere of the movie.

Therefore, after the release of "Little Big Soldier", the word of mouth was not very high, and Douban only gave it a score of 6.7.

In contrast, "Moon" has received a huge boost in word-of-mouth following its wide release.

Although the lack of special effects in "Moon" disappointed the audience, and the special effects scenes were even not as good as "The Martian", the plot and themes revealed in this movie were well received.

The film begins with a surprisingly concise montage technique, relying on narration and camera switching, and introduces the background of the story clearly in just one and a half minutes:
In the future world, with the rapid advancement of science and technology, the pollution of the earth is becoming more and more serious. In order to curb this situation, a company called Yueneng Industrial Co., Ltd. came into being.

The company is committed to the development of lunar energy to meet Earth's energy needs by collecting helium-3.

Then, using the same concise technique, the film shows the environment of the Yuexing Base and his work process from the perspective of the male protagonist Liu Yedong.

Then there is a nine-minute video of the protagonist's daily life at the Moon Star Base and his mental state:
He was alone, with only an intelligent robot for company, and was used to talking to himself;

He missed his hometown and loved his wife and daughter. He had his wife's photo everywhere. In his spare time, he enjoyed chatting with the flowers he raised and sometimes made models of the streets of his hometown.

Sometimes he would have hallucinations that would burn his hands, and he would often dream about his wife.

These nine minutes highlight at every moment his longing for home and his family and his desire to return home in two weeks.

At the same time, these nine minutes not only pave the way for what's to come, but also lay the foundation for several foreshadowings, such as the protagonist starting to suffer from frequent headaches and feeling a little overwhelmed when mining.

This implies that working in an environment with radioactive elements for many years has caused him to suffer from a terminal illness, and therefore, the tragic tone is set from the beginning of the film.

Then, due to an accident, the movie begins to get into the real theme.

From Liu Ye's accident at work, to him waking up in the base and forgetting anything about the accident, to his insistence on leaving the cabin and discovering another self at the scene of the accident, everything began to become clear.

Liu Ye met a new self. He was crazy for a while but gradually calmed down. After the two talked, Liu Ye understood or accepted the truth:
They are clones, and they are already number five and six. Finally, they also confirmed from the intelligent robot that they are clones, a new one is activated every three years and the memory is implanted.

After realizing that the people in the company are actually playing a trick on him, Liu Ye goes out and discovers the signal jammer tower that prevents him from contacting Earth.

Later, he learned through video recordings that the so-called "deep sleep machine" that Liu Ye had been deceived into entering was actually an incinerator, and he discovered a secret room next to it that contained unactivated clones.

The sheer number of them made the two Liu Ye stare in amazement.

Accompanied by eerie voice-overs, every detail shows the human conspiracy to destroy humanity for the sake of profit. Compared with cultivating an excellent employee, creating clones is obviously a more economical choice.

But humans have implanted memories into the clones, allowing them to have the emotions of a normal person.

Liu Ye then went to the wild and contacted his family. He found that the daughter who was just born in his memory was already fifteen years old, and his wife had died.

What made him even more devastated was that there was also a Liu Ye in his family, and he was the real Liu Ye.

This is the emotional explosion point of the whole movie. The lonely and cold moon, facing the home in the sky that is out of reach - the earth, Liu Ye in the car can no longer hold back his choked tears -

"I want to go home."

Knowing that as a clone, he would end his short three-year life alone on the moon, the despair he felt was probably something no one could possibly imagine.

Finally, the movie enters the most tense moment.

Earth Moon Energy Company noticed the anomaly of the lunar base and sent a team to the moon to check the situation.

The intelligent robot was counting down the time for the team to arrive at the lunar base on the screen. Liu Ye understood that this was also the countdown for their lives.

Because if they knew there were two Liu Ye, they would never let either of them live. This is also the purpose of their coming to the Yuexing Base.

