Coquettish Rebirth

Jia Hongjian's trip to the United States was not just for the premiere of "Infernal Affairs", but mainly to control the release of "Hero" in the United States.If we operate in this way now, we hope that it will be released in the United States in July or August, so that we will have the opportunity to participate in the Oscars next year?And the most important thing is that the remaining part of the investment in "Hero" has to be earned back from the United States!Relatively speaking, although Japan, Dawan, or South Korea are relatively close to the market, it is easy to deal with the film and release it, but because it is only famous in China, if it goes to Japan and South Korea, it must be a change of batch—— It is a direct buyout.Of course, such a buyout would not be in the best interest of the film, and it would have nothing to do with Jia Hongjian if the box office in Japan and South Korea was high later on, wouldn't it?Why do we earn less?

When Hollywood films come to China, they are also divided into batches and ledgers.The approved films are all small and medium-sized productions, and they are not well-known, and they are not even considered as a "big film", so they are bought out!As for the ledger sheet, because of its great reputation, it may become a ledger!Therefore, in order for Jia Hongjian to split the bills, it is naturally best to get some box office in the United States, which gives a certain amount of confidence to film producers in other countries such as Japan and South Korea!We have to prove ourselves in the American market, so that the two ghosts in Japan and South Korea can admit that this film is indeed not a poor production, and can indeed share the bill, right?Otherwise, the two ghosts should not say, "Oh, although your Chinese films have a high box office in your country, but that is because your domestic audiences have a low level of appreciation, which does not prove that your stuff is good..." How can Jia Hongjian refute this?We can only refute it with actual results!

If he wants to refute it, he must come to the United States for screening. After coming to the United States ahead of schedule, Jia Hongjian will first prepare for a test screening or something to see if American audiences like such a Chinese film.To be honest, Jia Hongjian is not 100% confident in how much American audiences can accept such a story that comes entirely from China.Although it is said that when writing the script, it was necessary to rely on the political environment of the United States, but no matter how close the problem is to the political environment of the United States, it is only close.This story is still a Chinese story, and few Americans know who Ying Zheng is, and few people know ancient Chinese history.

Under such circumstances, even if Jia Hongjian had confidence that the Americans would accept it, it couldn't be 100% confidence, right?And he can't learn from other people's ideas, just like "Hero" in history, which did well in the US box office, but the following films like "House of Flying Daggers" will not do well in the US box office. .From this point of view, there is still some chance that "Hero" has a high box office in the United States.Lao Zhang himself still can't understand why "Heroes" became so popular.How could he, Jia Hongjian, as a half-way monk, analyze it all at once?

As for the first trial screening, the effect reflected was not perfect. Generally speaking, among the 30 people in the preview screening, it seemed that only those in their 30s felt that the film was a little Meaning, people under the age of 30 mean "do not understand".Such a feedback made Jia Hongjian feel a little strange, since "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" didn't have such comments back then!And strangest of all.The main consumers of "Hero" in mainland China are young people, and middle-aged people who have families don't even watch it much, let alone old people who are saving their lives. In the end, the middle-aged and old people said that they didn't pass it here. Yes, young people and women say they don’t understand?How did this happen?This requires Jia Hongjian and the others to target middle-aged men over the age of [-]?But things like age... It's not necessarily credible, just like Jia Hongjian's previous example, there is still room for fraud in these things!

On top of the questionnaire after the preview.Such a group of viewers have written out why they think it looks good and why it doesn't look good.For the viewers who think it looks good, the reason why they write it is precisely the designs prepared by Jia Hongjian that are close to the American market - reflecting a part of reality and drawing lessons from real things.Then the scenery is very beautiful, the colors are very bright, and the martial arts scenes are a bit special.But for those who don’t like the audience, those things are “I can’t understand what is being said, I’m not interested, and the picture is pretty. But the martial arts is not good, it’s not as good as "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"..."

