Hollywood blockbusters playing ＂China Special＂ fans： treat us as retarded？
A Hollywood blockbuster, besides the international version, also has a special "China Special Edition". Recently, Iron Man 3 has been released in two editions, namely "International Edition" and "China Edition", and many Hollywood blockbusters have begun to consider how to please China audiences better. The way Paramount Film Company handled two films recently can tell the world that China has become an important film market in the world. Directed by marc forster and starring Brad Pitt, "world war z" will be a special edition for modifying some plots in the China market; Another work of the company, "Transformers 4", also confirmed that part of the content will be produced in China. Even Cameron’s Avatar has a China race. Nowadays, Hollywood blockbusters playing "China Special" and "Double Edition" have attracted heated discussion in the British media, but China fans are quite angry about it.
Cameron: There will also be many Chinese on Pandora.
Recently, the film world war z, directed by marc forster and starring Brad Pitt, exposed the latest poster, and announced that the film will be released in North America in the summer on June 21st, 2013. At the same time, it is reported that the film will be specially produced as "China Special Edition".
The story tells the story of human beings facing desperate survival after the outbreak of zombie virus. Brad Pitt plays a survivor in the film. In the western version, the zombie plague involves China. In the China version, this plague is called "Moscow flu", which originated from military enterprises. The first person to find the virus was a brave China scientist. World war z is actively striving for the introduction and submission.
Paramount Film Company has decided to make part of the production process of Transformers 4 in China, and has reached a cooperation agreement with CCTV Film Channel. This blockbuster film series directed by michael bay has been launched in London, and it is scheduled to land in North American cinemas on June 27th, 2014, which is expected to be introduced into China at the same time. In an interview with foreign media, michael bay revealed that China actors performed in Transformers 4 for up to 10 minutes, but this part will not appear in the western version.
Avatar 2, which is being prepared, has also been widely reported that there will be many China elements in the film, including the Avatar race based on China. Cameron, the director, said that he hoped to invite China actors to play an important role in the film. He thought the market was very important. "I will do some necessary work to make this country an important market for my films. I will abide by the internal rules of this market. "
It’s not the first time that a Chinese-American cooperative film has a "special edition" when it was released in China. Last year’s "Ring Messenger" showed more scenes of Summer Xu and scenes in Shanghai than the international edition. In Marvel’s summer masterpiece Iron Man 3, Fan Bingbing’s play only appeared in the China version.
British media hotly discuss "Hollywood suffers from China syndrome"
The website of The Sunday Times reported that "China defeated the zombies in Brad Pitt", while the Independent recently published an article pointing out that "Hollywood suffers from China syndrome": "Hollywood is now panting after the China film market. In order to win business, Hollywood is ready to rewrite the script, reshape the bad guys, and even transplant the whole work. "
The reason is that an annual report released by the Motion Picture Association of America last month shows that China has replaced Japan as the second largest box office market in the world after the United States in 2012.
Adding China element is questioned as "export to domestic sales"
Hollywood’s move has attracted a lot of criticism from China fans when it has not brought benefits yet. Many netizens questioned that this kind of differential treatment is "very deceptive" and belittled the level of Chinese people’s movie viewing, "simply treating us as retarded". Many netizens think that the forced implantation of China elements is not beneficial to the content of the film, and the blunt creation of a "double version" is purely for the producers in China to entertain themselves, and the performance of China actors is nothing more than "exporting to domestic sales". The China industry is worried that this new model will threaten the already struggling domestic films. "People take away our market and our funds, how can China films survive?"
Extended reading
The qualification of "co-production" is hard to find, and "special offer" kills two birds with one stone
Insiders: China’s "plug-in" is difficult to become mainstream
According to the Motion Picture Association of America, by 2020, China may surpass the United States and become the largest film market. As a result, Hollywood blockbusters are "a red heart, two hands ready." The concept of "double version" suddenly triggered a heated discussion in the industry, and netizens complained about it. "Why does Hollywood have to make money in a different way?" Yan Erwei, a producer who is familiar with the Hollywood market and executive director of Riggs Communication, believes that "special editions" may appear together, but they will not become the mainstream.
It is not difficult to find that Iron Man 3 and Transformers 4 have caught people’s attention with "co-production" and "co-production". Avatar 2, which is being prepared, has also been exploded, and there will be many elements of China. The "Special Edition" has caused a heated discussion in the industry. It has been reported that the reason why the "special edition" has emerged is that there are too many conditions required for "co-production" and the qualification is too difficult to obtain. Can’t justify "in tune", Hollywood blockbusters simply take the "special offer" route, use China elements to create topics in the simplest way, and attract mainland audiences to pay for tickets, which can be described as killing two birds with one stone.
Yan Erwei is very familiar with the Hollywood market. He said that "co-production" existed before, and The Kite Runner was a typical example. "More than 90% of the shots of this film were shot in China. At that time, there were two Chinese and American crews on the shooting scene, but the film was not released in the mainland after the filming, and the film side did not intend to release it in the mainland. In short,’ co-production’ refers to the film that has nothing to do with China after the filming. But recently, this concept has gone bad, because a large number of Hollywood commercial blockbusters have entered the China market with ambition. ". The ambition here is to add some China scenes and actors to win the audience’s favor. "
Will "special edition" become a trend? How long can this model have vitality? Yan Erwei said frankly that it is possible that there will be more and more "special editions" in recent years, but it is not necessary to put a question mark on it. "Let’s just say that’ special offer’ has not greatly improved the quality of the film itself, and it is not good for exporting values, so I personally am not optimistic about the prospects, at least it will not become the mainstream." He described the "special edition" as a "plug-in" for China in Hollywood film operation, which may be the beginning but can only be a transition.
Will this difference affect the movie-watching mentality of fans and the box office of movies? Yan Erwei said that at present, the "special edition" with China elements will not be too bad at the box office in the mainland, and these films will have a new fulcrum in marketing and publicity, and the appearance of face of china will also make the audience feel familiar.
Film critic Bi Chenggong also said that although netizens have a lot of abuse, I am afraid that when the movie is really released, most of them will still go to the cinema. He also pointed out that the China element will not affect overseas audiences. "Hollywood blockbusters are often filmed in various countries, and overseas audiences have long been used to it. For them, as long as Americans shoot American movies, they will be given a three-stage genre film, and it is the same where they are filmed."
Comprehensive Oriental Daily and xiaoxiang morning herald