The new Liu Ye proposed a countermeasure, which was to activate another Liu Ye and kill him, then put him in the accident car to replace Liu Ye. Liu Ye would then return to Earth on the spacecraft carrying helium-3, while he would stay and continue working.

However, this suggestion was rejected by Liu Ye. Firstly, he did not want to kill anyone, although the newly activated Liu Ye was a clone without implanted memories. Secondly, he himself was seriously ill and felt that he did not have much time left. So he suggested that he go back to the car and the new Liu Ye return to Earth.

This part is very ironic, the clones behave in a humane way, but humans are cold and heartless.

Afterwards, the two drove to the scene of the accident together. In the car, they recalled the beautiful scene when they first met their wives, and the sad atmosphere gradually became heavier.

The scene when the new Liu Ye carried the unconscious Liu Ye into the accident car was extremely shocking.

Under the sunlight and with mournful music, the new Liu Ye seems to be burying himself. Human beings can never understand the feeling of burying themselves with their own hands.

Later, with the cooperation of the intelligent robot, the new Liu Ye activated the clone before the human team arrived, then programmed the mining vehicle to crash into the signal jammer tower and returned to Earth on the spacecraft.

He did this to leave a way out for Liu Ye in the future. Even if he could not succeed, they would still have hope of discovering the human conspiracy.

Liu Ye, who saw the spacecraft launch from the accident car, finally closed his eyes. He felt that his mission was accomplished, and another self had already driven back to his hometown with his own thoughts.

At the end of the movie, the new Liu Ye returns to Earth. The details of what happens are not shown, only the final ending is announced through a broadcast: the new Liu Ye who returns to Earth uncovers the conspiracy of Yuexing Company, and Yueneng Company faces bankruptcy.

However, such an ending is obviously a bit idealistic. If it were really filmed like this, it would definitely make people feel anticlimactic.

So after the broadcast, the strange music still sounded, and the camera switched to the lunar base. Faintly, one could see another Liu Ye opening his eyes.

The film not only satirizes the ruthlessness of human beings for profit, but also exposes the interdependent themes of love and loneliness.

Loneliness is not innate, but it is always with you from the moment you fall in love with someone.

If Liu Yeben was a lonely but free and unrestrained wanderer, he might not feel lonely even if he worked alone on the moon for three years.

It is precisely because he has a home, a beloved wife and daughter that he misses all of these all the time, and missing is the source of loneliness.

Another major theme of the film is its in-depth exploration of the issue of human cloning, which is a very hot topic at the moment.

Many people know the concept of cloning, and they also understand that humans can be cloned. Then they vaguely accept the fact that cloning violates ethics and is therefore prohibited in experiments.

In fact, there are quite a few movies about human cloning, but only "Moon" makes people deeply understand what the so-called "ethical issues" are.

So although "Moon" is considered a soft science fiction movie, it is highly regarded among science fiction films.

Yuan Shikong Media rated "Moon" as the best science fiction film in 2009, second only to "Avatar".

The latter wins mainly in visual effects, while the former wins in plot.

Zhang Yimou's directing skills are unquestionable. Given a good script, he can turn a 100-point script into a 120-point movie.

Liu Zhou also went to see the movie "Moon" and he felt that it was in no way inferior to the original version, and was even better.

After all, when Duncan Jones directed "Moon" in the original time and space, it was his first time making a movie. If we really talk about directing level, Zhang Yimou is definitely much better than him.

China Youth Daily even rated "Moon" as Zhang Yimou's best work since "To Live".

Therefore, after Zhang Yimou's version of "Moon" was released, he received unanimous praise from both inside and outside the industry.

Compared to the original time and space, when Zhang Yimou's first film after the Olympics, "The Monkey King 3", was criticized by the outside world, now "Moon" has achieved great success in both box office and reputation, making his title of national master worthy of its name. His situation is very different.

In fact, there are quite a few people who are ready to make fun of Zhang Yimou, and want to wait for his movie to fail so as to ridicule him and destroy his popularity and reputation.

