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The movie version of "Under the Alien" got off to a bad start.

In the 2023 summer season, Wuershan became the top domestic fantasy/magic film star with the success of "The First Part of the Investiture of the Gods". Therefore, the comic-adapted fantasy film "Under the Alien" directed by him (co-directed by Xia Peng) also attracted widespread attention.

On July 26, the premiere day of "The Alien", the box office performance was very similar to the data of "The Legend of the Gods Part I: Chaoge Fengyun" on its premiere day - both were ugly. "The Legend of the Gods Part I" could not beat "Superpower Family" which was released on the same day, and "The Alien" could not beat "Catching Dolls" which was released ten days ago - the latter both starred Shen Teng.

However, with its high quality and the blessing of so-called heavy industry films, "The First Part of the Gods" has received a lot of "tap water", and ordinary audiences have turned into "shinbones" to recommend it, making this magical movie truly "God-enshrined". In terms of box office, it has also reversed the downward trend in the middle and late stages, becoming a work that has both good reputation and box office in the 2023 summer season.

However, "The Strange Man" will certainly not be able to emulate the box office performance of "Investiture of the Gods" because its reputation has rapidly declined or even collapsed, and its Douban score is only 6.3. The first weekend was less than 100 million yuan, and the box office was upside down for three consecutive days (the attendance rate was not as good as other films with a low screening ratio). Without a high reputation and a lack of tap water, the box office performance will shrink significantly after the first weekend.

This summer, Wuershan’s road to becoming a god will most likely come to an abrupt end.

- Both rustic and awkward-

Coincidentally, "Deadpool vs. Wolverine", which was released on the same day as "Inhumans", are both adapted from comics and both present the story of mutant "Inhumans" - staging a big showdown between Chinese and American comic-adapted movies.

Perhaps it is no coincidence that the filmmakers of "Under the Alien" chose this period precisely to create an atmosphere of "Chinese vs. Western" and attract a wave of Chinese comic fans, inspiring a situation of "who else but me". As a result, someone posted a message saying - "Criticizing "Under the Alien" is to hinder the development of the domestic film industry!"

But it is obvious that these two movies are not on the same dimension at all.

"Deadpool and Wolverine" is certainly not as high as "Avengers 4" at its peak, but it is also a very standard Marvel style - extremely skilled and top-notch at the industrial level. In particular, the film is filled with a large number of Marvel Easter eggs, which is a carnival for veteran comic fans, and there is no problem in maintaining the basic market.

In contrast, The Alien is not only incomparable, but even seems "rustic" and "awkward". This is not "worshiping foreign things", but a superficial fact that everyone can see.

As for the "earthy" feeling, it is everywhere. The annoying sound effects that appear from time to time in the film - such as the "chirp" sound when a character waves his hand, or the sudden "duang" sound during a dramatic conflict, seem to enhance the humorous attribute, but they are completely the same as the various cheesy jokes on the short video platform.

The visuals that some viewers applauded were actually pretty old-fashioned. Not to mention that the flashbacks were simply converted (using some kind of filter), the lightning-like special effects when Zhang Chulan used the "Yang Wu Lei" technique were like returning to the feeling of watching Hong Kong martial arts films in the early 1990s. What era is it now, and still using lightning currents to express superpowers (fine but uncreative)? Thinking back to the scene in the series "Loki" that is in the same vein as "Deadpool and Wolverine" when the universe was shattered and reality became "noodle-like" (also appeared in the movie), it gives me goose bumps. This special effect is not difficult to achieve, but it is really impressive.

Perhaps the creators of "Inhumans" also realized how unsophisticated they were... At the end of the film, the credits for the cast and crew were suddenly presented in the form of "bullet screen", in extremely old-fashioned large colored fonts (I didn't understand why they did it this way, it didn't connect at all)... It seemed that the creators were openly showing their "unsophistication", giving the audience a feeling of "we're deliberately making it old-fashioned" - but it made the situation even more obvious.

Of course, being extremely tacky can also be trendy, but unfortunately, "The Alien" is pure "tacky" and the resulting "awkwardness" that cannot be suppressed.

Doing so, ostensibly to please the young Internet Z generation, actually lowers the quality of the entire film and presents a strange dilemma - the more it caters to the audience, the cheaper it becomes.

Apart from the fantasy elements, "The Alien" is also an action film, but there is almost no real action actor in the film... except Xu Xiangdong (who plays Hu Lin). Although he has never been as popular as Jet Li in the field of action films, he did have a remarkable film "The Kapok Robe". However, his cameo in "The Alien" not only has no fighting scenes, but he is also treated as a "clown". In such a fantasy action film with almost no professional action actors, it is particularly glaring!

