Author: Huang Yunteng

Liu Zhenwei occasionally showed a tired look. On an afternoon when the rainstorm suddenly stopped, Liu Zhenwei accepted many interviews, which was nothing less than a physical test for the 60-year-old.

When talking about "Westward Journey 3", which will be released on September 14, he rarely showed a kind of vulnerability, "Like a friend, when you accept me, be more tolerant, tolerate me, and love me more." ”

Lau Chun-wai was born in Hong Kong in 1952. He gradually grew from finance to film screenwriter and director in his thirties. In the 1990s, this Hong Kong comedy director was a guarantee of box office and reputation. "Unbridled imagination, wanton humor, and nonsense that leaves people speechless" have become his trademarks in the world.

In the minds of moviegoers and in past media reports, Liu Zhenwei's name is often mentioned together with Stephen Chow, Wong Kar-Wai, etc., and is regarded as a representative figure of the golden age of Hong Kong movies. He himself calls it "the taste of that cup of tea", and after drinking it, you will know it is "Liu Zhenwei".

Lau Chun-wai, Wong Kar-wai

However, today Liu Zhenwei is beginning to be regarded as "box office poison" by the market and audiences, and he is more willing to define himself as "simply making movies." For him, "Westward Journey 3" is a key part of this long adventure: overcoming the hat that has been on his head for 20 years, and the inevitable doubts and hostility of everyone towards the classic sequel.

In the mainland market, Liu Chunwei does not have the same good luck as Stephen Chow and Wong Jing, but he represents more and more Hong Kong directors who are looking for opportunities in the north. They succeeded in the low-end balanced era of entertainment products, and their previous works have internalized their own path dependence. When the mainland is just waking up, it may still be effective, but soon we will face a problem: How to find a second breakthrough in your career, or even just an opportunity to continue to survive in this industry?

Liu Zhenwei was anxious as he took a new step. At the last minute of the interview, he asked the reporter of "Three Sounds" (ID: Tosansheng) if he "liked" the movie? ——He asked the same question to other media, filmmakers and ordinary audiences during movie screenings.

"I did market research, and the response was very good. I started doing interviews more than a week ago, and I met many of you who visited me. After some people read it, their reactions to me were very positive, and I slowly felt relieved." ”

“Tightening Curse”

"The aura of "Westward Journey", when I come out, I put on an air of being a great director. I don't need it. It's not something you are born with at all." You don't really own it. ”

"Westward Journey 3" is a new film directed by Liu Zhenwei. As the final film in the "Westward Journey" series, this film is produced by Spring and Autumn Times Pictures, Lehua Entertainment, and Star Alliance. I want to tell the details of the story that were not explained clearly in the first two films - "I want to answer the questions for the audience. I had the urge to start making this film two years ago." ”

We spent more than an hour watching the movie that afternoon. When Karen Mok still plays Bai Jingjing in the same performance style as before, and the love of her life is played again, the movie seems to retain a similar temperament to that of the past, but in fact it shows a completely different appearance.

Whether it is the choice of actors Tang Yan and Han Geng to replace Zhu Yin and Stephen Chow, or the once again popular time-travel setting, and the comedy ending that is opposite to the first two episodes, you can feel that this movie is trying to give people a refreshing feeling. Liu Zhenwei doesn't like to add too many in-depth discussions to his movies. He compares his movie to "getting rid of the baggage." "You must have this thing, put down the baggage and face new things." ”

The new film is different from Liu Zhenwei's "The Great Sage" shot in 2005 and "The Treasure Box" shot in 2010. Among the two works, the former continues the world view of "Westward Journey"; the latter borrows some settings from "Westward Journey", and many actors from the previous work, including Athena Chu and Ada Choi, also make guest appearances. It seems that the only ones that can survive in "Westward Journey 3" are Bai Jingjing, played by Karen Mok, and Liu Zhenwei, who is hiding behind the monitor.

He explained the reason for the subversion, ""The Great Sage" is "The Great Sage", and "The Treasure Box" is the only movie that I really spoofed, but my spoof is logical. I put the exciting scenes of many big movies into one movie. It has nothing to do with Supreme Treasure and has nothing to do with Zixia. ”

The reason why Liu Zhenwei chose to do this may be that the original work of this series is too well-known--"Westward Journey" many years ago changed the fate of almost everyone in the film's creators--like a curse that always lingers around him and becomes a benchmark for future works.

In Liu Zhenwei's own words, he was caught in a "golden hoop". "I just discovered that I am Sun Wukong, and the audience is Tang Seng. For more than 20 years, I have never asked about other movies. I always ask about "Westward Journey", and the diamond hoop is on my head. ”

The "Westward Journey" series was released in Hong Kong and Mainland China in 1995, but failed miserably at the box office that year. A total investment of more than 60 million Hong Kong dollars was invested in "Westward Journey". The first part ended with 25 million. The final box office of "The Marriage of the Great Sage", released more than a month later, was 29 million, which could only barely recover the cost. The Xi'an Film Studio, which assisted in the filming at the time, believed that it "cannot reflect the cultural pursuits of west Film Studio" and even privately called it "cultural garbage".

