radicalducati Chapter 43 Film Reviews and Box Office
Chapter 43 Film Reviews and Box Office
On March 10, "A Separation" premiered nationwide.
After the premiere, Sina Entertainment's homepage featured a special section on the premiere of "A Separation," with the headline "Berlin Triple Silver Bears Domestic Premiere, Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige Attend to Show Support."
The first batch of film reviews also appeared on portal websites.
Just after midnight, Sohu Entertainment's movie roundtable column updated with a long review: "First time watching : This is not a movie that will make you feel comfortable."
The author is Zhang Han, a senior journalist who covered the film festival in Berlin.
"When I first saw this film in Berlin, I thought it was a tragedy about trust. Watching it again tonight at the domestic premiere, I realized it's actually a tragedy about being right."
The husband, played by Guo Xiaodong, wasn't wrong; he wanted his father to spend his later years in familiar surroundings. The mother, played by Hao Lei, wasn't wrong either; she wanted to give her daughter a better education. The nanny, played by Yan Bingyan, wasn't wrong either; she simply wanted to earn an income through her labor...
Within half an hour of this film review being posted, it had already garnered more than a dozen comments.
"I just finished watching the premiere, and I still haven't recovered from the scene where the little girl didn't say anything at the end."
"Guo Xiaodong deserved to win the Best Actor award; he perfectly portrayed that silent dignity."
"To be honest, I didn't quite understand it, but Hao Lei's argument scene was absolutely amazing."
At 2 a.m., a post called "Berlin Three Bears Film Viewing Group" was pushed to the front page of Douban (which was called Douban Group at the time).
The poster claimed to be a student from the Literature Department of Beijing Film Academy, who sat in the fourth row at the premiere. They analyzed the film's narrative structure from a professional perspective and concluded with a single sentence:
"The senior's camerawork was much more restrained than I had imagined. He didn't use a single superfluous shot to please the audience, which gave the whole film an almost cruel honesty."
But there are also dissenting voices.
In the morning, print media began to exert their influence. The entertainment section of the Yanjing Morning Post published a commentary signed "Wen Jun" with the title ": The Distance Between Awards and the Market".
"The Berlin Film Festival awarded this film three Silver Bears, an unprecedented achievement in the history of Chinese cinema."
But when I sat in the premiere screening room, what I saw was a slow-paced, obscurely narrated, and emotionally repressive film. In its two-hour runtime, the director filled the time with numerous long takes and silences. This technique might be considered masterful in Europe, but in the domestic market, it would likely only elicit yawns from the audience.
This comment immediately split the online discussion into two camps.
Supporters of Manfred Wong said, "Art films are just self-indulgent" and "What's the use of winning awards if nobody watches them?"
Those who disagreed retorted, "Just because you don't understand it doesn't mean the film is bad," and "Are the Berlin judges all blind?"
A commentary on Sina.com was also pushed to the top at this time: "Calm to Indifference: The Emotional Absence in 'A Separation'".
"The film is almost perfect in structure, but the emotions are always suppressed at a safe distance. The young director seems to deliberately avoid any sentimentality, but this restraint also makes it difficult for the audience to truly get into the characters."
The cinema was starting to fill up with moviegoers. The lines weren't long, but they weren't noisy either; they just waited quietly.
At 10:05, the first show ended, but the crowd did not disperse immediately.
Some people stood at the door smoking, some discussed in hushed tones, and others walked away in silence.
A young man wearing glasses said to his companion, "I thought I'd get an answer, but they gave me nothing."
The person next to him retorted, "So you think it's bad?"
He thought for a moment, then shook his head: "It's not that it's bad, it's just... uncomfortable."
Not far away, a middle-aged woman frowned: "I don't quite understand. Who's right and who's wrong?"
"Perhaps there is no right or wrong to begin with."
Lin Ruiyang saw these things in his dormitory. The fat guy went out early in the morning and bought several different newspapers, which published the different attitudes of various media outlets.
The two looked at the film and discussed it as they went. When they got to the last one, the fat man finally couldn't hold back anymore: "Highbrow and unpopular? That's not what they said when they reviewed 'Hero'."
