The Monkey King vs pansidong only scored 3 points. How long can Jing Wong’s business last?

Special feature of 1905 film network "I read the whole The Journey to the West at the age of nine, but this is the first time I have officially made the theme of this wonderful book. I have fulfilled my wish. "

 

When Jing Wong, 65, recommended his new online movie "the Monkey King vs. Pansi Cave", he unabashedly referred to it as "a childhood dream".


 

After the film was launched, it quickly reached the top of the Japanese list. At present, the cumulative broadcast volume has reached 56.45 million, ranking among the best online movies in the same period.


However, "the Monkey King vs. Pansi Cave" suffered a word-of-mouth "Waterloo" on Douban, with a score of only 3.0, and 64.5% of netizens gave a one-star bad review. The key words are "shocking plot", "rough special effects" and "awkward lines", and "Made in Jing Wong" once again encounters the embarrassing situation of "not being well received".


With a keen business sense, Jing Wong became one of the earliest Hong Kong directors to enter the online movie market. At the same time as Jing Wong, even earlier, a group of Hong Kong filmmakers firmly established themselves in the phalanx of online movies on the way "all the way up". It is a two-way choice for Hong Kong filmmakers to enter the online movie market, but both of them are in urgent need of a break in the face of the question of "speculating on cold rice" and "living on their laurels".

 

Jing Wong’s online movie business. 

 

As early as 2015, Jing Wong entered the online market of "Blue Ocean" and signed a cooperation agreement with iQiyi for six films.

 

A year later, Jing Wong produced and wrote the first online drama My Goddess of Need. The film continues the routine of urban romantic comedy that Jing Wong is good at, bringing in Ekin Cheng, Chrissie Chau and other quasi-cinema stars, and the number of hits has exceeded 30 million in five days.


Coupled with the investment claimed to be over 10 million, this "My Goddess of Need" stirred up a lot of water in the online market at that time.

 

In 2018, at the forum of "Regeneration of Network Distribution Value-Breakdown and Reorganization of Hong Kong Film IP", Jing Wong suddenly angered the chaos of "plagiarism" of online movies. "The theme you said is to pay tribute to Hong Kong movies. In my opinion, this is a collective theft of Hong Kong IP by online movies … without giving any fees to any intellectual property owner or even asking for permission."


Jing Wong’s words poked at the crux of the shoddy and plagiarism in the online market at that time, and also revealed the recognized creative shortcut in the Chinese online market from one side.


In the cinema film market, the argument that "Hong Kong films are dead" will be rampant from time to time, but in the online market, the classic Hong Kong IP is welcoming round after round of "resurrection" in various forms.


Looking at the nearly ten online works that Jing Wong participated in, it is not difficult to find that he himself can’t avoid the custom in the matter of "speculating IP".


"New lion roars" and "Tang Bohu Dianchouxiang 2019" are obviously based on the classic Hong Kong film IP. "Detective Billion" is an online spin-off he launched after the success of cinema films. "Flying Dragon Crossing the River" also pays tribute to the classic Hong Kong Kung Fu comedy from the title to the plot.


This time, "the Monkey King War Pansi Cave" is no exception. "Journey to the West" is one of the most classic themes of Hong Kong films. From the series of "Journey to the West" to "Journey to the West to Demon/Evil", it is not uncommon but often new.

 

This time, Jing Wong also invited Luo Jiaying, who played the Tang Priest in A Chinese Odyssey, and Benny Chan, the Monkey King, who played the Monkey King in the Hong Kong drama "Journey to the West II", together with several new "crystal girls" and erotic and comedy elements that Jing Wong is good at, to complete a "self-respect" emotional output.


However, like Jing Wong’s works in recent years, "the Monkey King vs. Pansi Cave" still cannot escape the dilemma of "disappointing performance". "Fried cold rice" and "king of rotten films" have once again become the key words of various film reviews.


In the face of doubts and negative comments, Jing Wong seems to have already practiced "invulnerability". What he often says seems to be still applicable in the context of online movies. "It is far more effective for viewers to vote with money than for critics to vote with their mouths."


There are only a few hundred people evaluating online movies on Douban, and the users of Douban are not in the same circle as the mainstream audience of online movies. Platform broadcast volume and box office are far more commercial than Douban score, which is also the basis for Jing Wong to speak this language.

 

Talking about the cooperation with Jing Wong, Gong Yu, CEO of iQiyi, once commented on him as "the director with the most Internet genes in Chinese movies" and "he has been making movies with the Internet thinking of product managers." Jing Wong even boldly predicted: "The Internet will replace the traditional cinema, and I am willing to take this step first."

 

It is not difficult to see that the logic of commercial movies that Jing Wong believes in coincides with the emphasis on low-cost and fast-paced online movie market. Online movie audiences’ preference for strong genre and "heavy taste" movies is exactly what Jing Wong wants. It can be said that Jing Wong, which has always regarded movies as commodities, is active in the online movie market, which is a two-way choice and the result of the times.