Whoops, let me go, this film is really regarded as the twin brother of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" by some American audiences?How many years have you not played that kind of poetic martial arts fighting scene?For example, Cheng Long has been playing real fighting for 20 years, and he turned out to be a good mix, isn't he?The response to the preview screening was not so perfect, and then it caused a series of problems. For example, the screening managers of the theaters were afraid to order copies all of a sudden.But they were afraid of offending Jia Hongjian, so several theaters ordered a copy or two for a little while.In the end, such a film was released on a small scale in less than 20 theaters!In order not to make Jia Hongjian angry, they also came up one by one to express that they couldn't help themselves—"Mr. Jia, we can't help it. If the audience doesn't like us, it's unlikely that we will order a lot of copies? Otherwise, you will re- Edit it? Then hold a trial screening? Otherwise, if we order too much, it will not be easy to explain to the above... Originally, if it was your film, we should be able to order it directly in large quantities. But this time this film is after all Chinese culture is more important..."

What do you mean?That is to say, if Jia Hongjian does not make a film, then it will be screened on such a scale as less than 20?This difficulty is too great!Except for "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", Jia Hongjian's films have never been shown in a small range from the bottom to the top.And "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" is the work of Ang Lee, so the overall artistic control is still controlled by Ang Lee.But Zhang Yimou of this "Hero" film is not as familiar with the American market as Ang Lee, and Jia Hongjian is familiar with it but not professional enough. What's wrong?

Thinking of the end, Jia Hongjian really managed to remake this film!Of course, what I'm talking about here doesn't mean that the whole film needs to be re-shot or something, that would be too troublesome.What Jia Hongjian wanted was to re-edit the film, and re-edit the subtitles by the way!That's right, think about it in 2012, isn't there a blockbuster blockbuster made by Hollywood for mainland China?Didn't some blockbuster movies released in China include scenes of Chinese actors that were not included in other versions?From this point of view, there is nothing taboo about special editions, right?So in order for Americans to understand it better, it should be possible to modify the overall editing idea a little bit, and change the rhythm a little bit, right?Then the translation of the subtitles is more in line with the habits of the United States, and it should be done as much as possible in combination with reality, right?

For this reason, Jia Hongjian found the editor who had edited Nolan's "Infernal Affairs" before, and then he and the editor worked hard in the room for several days, and he insisted on editing "Infernal Affairs" Before it was released, such a "Hero" film was made into an edited version that is more suitable for the United States!Jia Hongjian put a lot of effort into this new edited version. It can be said that apart from using a series of materials similar to the domestic version, other narrative rhythms and things before and after the plot have been revised. There are quite a few, and almost all of them can be watched as a new movie!

At the same time, Jia Hongjian hastily came up with a series of promotional tactics. After all, there must be enough consumers to make the film's box office higher!For this reason, while DreamWorks North America released the film on its behalf, it also threw in 1000 million US dollars for publicity.This 1000 million US dollars of publicity expenses is really not that much in the United States. It can only be regarded as a small publicity. It is only advertised in various print media, especially morning newspapers, but there is no way to advertise on TV. .Even so, Jia Hongjian was basically satisfied.Because this film really doesn't necessarily mean that the more publicity it spends, the better it will be at the box office!On the one hand, although Jia Hongjian could spend a lot of money on publicity, and then cheated out of the premiere box office, tricked the audience into going to the movie theater once, and tried to get back the money as quickly as possible.But it's too bad to do so. It's not like Jia Hongjian won't hang out in the United States in the future, and it's not like he doesn't plan to use his name to make a big name. Why would he do this?Therefore, this can only be done within our means, and we can only invest within the profit and loss line as much as possible. I believe that such a large-scale investment can not only pay back the cost of publicity, but also earn more box office, right? The shooting cost of the entire "Hero" or something Pay the bill too...

When the tense preparations started here, "Infernal Affairs" began to be supplied.The release of "Infernal Affairs" is on a Friday in mid-June, which is basically when college students start their holidays, but middle school and elementary school students have not yet started their holidays.To be honest, the release of "Infernal Affairs" has attracted more interest from the American media than "Hero".After all, such a film is the latest collaboration between Jia Hongjian and Nolan, an old couple. The previous collaboration "Tang Monk" seems to have fully proved that the two people's cooperation is really a match made in heaven, so now this film is heard again. Jia Hongjian and Nolan wrote the script together, and Jia Hongjian produced it, and Nolan filmed it.So this movie should be pretty good, right?And it's a modern drama, which is different from the fantasy drama of "Tang Monk" before. Film critics are also very curious about what will happen to this movie...