Two years later, these works suddenly became popular on the mainland Internet. The comedy technique of "laughing with tears" has been interpreted and sought after by the outside world, and is even regarded as a classic work of "postmodernism". Liu Zhenwei still remembers the scene when "Westward Journey" was renovated and popularized by the mainland. "Wong Kar-Wai called me and said it was a big hit, and Stephen Chow also called me. It turns out that this movie is so weird and has never happened in the history of movies." ”

Although in interviews, many parties involved regarded the success of that era as a "shackle" or "tightening", it gave investors and directors enough confidence for a long time, especially in the so-called IP era. Among them was Liu Zhenwei who was interviewed before us. "You have enjoyed the very successful crying version, now I give you Zixia in return." All in all, it’s a feeling of happiness and reunion. ”

“It’s an accident, not a classic”

Many years ago, Liu Zhenwei said in an interview with "Phoenix Unconventional", &“For me, at the beginning, my own positioning was to find a commercial position in the market. Many investors would like to find this director to film. When there is a fixed audience, I slowly changed to instilling my own personal style into it. ”

In his early days, Liu Zhenwei belonged to the group of excellent commercial directors. The box office appeal once reached the peak of the industry: To make up for the box office losses of Wong Kar-Wai's movies, "East and West" earned 22.5 million Hong Kong dollars that year, entering the top 10 of the box office rankings; "The Gambler", the first film he co-directed with Yuen Kui and co-produced with Stephen Chow, broke the box office record of Hong Kong movies with 40 million Hong Kong dollars, which directly contributed to his long-term cooperation with Stephen Chow in the future.

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But an embarrassing fact is emerging: the number and quality of Liu Zhenwei's movies are on a downward trend. On Douban, his recent "Koshikoshi Treasure Box" has a rating of 5.2 points, "Perfect Wife 168" has a rating of 4.3 points, and "East and West 2011" has a rating of only 3.9 points.

During the interview with the reporter of "Three Sounds" (ID: Tosansheng), Liu Zhenwei emphasized that he did not envy Wang Jing, Stephen Chow and others who were enjoying themselves in the mainland. But to a certain extent, with the film center moving northward is an irreversible trend, Liu Zhenwei has no way to turn back - he must face the severe test of the mainland market, and only by allowing "many investors to make money on me" can he continue his career.

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Liu Zhenwei's coping method is to carry out several projects at the same time. The rapid progress is in sharp contrast to the silence of his dormant period in previous years, but it is in line with his operating habits. In the second half of 2015, Liu Zhenwei has about 3 works launched, "Westward Journey 3", "Havoc in the East China Sea", "Cuju", and recently started filming the web drama "Westward Journey: Love You for Ten Thousand Years". Not surprisingly, all four works were filmed in the Mainland, and the target group is all Mainland audiences.

In the two years since the mainland's box office has grown rapidly, Hong Kong directors have been the group with the highest box office success rate. The reason is that these Hong Kong film teams that have experienced early market and primary industry training have relatively high execution capabilities and an effective understanding of some commercial genres. They can enable the crew to operate efficiently on multiple lines and complete filming in the shortest time. Therefore, their products can also quickly fill the gap between market supply and demand.

However, such a production model does not mean a real improvement in production capacity, but is closer to a geographical shift of production capacity, and it has begun to show some fatigue and weakness when facing competition from films from mainland China, Hollywood, and South Korea. In other words, the problems inherent in the Hong Kong film industry have not been solved in the seemingly prosperous mainland market.

Liu Zhenwei is also emphasizing his differences, changes and progress, "If you deliberately think of classic lines, I don't object, but if you are classic for the sake of classics and make something very deliberately, it is not me." I have been an accident since the first issue. Why should I regard an unexpected thing as a real classic and deliberately make something classic? I think this is very stupid and stupid. ”

However, he himself admits that it is difficult to get close to the mainland audience. "The people around us need to learn their culture and these things, it doesn't just come down from heaven." When we first arrived in the Mainland, we didn’t know or understand many things, but gradually you learn more about making friends in life and how they think. ”

The confusion may not be alleviated, but may gradually amplify for Hong Kong directors. After the success of "Mermaid", "Xing Ye" said in an interview with "China Business Weekly", "I think about what the audience likes to watch every second." What is the approach? Guess! Sometimes I also look at the data and ask friends. However, many times what you think is effective actually has little effect. This often happens. Sometimes the chance of guessing is a little more, and sometimes most of the guesses are not correct. ”