Hong Kong’s "Playing Bone" on the Net 

 

There are many "old friends" such as Benny Chan, Lin Zicong, Zheng Zeshi, Luo Jiaying and Chen Baixiang in Jing Wong’s online movie projects. They used to be "familiar faces" in classic Hong Kong films, but now they are frequently active in the online movie market, which holds up "half the sky" of Chinese online movies with a high-yield rhythm of Toshitabe.


The Monkey King vs. Pansi Cave is not the first time that Benny Chan and Lin Zicong have played the Monkey King and Zhu Bajie in online movies. As early as "Fighting against Buddha" and "The Great Sage of Qi Tian and the City of All Demons", they once starred together. Coupled with the cooperation in the "Jigong" series, the combination of Chen and Erh Lin has been deeply rooted in the hearts of online movie audiences.


 

Since 2017, the number of online movies starring Benny Chan has exceeded 20, and there will be as many as 6 movies in 2020 alone. In the "TOP10 list of China Internet’s great influence" released at the beginning of the year, Benny Chan ranked third and became one of the hottest actors in Internet University.


Fan Shaohuang, a "virtual bamboo" who is also well-known to the audience for "Eight Dragons", has also regarded online movies as its main battlefield in recent years. From The Great Sage Conquers the Demon, The Monkey King’s Screaming at the Dragon Palace to the series of modern action films, The Green Legion with Special Mission and Action of Wolves, Fan Shaohuang’s films are more diverse.


In addition to these Hong Kong actors who have become the "backbone" of the online movie market all the way up the road, there are also many "golden leaves" in Hong Kong films and Hong Kong dramas that glow with "second spring" in online movies.

 

"Pomegranate Sister" King-Tan Yuen starred in more than 10 online movies such as "Tang Bohu Dianqiuxiang 2019", and 70-year-old "charterer" Yuan Wah and "charterer" Yuan Qiu are still in their prime. Luo Jiaying, Zheng Zeshi, Ng Man Tat, and Xu Shaoqiang also appeared in a lot of online works.


 

In addition, Deric Wan, Xie Tianhua, Lv Liangwei and other actors, Kathy CHAU, Kristy Yang, Carman Lee and other actresses have also tried the net more or less. Online movies have become a "gathering place" for the older generation of Hong Kong movie stars.


 

Similar to Jing Wong, the interaction between Hong Kong actors and online movies is also a "two-way choice" process.

 

Wei Junzi, a film critic, said in an interview that the mainstream audience of online movies is very similar to the audience of the "golden age" of Hong Kong movies. On the one hand, their movie-watching choices are greatly influenced by "inertia", and they have a natural affinity for familiar themes and actors.

 

These popular Hong Kong IP films and "bone-playing" actors can often achieve twice the result with half the effort. The collaboration between Benny Chan and Carman Lee in "The Flame Mountain of the Great Sage in the Monkey King" triggered a discussion on the topic of "Duan Yu and Wang Yuyan meet again", which was easily searched in Weibo.


In the recent phenomenal online movie Ghost Story: Human Love, Yuan Wah’s re-performance of Yan Chixia and Xu Shaoqiang’s cross-dressing "Grandma" has also become one of the publicity points.


On the other hand, the low-cost and fast-paced creative mode of online movies is also very similar to that of Hong Kong movies. These actors, who have been tempered by the Hong Kong film industry with an annual output of several hundred films, are highly adaptable, and with their professional acting skills and reasonable pay, they naturally become the first choice for the big network crew.

 

Zheng Zeshi, the "Fat Cat", once recalled the year in the Tucao Conference, lamenting that when Hong Kong was hit by the financial crisis, only the Jing Wong film crew started work. Although many bad films were made, it supported a group of Hong Kong filmmakers.


Nowadays, the mixed online movies have similar significance to Hong Kong filmmakers. After all, for many pragmatic practitioners, film is a business, and "it’s a big deal."


In the first quarter of 2020, the total amount of TOP 30 online movies reached 430 million, and there were 23 films with over 10 million accounts, an increase of 188% over the same period last year. Facing the broad market prospect, online movies put forward higher requirements for quality. Last October, the "Internet Movie" was officially renamed as "Internet Movie", which also expressed the industry’s determination to bid farewell to the shoddy "Internet Movie" era.

 

Some analysts have suggested that the online movie market will gradually enter the "word-of-mouth-driven 3.0 era" from the "genre-driven 2.0 era" — — Good stories and good acting skills are the core, returning to the content itself, and driving the box office with user word of mouth.


Under the tide of "high-quality" online movies, if Hong Kong filmmakers only focus on self-repetition, they will inevitably be abandoned by the audience one day, which is foreshadowed by a large number of negative comments on "the Monkey King vs. Pansidong".


