Just Let It Fly One Day More (III)

Hi Art April Issue, 2011

The investor of Let The Bullets Fly Ma Ke, a rich second generation from Shanxi province, promotes the film that Jiang Wen strived to make a great success on box office earnings on which he put nearly 100 millions into in the way like selling coal. Propaganda started two months before the release of this film and he selected the channels with highest audience rating from the 26 municipal TV channels all around China to broadcast the advertisement of this film. Only inside the fourth ring road of Beijing, he paid for the advertisement on 1500 billboards. And Ma Ke himself also goes to office buildings every night to see whether their advert film is on show; in his own words, peoples would see Let The Bullets Fly on television at home, on screens in the streets, elevators and office. In the public screening in the end of the year, production group pasted 100 thousand posters, 500 film copies and 3000 digital copies in all cinemas no matter big or small all around China; moreover, two weeks after the public screening, namely when Feng Xiaogang’s The One 2 was on show, they launched the Sichuan dialect version of Let The Bullets Fly and hoped to show in Sichuan for more than 6 months. Actually this is count two films’ box office earnings as one.

Film, together with stage play and oil painting, are all imported things that without origins in China, the value standards are also in the West all along. We have always been like doing homework as primary school students and never know whether the homework has been well done or not when finished; we need evaluation and scoring from others. Since film appeared in China one hundred years ago, almost 10 thousands films have been shot, including from silent film to sound film, from black and white to colored film, from cine film to digital film. From 1909 onward, the first film corporation China Cinema Co. shot films including The Silly in Town God’s Temple and Bride Meets Ghost. In 1913, director Zheng Zhengqiu shot the first feature film The Couple in the Hard Time. In 1913, Chuang Tze Tests His Wife was shown abroad as the first film of China. In 1935, film Song of the Fisherman won the first international award. And in 1988, Red Sorghum directed by Zhang Yimou won Golden Bear Award in the 18th Berlin Film Festival, which is an A grade international film festival. Today, except for main stream films that has defined rhythm, commercial films rise again in China contemporary film circles; following the literary films of Shanghai Beach in 1920s and 1930s, romantic movies of Taiwan and Hongkong in 1970s and 1980s, New Year Movies have been overwhelmingly popular on mainland China. However, most New Year Movies paid too much attention to the box office earnings and lacked some artistic content. In the end of 2010, three New Year Movies completed to appear on the stage and audiences got too busy to catch up with their speed. However, to reflect on them later we would find that only The One 2 looks a little bit interesting with connotations; as for the other two, we would feel deliberate mystification in them; obviously they are smart-alecky and treat audiences as sucker.

During the one hundred years, outstanding films like “Plunder of Peach and Plum”, “The Cross of Street”, “Song of the Fisherman”, “Sons and Daughters of China”, “The Long Time”, “Springtime in a Small Town”, “A City of Sadness”, “A Flower in the Raining Night”, “Red Sorghum”, “To Live”, “The Story of QiuJu” as well as “Xiao Wu” and outstanding film directors like Zheng Zhengqiu, Cai Chusheng, Cheng Bugao, Shi Dongshan, Zheng Junli, Mu Fei, Hou Xiaoxian, Yang Dechang, Li An, Wu Yusen, Zhang Yimou and Jia Zhangke appeared in China film circles. These films and these film workers represent the highest level of Chinese film and they are the apotheosis of the local success in film.

Like other industries, film as a cultural industry also needs a free, law ruled and justice environment for its future. Since the reform in late 1980s and early 1990s, Korean film industry advanced in a fast speed with Korean film products covered China, Japan as well as Southeast Asian Countries. Korean government does not interfere in film industry and only required the Film Industry Association and Film Director Association to be self-disciplined. Chinese film cannot reach this step in short time and only through construction of cinemas to win in quantity could our film gain success. Namely to speed up the process of the industrialization of film through the raising of box office earning by attracting numerous audiences to see films in the wide spread cinemas. Of course, this process should depend on the effort of all land agents, but has little to do with film workers. Comparing with the America, the leading country in film circles: annual output, America 600 films, China 500; Average production cost of each film, America 60 million dollars, China 10 million RMB; Average propaganda cost of each film, America 40 million dollars, China 1 million RMB; and the highest box office earning of a single film, America 2.75 billion dollars, China 0.665 billion RMB. 