So, we can imagine how the fighting scenes in "Alien" are like. Too many of them are slow motion, wirework and special effects, and many of them are performed by girls. Every move, every frown and every smile are clearly explained with high-speed cameras. In the promotion of "Investiture of the Gods", Director Wuershan has always emphasized the high-intensity training of the "Proton Group" actors. I just wonder if the "Alien Group" this time should also ask senior Xu Xiangdong from the same group to provide these new generation idol actors with sufficient physical fitness and professional martial arts training?

The character setting also loses a lot of points.

As the most beautiful character, Xia He (played by Na Ran) is closer to the aesthetic category of "Shamatte" in reality than being fashionable and charming. As Wuershan's favorite actress, Na Ran is completely different from the stunning Daji in "The First Part of the Investiture of the Gods". Xia He is too out of line - compared with the original novel, she only magnifies her "sluttishness" but has no other qualities. In particular, her superpower of making people indulge in lust is frequently shown in the film, but each one is more embarrassing than the other. For example, the part where Tu Houzi rushed to Liu Yanyan at the headquarters of "Nadutong"...

In film and television works, being "slutty" is not a problem, but if it makes the audience uncomfortable, it means that the degree is not well grasped. "Deadpool", which is known as the R-rated superhero, has nothing in the entire series that makes the audience uncomfortable - this is the "degree". If it is put into a market with a rating system, "Inhumans" may be rated as restricted.

As for the heroine Feng Baobao, played by Li Wanda, her temperament and figure are closer to the appearance of "Sadako" than the version in the animation and TV series. As soon as the handsome young man Zhang Lingyu in the original work appeared, some audience members exclaimed why there was a "Cao Yunjin" (Wu Jiakai looked like Teacher Cao)!

However, it is worth mentioning that Lan Xiya did perform the role of Liu Yanyan with some spirit, especially the part where she was tied up at the headquarters of "Nadutong" and told her life story. Previously, Lan Xiya played Tang Hongjing in the Netflix version of "The Three-Body Problem", which can be regarded as her experience in the international film industry, and it is indeed remarkable.

- Lack of accumulation -

From a certain perspective, "Yiren" is more like a modern version of "Fengshen", with strange people or "superheroes" fighting each other, especially the "earth monkey" character in the former, which makes people easily think of Tuxingsun - both are good at earth-walking magic. However, although the story of "Fengshen" is a "magic change" of real history, it still has the "accumulation" of the background of the times.

As for "Inhumans", apart from being embellished with contemporary elements, the whole film is fictional, unlike Marvel's "X-Men" which reflects reality - the superhero protagonists will be involved in modern real events such as the Cuban Missile Crisis and the assassination of President Kennedy, not to mention DC's "Watchmen", which almost links all important events in the fields of American politics, economy, culture and other fields over the past half century to superheroes, thus turning it into a superhero epic that is both fictional and real.

In fact, rather than comparing Marvel with American comics, it is better to compare it with Hong Kong comics.

The original comic "Under One Person" has many shadows of "predecessors", such as Ma Rongcheng's "Feng Yun" and "Chinese Hero", and Wong Yuk-long's "Dragon Tiger Gate".
Although "Wind and Cloud" and "Chinese Hero" are set in ancient times and the Republic of China, the fantasy fighting style in the stories is still very consistent with "One Person". After all, "One Person" also features Shaolin, Wudang, and Tang Sect, which are very common in ancient martial arts films. And special moves such as Paiyun Palm, Fengshen Leg, and Chinese Pride Secret, whether in terms of recognition or visual expression, seem to be more popular than the Golden Light Curse, Yang Wulei, and Qi Body Origin in "One Person".

As for "Dragon Tiger Gate", originally named "Little Rascals", it is more like an action fantasy version of "Young and Dangerous". The organizations, sects and kung fu techniques in it are also all-encompassing, including Hong Kong special police, Beggar Gang disciples, Tianshan Zhenqi, Golden Bell Cover, Tiger-Crane Double Form, Nunchaku...so the similarity with "Under One Person" is undoubtedly higher.

The above three Hong Kong comics have all been adapted into movies, with excellent box office and reputation. More importantly, the styling of Ekin Cheng, Aaron Kwok, Nicholas Tse, and Shawn Yue in the movies, while respecting the original works, does not make people feel rustic or awkward, but is fashionable and even a bit avant-garde.

This may seem simple, but it is not easy to do. Even in Japanese comic-adapted live-action movies, there are often many shocking appearances. The reason may be that one of the characteristics of Hong Kong movies is to put various comic elements into live-action movies, not only the actions, but also the appearance itself, so it gradually becomes a special system of its own, and the audience is "not surprised". In Japan, the focus has always been on the animation itself (not the live-action version), so there are seven animations in the ten highest-grossing movies in Japanese film history - this is a unique phenomenon in the world film industry.