In the face of online movie audiences whose aesthetics are constantly improving, both Jing Wong and Hongkong filmmakers need to show more sincerity.


The film "Datang Xuanzang" was released, and Huang Xiaoming shaved his head for Xuanzang.

    The film Xuanzang tells the story of Master Xuanzang, a monk in the Tang Dynasty, who went to India to seek Buddhism more than 1300 years ago. This film, which lasted for more than half a year, reproduces Master Xuanzang’s way of seeking dharma and this great journey full of human brilliance.

   The film "Datang Xuanzang" restores Xuanzang’s 19-year road to study in history. It is not a joke or a legend, but only uses light and shadow to present this great journey about "persistence in one thought" 1300 years ago to the audience. This film is directed by director Jianqi Huo, and written by screenwriter Zou Jingzhi. Wong Kar-wai is specially invited as artistic director. This film is starring Huang Xiaoming, starring Xú Zhēng, starring Purba Rgyal, Luo Jin, Lian Kai, Tan Kai, Vivian Dawson, Cao Cao, Jiang Chao, Che Xiao and Lou Jiayue, starring Zhao Wenxuan, Tang Zhenye, Wang Huichun and Zhao Liang, and many actors joined in.

Huang Xiaoming shaved his head for the role and said that filming Xuanzang was to fulfill his mother’s wish.

This time, the film invited Huang Xiaoming to play Master Xuanzang. In order to play this role well, Huang Xiaoming not only shaved his head, but also experienced the desert heat, the Indian sun and the cold of the snow-capped mountains all the way. He also followed the crew to complete this "eighty-one difficult" quest. Huang Xiaoming bluntly played Xuanzang to fulfill his mother’s wish.

Following the premiere conference on 24th, the cast of "Datang Xuanzang" started a national roadshow. All the way down, don’t watch 2: Jianqi Huo directed the film "Datang Xuanzang’s Journey to the West", directed by director Jianqi Huo and written by screenwriter Zou Jingzhi. Jianqi Huo, who directed The Mountain, The Man, The Dog, and other films, is almost paranoid about the beauty of the camera. He is very delicate and sensitive, and pays attention to the expression of details, which are reflected in his infinite restoration of Xuanzang’s westward journey.

Zou Jingzhi, a gold-medal screenwriter who has written films such as "Da Tang Xuan Zang", not only restores Xuanzang’s journey to the west and tells about the most original The Journey to the West, but also conveys the spirit of Master Xuanzang’s persistence in faith and persistence through focus plane for thousands of years more than 1,300 years ago to modern audiences.

Insist on realistic presentation and pursue Xuanzang’s route with lens.

In order to show the hardships of Master Xuanzang’s quest for Dharma more than 1300 years ago, director Jianqi Huo insisted on real-life shooting. The crew moved to Xinjiang, Gansu and India, and used the lens to pursue Master Xuanzang’s route in those days: endless desert, majestic and silent snow-capped mountains, and beautiful Indian scenery. Real-life shooting is almost demanding for the director’s works, and it is a visual feast in front of the camera: from the extreme yellow sand to a white snow-capped mountain, and finally to ancient India with strong colors.

Along the way, Master Xuanzang grasped the scenery along the way and the customs of different countries. Director Jianqi Huo made great efforts to build palaces and study the clothes and customs of ancient India by referring to history. On the westbound road, many countries have disappeared into the dust of history, and the Nalanduo Temple, the temple of Buddhism, was only left with ruins. The crew spent a lot of time to complete the scene reproduction.

In addition to building a palace, there is a scene in which Master Xuanzang and an elephant travel together in a boat on the Ganges River, which was taken with the elephant. The crew took great risks when shooting, because even the elephant trainer was not sure how the elephant would react when standing on the boat.

Details are everywhere.

More than 1300 years ago, Master Xuanzang completed a journey that seems impossible now. Master Xuanzang’s "one-thought persistence" has made great contributions to human civilization, and this spirit has also deeply influenced the cast of Datang Xuanzang. In Indian scenes, everything from gorgeous saris to gold ornaments on Indian actors and even the crown on the king’s head is highly restored. SonuSood, an Indian actor who plays the no-sun-fighting king who held a naked meeting in the film, said: "At the moment I wore the crown, I really felt like a king."

Stars join in to reproduce the legend of a generation of monks

"Da Tang Xuan Zang" is starring Huang Xiaoming, starring Xú Zhēng, starring Purba Rgyal, Luo Jin, Lian Kai, Tan Kai, Vivian Dawson, Cao Cao, Jiang Chao, Che Xiao and Lou Jiayue, starring Zhao Wenxuan, Tang Zhenye, Wang Huichun and Zhao Liang, and many stars have joined in to support it.