Zhu Wei

March 12, 2011, Saturday

让它再飞一天（下）

《HI艺术》2011年四月刊

山西富二代《让子弹飞》的投资人马珂像卖煤一样促销自己投资近一个亿也是姜文力图票房翻身的电影。宣传放在电影还未放映前的两个月就开始，在全国26个城市电视台，挑选收视率最高的频道播放这部片子的广告。仅北京市四环内路牌广告就购买了1500块。马珂自己本人也天天晚上去各个写字楼看看播不播他们的广告片，按他自己的话说，要让老百姓在家看电视有《子弹飞》，出门上街有《子弹飞》，上电梯有《子弹飞》，进办公室有《子弹飞》。年底正式公映，制片团队在全国的大小电影院铺10万张海报，投入了500个胶片拷贝，3000个数字拷贝，并在正式放映二周后，也就是在冯小刚的《非2》上映时，推出四川话版的《子弹飞》，并争取在四川放半年以上。这其实是两部电影按一部电影算票房。

电影和话剧、油画一样是舶来品，起头就不在中国，所以评价标准一直在西方。我们一直是像小学生做作业，作业做完了，是好是坏自己心里没数，必须等着别人来评判、打分。中国有电影到现在一百来年，从无声到有声，黑白到彩色，胶片到数码，大大小小估计拍了上万部。一九O九年，中国出现了第一个影片公司，亚细亚影业公司，拍摄了电影《二百五白相城隍庙》、《活无常》。一九一三年导演郑正秋拍摄了中国第一部故事片《难夫难妻》。一九一三年《庄子试妻》作为中国第一部电影在海外放映。一九三五年电影《渔光曲》第一个得了国际奖。一九八八年张艺谋导演的《红高粱》第一个夺得了国际A级电影节大奖，第三十八届西柏林电影节金熊奖。时至今日，中国当代电影除了规定动作主旋律电影之外，商业片又重新兴起，继二三十年代的上海滩文艺片、七八十年代的台湾、香港言情片后，中国大陆贺岁片大行其道。但是往往大部分贺岁片过于重视票房，在艺术内涵上，缺斤短两的很多。二O一O年年底，三部贺岁大片争相上场，观众忙得看不过来，但事后细想下来，除了冯小刚、王朔联手的《非诚勿扰2》稍显有深度之外，其它两部片子，要不是故弄玄虚，装大尾巴狼，要不就是人来疯，不大气，由着性子显摆自己比众人聪明，把观众当傻逼。

百年来中国电影出现了《桃李劫》、《十字街头》、《渔光曲》、《中华儿女》、《八千里路云和月》、《小城之春》、《悲情城市》、《看海的日子》、《红高粱》、《活着》、《秋菊打官司》、《小武》等等优秀影片，出现了郑正秋、蔡楚生、程步高、史东山、郑君里、费穆、侯孝贤、杨德昌、李安、吴宇森、张艺谋、贾樟柯等等优秀电影人。这些电影和电影工作者代表着中国电影的最高水平，也是电影本土化成功的典范。

电影作为文化产业，和其它各行各业一样，电影的未来也需要一个宽松的法制的公正的环境。韩国电影在上世纪八十年代末九十年代初改革以来，电影产业进步很快，韩国影视产品覆盖中国、日本及东南亚各国。韩国政府对电影不作任何干涉，只要求电影行业协会、电影导演公会自律。中国电影未来短时间内还不会走到这一步，电影要想上台阶，只能靠影院的建设，通过众多电影院的覆盖，从量上取胜。即通过拍摄大量的文艺片、贺岁片，再通过数量众多的电影院线，把观众吸引到电影院里看电影，让电影票房提高，从此加快电影产业化的进程。当然，这一进程是要靠所有地产商的努力和奋斗，和电影从业者没多大关系。与电影大国美国相比：年产量，美国六百部，中国五百部。平均每部电影制作成本，美国六千万美元，中国一千万人民币。平均每部电影宣传成本，美国四千万美元，中国一百万人民币。最高单片票房收入，美国二十七点五亿美元，中国六亿六千五百万人民币。

朱伟

2011年3月12日星期六