However, the "Alien" which originated from Chinese comics does not have such origins and traditions. Due to the lack of traditional inheritance, it has the embarrassment of being rootless and floating like duckweed. Before, there were no comic-adapted films in China that were worth discussing. Unfortunately, Wuershan was unable to establish this wall.

-Not as good as the drama version-

In August 2023, the TV series "Under the Alien" directed by Xu Hongyu was broadcast first, which received good reputation and scored 8.3 on Douban.

Compared to the TV series, the movie version of "Under the Aliens" cuts out a lot of scenes of ordinary people, and what's left is almost all the "internal" fighting of aliens without paying attention to others. So although a lot of special effects are used, the "studio shooting" feeling of the overall virtual scene has become particularly prominent, and it feels cheap. In addition, because of the existence of ordinary people in the TV series, the interaction between the aliens in the "real scene" is very dramatic, while in the movie, only the aliens are engaged in "strange talk", so there is only a simple "leveling up and fighting monsters".
As mentioned in the previous paragraph, domestic comic-adapted movies have no traditional foundation. If they want to talk about feelings, there is nothing to reminisce about. For example, in music, many movies would have an old song played at the end, which would achieve twice the result with half the effort. However, the situation of "Alien" is very embarrassing. They can't just find an old Cantonese song, right?

So, after searching for a long time, I found "Chinese Kung Fu" sung by Tu Honggang. Whether it is suitable or not is another matter. Anyway, Zhang Chulan, played by Hu Xianxu, now has his own exclusive background music. It is not used to set the atmosphere at critical moments, but like square dancing, he can sing a few words whenever he has nothing to do!
Hu Xianxu is not the only one doing the "square dance" in "The Alien". Many characters in the film, no matter how important they are, are treated equally by the director and the composer. They are very considerate and choose exclusive background music for them. They play it whenever they have nothing to do, as if they are pursuing an atmosphere and state of "hearing the music before hearing the sound".

Of course, the series is quite large, and if it is filmed faithfully according to the original work, it can at least attract comic fans. However, the movie version of "Inhumans" can only be cut, which is also forced by the situation, and it is understandable that it cannot attract comic fans.

But from a purely passerby's perspective, the movie version of "Alien" is also difficult to get into. In addition to being tacky and awkward, the most important thing is that it lacks imagination.

In fact, the director Wuershan's work in Alien is influenced by a Russian film - that is Day Watchers directed by Timur Bekmambetov. This Kazakh man, who is as sturdy as Wuershan, is the most successful Russian director to enter Hollywood and is known as the "Russian version of John Woo". He is best at fantasy action films, and his representative works include Night Watchers, Day Watchers, Wanted, and Abraham Lincoln, the Vampire Hunter. The special bullet trajectory in Wanted is particularly impressive.

The last shot in "Inhumans" where a car is driving on the outer wall of a building is obviously a "tribute" to the classic scene in "Sun Watchers", but such a design without cause and effect does not really improve the film as a whole.

In short, "Inhumans" faces the same problem as many "Made in China" products before, that is, should it be developed and innovated, or just "assembled"? Innovation will not only increase the cost of time, but also have an uncertain future and great risks, while "assembly" is a kind of take-and-use approach, whether good or bad, at least it is easy to produce results in a short period of time...

The movie version of "Under the Alien" is obviously more like "assembly".

As a mainland director who is good at handling fantasy and magical themes, Wuershan should not have failed so badly. Not to mention being on par with "Fengshen", it is also far inferior to "Mojin: The Last Dragon" 9 years ago. The "Painted Skin" series from more than ten years ago were still watchable, so why did the standard of "Under the Stranger" regress by more than ten years?

Perhaps this is related to the fact that Wuershan was focused on the "Fengshen Trilogy" and not on "Under the Aliens". Although he was listed as the director, I guess he was actually the "producer". Don't forget that although "Under the Aliens" is full of Wuershan's name, there is also a little-known co-director Xia Peng (according to the signatures on Maoyan and Douban).

Xia Peng had previously only independently directed the first season of the animated series "Class C Superman Express" in 2016. He was spotted by Ning Hao and joined the "Bad Monkey 72 Transformations Plan". In 2019, he also served as the executive director of the "Encounter" unit in "My People, My Country". "Under the Aliens" is his first big production.

During the filming of "The Alien" (which started shooting in 2021), just before the release of "The Legend of the Gods Part 1", Wuershan was so overwhelmed that he could not take care of himself. It is highly likely - the following is purely speculation - that Xia Peng was the main on-site director of "The Alien". It was not until the post-production, that Wuershan was able to participate in the film. Therefore, this work has a sense of fragmentation - except for the actor Naran, there is basically not much of Wuershan's past style.

After the success of "The Legend of the Gods Part 1", the producers of "The Strange Man" may have wanted to "take advantage of the situation" and put it on the market under the name of Wuershan to attract a wave of fans and reap some profits. But obviously, they miscalculated, the quality was not good, and they could not attract the audience, which was in vain - and it also consumed Wuershan's reputation.