Lin Ruiyang closed the newspaper and put it aside: "The harsher the criticism, the more they care. A movie that nobody talks about is a true failure."
That's what he said, but his true feelings weren't so simple. He's human too, and he cares about everyone's comments. (The author also cares about every single comment QAQ)
He recalled his past life as a ghostwriter, when the scripts he wrote were taken by directors and producers who then credited them, only to be criticized as terrible films after their release, and he didn't even have a chance to defend himself.
Looking back now, being able to be criticized is a kind of privilege.
Just after noon, The Beijing News published a neutral-to-positive long commentary entitled "When Reality Cannot Be Judged".
"The value of this film lies not in the story it tells, but in the question it raises. In reality, many things have no conclusion, and 'A Separation' simply refuses to make choices for the audience."
At the same time, cinema scheduling data began to change. A month has passed since the Spring Festival film season, and there are no blockbuster releases or stable viewing habits.
The cinema manager was very realistic on the phone: "The audience is very scattered during this period. The only way to get them to come in is through word of mouth."
The initial screening share of "A Separation" was around 13%, which is not high, but it is not marginalized either. For an art film, this is not a small number.
Wang Hai sent him a summary of the films released during the same period that week.
At the tail end of the Lunar New Year film season, Jackie Chan's "Seoul Raiders" is still reaping the last bit of its profits.
This action comedy was released on the first day of the Lunar New Year, and its cumulative box office has exceeded 40 million yuan in just over a month. Although it is nearing the end of its run, it still occupies a significant number of screenings in cinemas in second- and third-tier cities.
Another Disney animated film released during the Spring Festival, "The Incredibles," also performed well.
Its family-friendly nature makes it the top choice for parents to take their children during the winter vacation. Although its popularity has decreased after the holiday, the weekend attendance rate is still considerable.
Among the new films released last week, Xu Jinglei's directorial debut, "Letter from an Unknown Woman," is the most popular.
This period drama film, adapted from Stefan Zweig's novel and starring Jiang Wen, grossed four million yuan in its opening weekend across the country, which is quite impressive for an art film.
After Gu Changwei's "Peacock" won the Jury Prize at the Berlin International Film Festival last month, it received an additional round of screenings thanks to the award. However, by March, the screenings were nearing their end, and the total box office revenue was just over eight million yuan, slightly lower than expected, but still above average for an art film.
In addition, the French import "A Very Long Engagement" also premiered last week. This film, a blend of romance, war, and suspense, grossed just over two million in its opening weekend. Considering French films have always been a niche genre in the French market, this performance is quite respectable.
"But next week will be the real trouble," Wang Hai said, his voice lower on the phone.
"National Treasure will be released on March 18th. As an imported blockbuster starring Nicolas Cage and Disney, it will directly take up a large portion of the screenings. Our window of opportunity to grab box office revenue is only this week."
Lin Ruiyang did not refute it; he knew that what Wang Hai said was true.
With the national box office only reaching 1.5 billion yuan a year, or 300 million yuan a month, imported films and domestic films are split in half, leaving very little room for art films.
The box office data for the first day was released around noon the following day.
China Film Group's data aggregation channel uses the feedback system of each cinema chain, reporting once a day.
After receiving the figures, Wang Hai immediately called Lin Ruiyang, his voice brimming with barely suppressed excitement: "One million nine hundred and sixty thousand. Just a little short of two million."
Upon hearing this, Lin Ruiyang couldn't help but smile: "It seems that the debate over reputation and media coverage has had an effect."
With nearly two million viewers on its opening day, a 13% share of screenings, and a Thursday weekday, these three figures together mean that the occupancy rate has exceeded that of most films showing at the same time.
Wang Hai added, "The occupancy rates of cinemas in Beijing and Shanghai are significantly higher than in other cities. Several first-run cinemas have occupancy rates of over 80% for prime-time evening screenings, and second-tier cities are adding more weekend screenings."
Lin Ruiyang hummed in agreement; he knew this was just the beginning.