Master Xuanzang went west all the way, constantly meeting and constantly separating. They are either officials who hinder the mage’s westward journey, or border guards who provide help to the mage, or businessmen who meet on the road, or apprentices who have only a short fate. They are the kings who are bent on retaining Xuanzang, and they are also the monarchs who welcome the mage to the east. Xuanzang’s mother, played by Che Xiao, also made her big screen debut. The memory of his mother in childhood is also the warmest memory of Xuanzang on his journey to the west.

"Meng Shu"Lei HanSing the theme song

The theme song "A Millennium" of "Da Tang Xuan Zang" was produced by the film theme song producer Huang Yong. Melody, Huang Yong prefers pure emotional expression; In the choice of musical instruments, Huang Yong’s sword is biased: from Ma Touqin in Song of Canglang to the Fu Lu in Waiting for Dawn. In the Millennium, Huang Yong chose traditional Chinese musical instruments, such as flute, Xiao, and Yu, to deduce the quaint style in the music. As the most representative sitaqin in ancient India, it added exotic charm to the music.

This time, the film invited Han Lei to give a voice and perform with Huang Xiaoming from a distance. Huang Yong, composer and producer, said that this time Han Lei’s singing, his signature singing style was put away, "Don’t be majestic, don’t be high-pitched", and Han Lei interpreted the theme song by "singing in a low voice".

Huang Xiaoming read the Heart Sutra with clear pronunciation and mellow voice.

In particular, the audience will hear the Heart Sutra recited by Huang Xiaoming at the end of the film. Up to now, no star has recited the Heart Sutra with clear articulation, and Huang Xiaoming became the first Chinese star to record and recite the Heart Sutra. At the end of the film, the audience will also hear this version of Heart Sutra, which is full of pity for the world and persistence in faith.

Summary report on 5 new cars of medium-sized new car/small SUV Suzuki

The first car to enter China: Kizashi


  Has always been an expert in making cars, but in 2010, Suzuki will bring the first mid-to high-end mid-size car product-Kizashi! Mr. Hiroshi Sakamoto, Chairman of Suzuki China Investment Co., Ltd., once said in a dialogue: kizashi is positioned as a sports car internally, and the target group is individual customers who are keen on driving and enjoy driving and control.


Car home imported Suzuki Suzuki Kizashi 2010 basic model.


Car home imported Suzuki Suzuki Kizashi 2010 basic model.


"Suzuki will launch its first medium-sized car product in China next year"


  Regarding the size of this new car, it is worth noting that when kizashi appeared as an identity, its body length, width and height were 4650mm/1900mm/1450mm, respectively, which was 2800 mm. The short front and rear suspension design made the concept model get more interior space under the not-so-long body. Unfortunately, the wheelbase of the production version kizashi was reduced to 2710mm when the body length was unchanged, which made us.


Car home imported Suzuki Suzuki Kizashi 2010 basic model.


It is equipped with a 2.4-liter inline four-cylinder gasoline engine with a maximum of about 160 horsepower.


Car home imported Suzuki Suzuki Kizashi 2010 basic model. Car home imported Suzuki Suzuki Kizashi 2010 basic model.


  For this medium-sized car positioning product, its power will be equipped with a 2.4-liter DOHC inline four-cylinder gasoline engine with a maximum power of about 160 HP. The 6-speed manual transmission and transmission will appear on different models according to the configuration.


1.4L


Car home Changhe Suzuki Liana hatchback 1.6 manual practical


  The information exposed at the same time as the listing in the third quarter is that Suzuki will launch the entry-level 1.4L Liana this year. At the same time, the price of the new car will be further lowered, and it will also provide more choices for consumers mainly within the scope of purchase tax concessions. The new car is expected to be listed in the middle of this year.


Changhe Suzuki plans a small SUV


  Zhou Shining, general manager of Changhe Automobile, revealed in a reporter’s conversation last year that his brand is promoting SUV projects, with a displacement of less than 1.6L and a size similar to that of SUV. It is reported that Changhe SUV is expected to be equipped with 1.6L and 1.4L power, and the engine is likely to share Liana M16A and K14B.


Home of the car


"Changhe’s first SUV will learn from Suzuki concept car Makai』"


  It is reported that Changhe SUV will learn from Suzuki’s existing models. In 2007, Suzuki released a platform-based sports concept car, Makai, which was influenced by California surfing culture. Based on a four-wheel drive sports car, it adopted a convertible design, and Changhe SUV probably borrowed Makai. It is reported that Changhe Suzuki SUV will also adopt four-wheel drive, but it may not adopt the convertible design of its concept car.


  It is not difficult to see from the above information that after entering 2010, Suzuki’s development in domestic joint ventures will be more balanced, among which Changhe Suzuki will hit its domestic market share with more new products. I believe this product Splash will play a decisive role in this respect, and we will wait and see! (Compile/Liang Sichen)