-The road ahead is long and difficult-

The author of "Under One Person" Mi Erting is a legendary person. He is not a professional, but has worked as a chef, security guard, and insurance salesman. He has been in the lower class, but because he likes comics, he has persisted in creating and finally achieved success. Therefore, "Under One Person" has the perspective of the lower class working people, and is very down-to-earth. It is unique among the Japanese and American comics in Chinese comics.

This comic book series has been serialized online since February 26, 2015. The copyright belongs to Tianjin Animation Hall and Shanghai Michengzi Culture.

In 2016, the series was authorized to be adapted into an animation. The first season was produced by the Japanese animation company Pandanium. In addition to Mandarin Chinese, this season also has a Japanese dubbing version. Starting from the second season, the production team mainly became "domestic" teams, such as Shanghai Huijie Culture, Guangzhou Dahuoniao and Beijing Qiyuan Film.

In January 2022, "Animation Hall" underwent industrial and commercial changes. Shanghai Huandian Information Technology Co., Ltd. (Bilibili) and other shareholders withdrew, and Guangxi Tencent Venture Capital Co., Ltd., a Tencent-affiliated company, was added as a shareholder, holding 33% of the shares. In the same year, Shanghai Michengzi Culture Communication Co., Ltd. also underwent industrial and commercial changes. The new shareholder was also Guangxi Tencent Venture Capital Co., Ltd., which held 90% of the shares and became the largest shareholder.

After "Under One Person" was acquired by Tencent, the IP management was placed in the animation department.

At the end of 2023, China Literature Group issued an announcement on "Related Transactions Regarding Acquisition of Assets", stating that it would acquire Tencent Animation's related businesses and IP assets, including the Tencent Animation App platform, its works intellectual property rights and related rights, animation and film and television projects, etc., at a cost of RMB 600 million. Regarding this acquisition, Hou Xiaonan, CEO and President of China Literature Group, said that China Literature and Tencent Animation have a long history of cooperation, and this transaction can enrich China Literature's upstream head IP reserves.

In other words, Tencent Animation, which was established in 2012, and its incubated IPs including "Under One Person" will now belong to China Literature Group, and will further accelerate the adaptation and development of film and television, games, and derivative products.

In terms of IP, "Under One Person" can be said to be operating strictly according to the process of Japanese anime film and television adaptation. After the comics stood out, they were adapted into animations, and then made into live-action series and theatrical movies. This step-by-step approach seemed to be a perfect plan, but why did it stall when it came to the live-action movie that should have become a hit?

The encyclopedia entry for "Under One Person" introduces this comic like this:

A youth comic that combines the value concepts of contemporary Chinese people and the interpretation of Eastern culture to Western culture with the humanistic art design of fantasy, supernatural action (urban modern fantasy and martial arts).

This definition of about 60 words, with no punctuation in the middle, seems to be all-encompassing, even a little scary. But if you change your mindset, it does not seem difficult to find works in Japanese comics that are comparable to "Under One Person". For example, "Dragon Ball", "Saint Seiya", "Naruto", "Fist of the North Star", etc., which are jokingly called "migrant workers' comics", all have similar settings to "Under One Person", in that the characters in them dress and live like contemporary people, but in fact the creators have picked what they need from various elements from ancient and modern times, both at home and abroad, using an eclectic "take-it-as-it-is" approach. The result is more like an imaginary "parallel universe".

It is not difficult to find that the most popular of these famous "migrant workers' comics" listed above is the animation itself. After being turned into live-action versions, they are all complained about. Not only do the original fans dislike it, but also passers-by complain. Although one of the reasons is that many of these live-action movies are co-produced by the United States and Japan, the protagonists are replaced with white faces, and they are also drastically changed on the grounds of cultural differences, which not only offends East Asian anime fans, but also fails to please other global audiences.
On the other hand, why don't Japanese film companies make live-action movies of these globally influential anime IPs? Is it because of a lack of production funds and technology, or is it because the Japanese film industry is not good enough?

It’s not that I don’t want to, but I really can’t!

Looking around the world, Marvel is the best in the field of comic adaptation. Even DC, another American giant, is struggling.

Therefore, the journey of Chinese comic adaptation has just begun. The road ahead is long and arduous.

In criticizing "Under the Alien", we do not intend to "hinder the development of domestic heavy industry films". We cannot bear this big hat. When "Investiture of the Gods Part 1" was released last year, we commented that it was a milestone work of Chinese magical epic films. We will never blindly praise it, nor will we blindly criticize it.

In fact, I am looking forward to having a domestic comic-adapted movie that can rival Marvel.

It is because of expectations that we are so demanding.

Written by | Li YiJackA
Planning | Entertainment Spring and Autumn Editorial Department