Tony Leung Chiu Wai Andy Lau’s new films attract attention. Are Hong Kong films still ＂fragrant＂？

Special feature of 1905 film network The movie is scheduled for December 30, and another movie starring in the front "meets" (December 29).The former director has set a box office record, while the latter is a director who has cooperated with Andy Lau for many times.

Hong Kong movies are very lively.At the same time, Andy Lau’s old partner, the director’s film work, will be released on August 25th, which is the third work that "Aauto Quicker" has met with the audience this summer. There have been and before.

It’s just that compared with Qiu Litao’s past series and her box office performance, it seems that this summer’s performance is not so strong. Especially for "Anti-drug 3", even though there are three major movie-winning platforms, the box office is less than 300 million, not even a fraction of the previous box office (1.312 billion).

Once upon a time, Louis Koo "propped up" the possibility of a series. Now, if we look at the market performance and similar configuration of Hong Kong crime action movies this year, is it true that Hong Kong movies are "not fragrant"?

The Three Axes of Hong Kong Films

Up to now, in 2023, there are mainly four Hong Kong crime action movies to meet the audience, in early February, in March, and then in the summer, "Anti-drug 3" and "Assassination Storm". But on the contrary, watching these four films is not ideal.

Especially "Anti-drug 3", although compared with the market performance of the previous work, many media still gave a forecast of about 700 million before the screening. Just contrary to expectations, even in the hot film market, the box office of "Anti-drug 3" is not outstanding.

In addition to the word-of-mouth of only 5.5 points, "Anti-drug 3" almost continued the style of the previous work, but at that time, "Anti-drug 2" with a word-of-mouth of only 6 points still won 1.323 billion box office. What exactly is the problem?

Not to mention the specific films, a brief review of the past blockbuster films shows that, except for the good reputation of Harmony, other films have always remained above and below the passing line. It’s just that these films seem to give people the illusion that they can be sold on the market.

Just seeing these blockbuster Hong Kong movies is like seeing the "three treasures" of Hong Kong movies.

The first is the actors who are arranged and combined.Looking back at Hong Kong movies in the past, especially crime action movies, almost all male actors played the leading role, and most actresses were reduced to vases, rarely like Assassination Storm.Myolie WuTo have such a key scene.

As for the cast of actors, it is almost a game of arrangement and combination with Louis Koo as the core. Andy Lau, Louis Koo, Liu Qingyun and other actors take turns to change positions and set up symbols again and again. It is no wonder that Hong Kong films have always been mired in the topic of "green and yellow". It is difficult for actors to innovate, and the audience has repeatedly watched the performance of this group of actors on the big screen, which is rarely fresh.

Especially the Louis Koo effect, it seems that at the beginning of the series of Anti-Corruption Storm, there was not much publicity, but it always achieved unexpected results. Later, the films such as The Apostles 2 and Anti-Drug 2 all got higher-than-expected box office results, either because of their feelings or because of their films.

For a time, "Louis Koo" became a box office guarantee.This value is almostWarriors of FutureHe got the peak treatment, and his word-of-mouth performance was average, but with his emotional card invested for many years, he finally achieved a counterattack and won more than 600 million box office results.

Only in this year’s "Anti-drug 3", this trump card was obviously affected, and the final box office was far less than the previous expectations. However, the movie "Assassination Storm" being released, the platform predicted that the total box office was only about 100 million.

In addition to actors, a single type of police and robbers is also a disease that Hong Kong film can’t escape from.

Especially after the success, many Hong Kong police films have fallen into the standard, and the confrontation between black and white is no longer clear. It is necessary to insert spies or undercover to promote the development of the story.

Although the details are different, the confused and similar stories always give people the illusion of deja vu. Especially for a long time, Hong Kong films have been consuming their own IP repeatedly, and "bomb squad" and "anti-drugs" have made independent works with a single IP, making certain changes in the inherent narrative framework.

Undeniably, this standardized creation also makes the audience fall into "aesthetic fatigue".Needless to say, nowadays, most action scenes in Hong Kong movies are single and lacking, and they rely on blasting scenes to gain attention.

Hong Kong’s action movies have always been "drama", and all kinds of action movies often become classics. Just looking back at the past time, apart from "Anger Serious Crime", there are few impressive operas. The plight of action actors may even be the plight of Hong Kong action movies.

Especially in many movies in Qiu Litao, all kinds of action scenes are gradually stolen by blasting scenes, and it is equally difficult to create new big scenes. The explosion of Shock Wave 2 series has already left a deep impression on the audience. Even in Anti-drug 2, the big scene in the Central subway is a classic. However, in "Anti-drug 3", although the final bombing scene has a very exciting visual effect, it is only bigger after all and has not made a fine effect.

From casting to plot, to scenes, the creation is more and more "fast" and forget "fine", which seems to make the audience less surprised and fresh, but its reputation is not outstanding. In many films with excellent reputation, the "fig leaf" of some Hong Kong films was torn down.

Breaking the Dilemma of Hong Kong Films

In the past period of time, many comments mentioned that China audiences seem to be "desensitized" to Hollywood blockbusters, which is largely due to the routinization of most Hollywood films, over-reliance on IP and algorithmic creation, all of which are difficult to innovate.

Although this year’s summer movie has only 200 million box office, it has already exceeded many people’s expectations. To a large extent, the film broke the audience’s inherent cognition, and it is also an IP adaptation. After the audience saw the film, there was an unexpected impression. The editing and directing team integrates social issues well, which is different from many Hollywood blockbusters.

This is exactly similar to the plight of Hong Kong films. In recent years, Hong Kong films often have some unconventional works.

From last year to this year, although these films didn’t win much box office figures, they all far exceeded expectations.

The latter, in particular, is like art cinema, which is small in size, and the actors are relatively unfamiliar to the mainland audience, which finally makes everyone sit up and take notice. "The Poisonous Tongue Lawyer" uses action drama to shoot the trial drama, which is more sincere and powerful in emotional expression, allowing the audience to go deep into it and finally realize empathy.

The same is true of "I still think you are the best". Although literature and drama are the mainstay, a solid script and a new emotional expression story can still bring enough differences, which is exactly what the audience is happy to see.

Perhaps, when Hong Kong movies break away from convention, the script really needs to be "rolled up".

Looking back at the official films, such as Stealth, Golden Finger, and Oriental Wall Street, etc., the topic is single, but from the title topic, we try to break the past IP concept, but now we hope that after breaking, we will break it again instead of continuing to stand still.