Because Zhang Yimou's film style is so rough and majestic. He pursues real emotions and deep ideological analysis through bold composition and strong use of colors.
This is a very typical literary film style, which is in line with the mainstream film industry's understanding of film. Therefore, his films are highly praised at major film festivals at home and abroad, and it is relatively easy to win awards.
But the shortcomings of his movies are also obvious, that is, they are relatively weak in plot design. For ordinary viewers who lack professional film knowledge, watching his movies will always feel hollow and obscure after watching them.
In fact, not only Zhang Yimou, most of the fifth and sixth generation directors in China have this problem, and what they do is even more extreme than Zhang Yimou.
They hide what they want to tell the audience in the language of the lens. They also use a lot of metaphors and metonymy in the film, making the film look like a guessing game.
If you can't understand it, it means the audience level is not high enough, and everyone is drunk and I am alone, artificially isolating the movie from the audience.
Sun Dahai does not dislike literary and artistic films. If compared, literary and artistic films are purer than commercial films.
Compared with commercial films, literary and artistic films are much more niche. Their target audience is relatively narrow, and artistic films generally lack sufficient publicity gimmicks and publicity funds. Therefore, the box office results of most literary and artistic films are not optimistic.
Sun Dahai's "Autumn Fairy Tale" is a typical romantic literary film, as gentle as water and as plain as a chrysanthemum, but it has already earned hundreds of millions of Hong Kong dollars in revenue around the world.
Among them, the box office of this film in Hong Kong alone is as high as 35 million Hong Kong dollars. Currently, in this year's Hong Kong box office rankings, it is only slightly inferior to Jackie Chan's "Dragon Brothers and Mouse Brothers" with a slight disadvantage of 400,000 Hong Kong dollars, temporarily ranking second.
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Overseas, "An Autumn Fairy Tale" was even more successful. The film was basically distributed overseas through outright sales rather than box office sharing.
Due to the film's outstanding performance at this year's Venice International Film Festival, it won the two most important awards for Best Picture (Golden Lion Award) and Best Director (Silver Lion Award). Therefore, this film has gained popularity abroad.
The issuance situation is far better than the company's original expectations.
So far, the film's cumulative pre-tax income in European and American countries has exceeded 10 million US dollars, which is roughly equivalent to the revenue share when the film's overseas box office performance exceeds 30 million US dollars.
If you add in the box office share from Hong Kong and Wanwan, as well as the distribution income from Southeast Asian countries, this niche literary film with an investment of only HK$5 million has a net profit after tax of more than HK$100 million.
In the next one or two years, the film will gradually increase the revenue of HK$8 million to Youlian Film and Television Company through secondary distribution and sales, video licensing and other forms.
Such a high investment profit rate can be regarded as a record for Hong Kong literary and artistic films.
(The filming cost of the film "Autumn Fairy Tale" was HK$4 million. Because it was going to participate in the "Venice International Film Festival", the company added an additional HK$1 million in promotional expenses.)
For Sun Dahai, a movie invested by Youlian does not necessarily have to make a lot of money. Although it does not make money or even loses money, but it is very attractive in some places, Sun Dahai might also invest in it.
of.
Now with the example of "Autumn Fairy Tale", it shows that all artistic films are not necessarily money-losing products, so Sun Dahai's determination to invest in films of different styles has been strengthened.
Zhang Yimou's contract is easy to handle. If you don't have time, you can just find a movie self-produced or co-produced by Youlian and let Zhang Yimou play a guest role. It will only take a week at most and the terms will be met.
If he has time and is willing to participate, he can be included in the team as the chief photographer, photography director, art director, or even the film's producer.
Anyway, Zhang Yimou has won many awards at foreign film festivals, including photography awards, director awards, and best film awards. Zhang Yimou even has the title of Best Actor at International A-level Film Festivals.
Last year, he served as the leading actor in the film "Old Well" and won the "Tokyo Film Festival" Best Actor Award. He also became the first Chinese actor to win the title of Best Actor at an international A-level film festival.
With such an achievement, including all the current filmmakers in Hong Kong, who dares to be dissatisfied?
Sun Dahai was chatting animatedly with Zhang Yimou when Landico, Gabrielle and Sister Fen accompanied several guests to the conference room.
One of the guests, Sun Dahai, also knew him. The energetic Ying Lao was chatting and laughing with Landico and others. There were six or seven domestic people attending the premiere of "The Last Emperor" in Xiangjiang this time. Ying Lao was
Team leader.
He had just been invited by Gabriel to visit the company. Several people also went to Landico's office to chat for a while, and now they are in the conference room together.
There was another middle-aged Chinese, Sun Dahai, whom he did not recognize. Zhang Yimou introduced in a low voice that he was the vice president in charge of cultural affairs of Xinhua News Agency's Xiangjiang Branch.
There was also a foreigner standing with them, and Zhang Yimou didn't know who he was. Hu Cheng went to ask someone and found out that he was a senior official in charge of cultural affairs of the Xiangjiang government.
Sun Dahai nodded to express his understanding. When Mr. Ying came to Xiangjiang, he was still serving as the deputy minister of culture. There must be equivalent officials from Xiangjiang to accompany him.
The movie "The Last Emperor" is a co-production, jointly produced by multiple producers, among which Italian, Chinese, Britten and Hong Kong companies participated in the investment in this film.
The film's premiere was held in Hong Kong today, so the relevant government departments in China and Hong Kong sent official representatives to attend the premiere to show their attention.
Several people entered the conference room, briefly spoke a few words, and prepared to take everyone downstairs for dinner.
Since the premiere will be in a while, everyone is just going to the staff cafeteria to have something to eat before dinner.
The host Youlian Agency has already booked the banquet hall of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel. After the premiere, everyone will move there together to attend the premiere cocktail reception. Then it will be time for everyone to actually eat and drink.
Zhang Yimou came to Xiangjiang alone, but he was also on the list of Chinese representatives. Now that he has joined the large force, he will soon join the organization in action.
Director Bertolucci and several leading actors are the protagonists today and will have the hardest time. Moreover, they flew over overnight and did not have a good rest, so Gabriel arranged for them to stay in the dressing room to rest.
After a while, Youlian Agency will arrange for staff to bring them some simple food and drinks, and let them rest their stomachs first. They will not be asked to go down to prepare before the premiere begins.