After all, the market is so big. There is already Liu Zhou suppressing it. If Zhang Yimou comes along, it is obvious that the remaining cake will not be enough to share.

Liu Zhou and his men didn't dare to move and couldn't do anything, so they could only hope to get rid of Zhang Yimou.

Although Zhang Yimou has a good relationship with Jiahe, he is not a Jiahe employee after all. Even though doing this may offend Jiahe, compared with the benefits gained, the benefits outweigh the disadvantages.

But the result disappointed them. This time, Zhang Yimou's "Moon" was better than many people imagined.

In fact, even if "Moon" flopped, it would not have much impact on Zhang Yimou's box office appeal. Although he was criticized so badly after "Three Guns" in the original time and space, Zhang Yimou's box office appeal is still unique.

In addition to Zhang Yimou, who benefited greatly from the huge success of "Moon", Liu Ye, the male lead of the film, also became extremely popular.

There are only nine characters in this movie in total, and Liu Ye plays two roles. He almost carries the entire movie.

Liu Ye also showed her acting skills to the fullest in this movie, which was not only recognized by the industry, but also greatly praised by the outside world.

This also made him a popular candidate for Best Actor at this year's Golden Rooster Awards and next year's Hong Kong Film Awards.

This directly made Liu Ye the most popular male actor this Spring Festival. One year after joining Golden Harvest, he began to catch up with Qin Hao and Huang Xiaoming.

Qin Hao actually also brought the well-received work "Sword Rain".

The plot of the movie is very exciting, especially when the male protagonist Zhang Asheng and the female protagonist become closer and closer because of various accidents. It is simply the Chinese version of Mr. and Mrs. Smith.

This setting is still very attractive, and it is not outdated even in 2024. Both Moudian and Moulu have similar books - the male and female protagonists hide their identities as bosses from each other and get married, then show off their power outside and pretend to be cowards to each other when they go home.

Especially the final showdown to reveal the identity or the part where one pretends to be a pig and then eats the tiger, which can really hit the audience's sweet spot.

"Sword Rain" has many martial arts elements, including fighting for treasure, revenge, love, and the martial arts world. Not only does it have a hearty story, but the ending also allows everyone to see the shadow of anti-heroic martial arts.

What is an anti-hero? It means that the plot does not have the great heroes portrayed in martial arts films, or even positive characters in the traditional sense.

The most representative one is Gu Long's martial arts. It is hard to say that the movie "Sword Rain" was not influenced by Gu Long's martial arts.

No matter whether it is the protagonist or the villain, everyone has his own shortcomings. All people are just ordinary people in the world, and their goals are often very personal, even ridiculous to outsiders.

The performances of Qin Hao and Fan Xiaopang were both above average, but martial arts were still a bit declining at this time.

Although "Sword Rain" has been highly praised by the outside world and is called a martial arts masterpiece, its popularity is still not as high as "Moon", and the popularity of Qin Hao and Fan Xiaopang combined is not as high as Liu Ye.

As for another blockbuster "Little Big Soldier", if it weren't for Cheng Long's support, it would have become cannon fodder for these two movies.

The most direct manifestation is the box office. During the seven days of the Spring Festival, "Moon" earned 1.86 million yuan, "Sword Rain" also reached 1.2 million yuan, while "Little Big Soldier" only earned 6200 million yuan.

Compared with Jackie Chan's previous films, the performance of "Little Big Soldier" is considered very good. At least there will be no problem for this movie to break the 100 million yuan box office.

You have to know that up to now, none of Jackie Chan's movies have grossed over 100 million yuan in the mainland. The closest one, "The Myth", only grossed over 90 million yuan, which is still a few million short.

But everything is afraid of comparison. Compared with previous works, the performance of "Little Big Soldier" is certainly good, but compared with "Moon" and "Sword Rain", it is far inferior.

The box office of "Sword Rain" was twice that of "Moon", and it was three times that of "Sword Rain".

This made Cheng Long, who had high expectations for "Little Big Soldier", a little frustrated.

(End of this chapter)