Chapter 720 "Seeing the Devil" Is Released

The decline of Hong Kong films is a fact that needs no discussion!

Blindly following the trend and shooting one genre to death will cause other genres to disappear or become a niche.

For example, "Ghost Fighting" made the fantasy film popular, and Sammo Hung started filming "People Scare People", "Man Scares Ghosts" and "Ghost Bites Ghosts", which dropped from fourth place in the annual box office to not even entering the top ten.

After the Five Lucky Stars series became popular, "Five Lucky Stars", "Summer Lucky Stars", "Lucky Stars Glow" and "Five Lucky Stars Collide with Ghosts" were successively released. The ratings dropped all the way, from 7.9 to 6.5.

If kung fu movies are a hit, just make kung fu movies as hard as you can. If you want to make money, star dramas will be repeated again and again. However, this model is not an innovation, but a throwback to the 1970s and 1980s. As a result, only police and gangster movies are left now...

Since the "Infernal Affairs" trilogy, almost all Hong Kong films of the police and gangster genre, especially those involving undercover agents and traitors, have had its shadow.

The same goes for "Anti-Drug 3", the sense of déjà vu is too strong, even the lines are the same. However, only the lines and images cannot make it a classic.

The plot of the movie is very old and poorly made.

It is also known as the "cop and gangster formula movie" and is somewhat comparable to the "main theme formula movie" in our mainland.

The most important thing is that a movie with such a formula could not be made well. The plot is not suspenseful, so I won’t talk about it.

I really feel that there are too many films on anti-drug and anti-crime themes, and there have been several anti-corruption films in a row, and everyone is tired of watching them. There have been relatively few films on bomb disposal and counterfeit banknotes recently, so the "Bomb Disposal Expert" series and "Wushuang" 》Everyone loves to watch it.

In fact, you can pat the anti-pornography theme...

There used to be a TVB TV series called "Anti-Pornography Pioneers" which was very interesting. The theme song was sung by Aaron Kwok - Dreamless Heroes.

In fact, we can let Aaron Kwok challenge this theme, "Anti-Pornography Pioneer" vs "Bomb Disposal Expert", let Lin Chaoxian or Wilson Yip film it, maybe it will be popular.

I was serious!

Well, the subject matter is not original sin, the key is the entry point of the script and the characters.

Looking at previous themes, such as "The Devil", "The King of Guns", "The Disciple", "Hold the Call", etc., they don't feel very repetitive.

Later, I don’t know since which year I have been unwilling to spend my imagination on police and criminal scripts, blindly pursuing scenes and layouts...

From Shen Xudong's point of view, it's good. He has PPTV and can create his own film and television dramas according to the Netflix model and attract talents from Hong Kong...

There are more than 10,000 people working in Hong Kong's film and television drama industry, and there are still many good people.

For example, Chen Weixiong, the executive director of "Hurry Up", is not well-known, but he has been the executive director of a lot of movies, such as the "Infernal Affairs" trilogy, two "Underworld", etc. The directors he collaborated with are all the top big-name directors in Hong Kong. , Johnnie To, Liu Weiqiang, Wang Jing, Sammo Hung, etc.

For example, Xiao Weiqiang has served as the executive director of "In the Mood for Love", "2046", "Fearless", "Kung Fu King", "Zodiac" and other films...

Chung Lifang recruited the two of them, and each of them made a play. The scripts were all ready-made. Golden Harvest stocked up a bunch of police and gangster film scripts, such as "Anti-drugs", "Anti-Gangsters", "Counterfeit Money"...

…

In the North American market, "The Dark Knight" dominates!

The film that has been at the top of the box office list for four weeks can be described as breathtaking - its box office performance of 158 million in its opening week was astonishing, and its box office in four weeks exceeded US$400 million!

It's a good thing for Shen Xudong, because Christian Bale's fame has reached its peak.

So the release of "I Saw the Devil" at this time is a lot of help!

"I Saw the Devil" is a very typical R-rated crime film...

It was almost rated NC-17!

If the rating is NC-17, at least half of the revenue will be lost. Therefore, Shen Xudong asked director Drew Gouda to deliberately add a bunch of bloody and violent scenes. The first time it was rated NC-17, the second time it was too bloody and violent. The footage was deleted and then given an R rating…

This is based on Seth Rogen's "Armageddon". After filming "Armageddon", I thought this movie was too crazy and might not get an R rating, so I added a lot of nudity, swear words and even... sex scenes, then deleted those scenes and gave it an R rating.

Talking back to "I Saw the Devil", the plot is very simple. The policeman played by Bale witnesses the brutal murder of his fiancée, who happens to be pregnant...

I saw the head submerged in the water with my own eyes...

At that moment, a demon arose in his heart.

I vowed to take revenge!

The seeds of hatred grow from germination to towering trees!

Simply killing him with one shot will not relieve his hatred. He wants to play with this perverted murderer!

After successfully finding the criminal, the perverted murderer played by Jack Nicholson, and letting him go, Bell regarded him as prey and used the latest tracking technology to track him.

Catch him, torture him and let him go.

Repeatedly.

However, the cunning criminal still discovered the secret of being followed, escaped completely, seriously injured his fiancée's father, raped and killed his fiancée's sister, and then surrendered to the police station...

Perfect.

The maximum sentence is life imprisonment.

Then, the policeman played by Bell kidnapped him at the last moment, took him back to the place where he murdered women, and built a mechanism. In the final interrogation, the criminal still did not understand the confession.

At the end of the movie, the criminal played by Jack Nicholson dies...

Tortured to death by him...

The 90-minute movie is far from heart-warming, but it is thrilling and thrilling enough, and at least it is very stimulating to the senses.

Are there any American movies that do this?

Yes, there are, such as Halle Berry's "The Call" and Jamie Foxx's "Law Abiding Citizen"...

Both of them are all kinds of crazy revenge movies, but... one is from 2013 and the other is from 2009.

In other words, at least at this stage, "Seeing the Devil" is a very new genre and subject matter.

The plot is purely for Cult film fans. It is the first time for director Drew Gouda to direct a film, but the rhythm is perfect - the original time and space. His directorial masterpiece is "The Cabin in the Woods"...

Of course, the most important thing is Bell's super popularity. Warner helped to secure 2,879 theaters to open the film. This number is very impressive. After all, it is an R-rated movie...

The results lived up to expectations, with "See the Devil" grossing US$13.2 million on its first day and US$38.12 million on its first weekend!

And the reputation is not bad. It is very likely to exceed 100 million in North America, and the global box office will be more than 250 million US dollars at least.

Shen Xudong and his wonderful studio have succeeded again!

…

"This kind of heavy-flavored movie is not suitable for domestic audiences..."

On August 19, Shen Xudong attended the premiere press conference of "Hot Detective" and was asked by reporters about "Seeing the Devil". He answered seriously...

Then, the media asked: "I found that most of the movies you made in the United States cannot be released in China?"

"There is no other way. I also want to show off my freshness, and I also want to make some blockbusters that will be released globally, but... I am just a marginalized person in the United States. Do you know what a marginalized person is? I have no chance to shoot mainstream themes!"

"The reason for "Twilight" was that none of the Big Six in Hollywood were interested, so it was my turn... The selling point of "I Saw the Devil" is blood and violence. This film has no meaning...even the entertainment effect is very poor..."