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"a bottle of wine costs 20 yuan, real fans can't afford it."

author | 9527

editor｜xiaobai

typesetting | die

the pictures in this article are from the internet

a while ago, a domestic liquor invited a famous host to be its spokesperson, but suffered a marketing failure.

after a long discussion online, one netizen summarized it very well:

"a bottle of wine costs 20 yuan, real fans can't afford it."

be direct and to the point without any hesitation.

it is much more useful than analyzing the market and saying that a brand of liquor is not popular.

the same is true for kung fu films, or martial arts films.

is this genre dead?

indeed.

not long ago, people were saying that after jackie chan, sammo hung, jet li and donnie yen, kung fu movies retreated to online movies. mainland stars like zhao wenzhuo and wu jing are also getting older, and xie miao and shi xiaolong are both in their forties.

the market environment and audience tastes are both objective factors contributing to the continued downturn in the performance of kung fu films.

but then again, even though the kung fu film market is still hot today, it is not very friendly to certain themes and action presentations.

because chen huimin, who once fought with bruce lee, said:

"in the face of absolute power, no moves are useful."

therefore, since people started making commercial kung fu films, there have been only two types of appearances:

either the punches hit the flesh, or the eyes are dazzled.

in the 1980s, mainland filmmakers did not understand this principle, and hong kong kung fu films took away the market. it was not until the early 1990s, with the increasing cultural exchanges between the two places, that many martial arts went to hong kong to learn from masters, and finally understood how important it was to "fight well".

this “good looking” not only means that the audience likes to watch it, but also that it has to be filmed that way.

to deviate from this principle is to entertain oneself.

this is not what i said, this is what the box office said.

so back to the summary above:

"a bottle of wine costs 20 yuan, real fans can't afford it."

yes, i'm talking about xu haofeng.

01

"the treasure land at doorstep" was released on september 20. as of september 23, the national box office was 1.29 million rmb, which was basically considered a complete flop.

i saw some people analyzing the various causes and even trying to copy the martial arts novels of the ancient times by chang cheh and king hu.

personally, i think this is a case of "scam".

what era was that? what era is it now?

let's talk about three points:

1. louis koo and andy on have never been actors with box office appeal.

second, it takes courage for kung fu films to be released in theaters under the current trend.

3. xu haofeng’s martial arts films have never been accepted by the public.

especially the third point, the praise from some industry insiders does not mean market recognition.

this phenomenon is not limited to xu haofeng's martial arts films, but also includes many other film products, which are not listed here one by one.

if we analyze "the land at the doorstep" based on the question of "who is the movie made for?", many young artists may be upset:

in the eyes of so-called professionals, "the eight-cut sword can cut everything" is a matter of course. so can the "eight-cut sword" really withstand long weapons in actual combat? anyway, in ang lee's "crouching tiger, hidden dragon", when zhang ziyi fought against michelle yeoh, the two sides fought back and forth. the premise is that the martial arts director also knows the principle of "unloading force" and knows to change weapons quickly when he can't fight anymore. it is not impossible to use one weapon to fight through the level. it requires conception, at least to let the audience see the trick.

we can’t say that “internal strength + cleverness” can resolve the disadvantages of weapons, so we must go out and turn left to find tsui hark——

this is an act of going to the wrong set.

the fighting is so bizarre that it is difficult for ordinary audiences to understand.

whether it was the early domestic films "yellow river hero" or "shaolin temple", the actors who participated in the films all had real kung fu skills, and the directors were also happy to listen to the opinions of the martial arts directors, and they all had opinions on how to use weapons and fists and feet.

but the moves they put out are mostly performance-type moves.

the audience needs to watch each movement carefully and clearly to understand how a small amount of force can achieve a great result.

later, special effects were used in martial arts films, and kung fu gradually became unreasonable. only jet li and others still used real kung fu to create many exciting scenes. according to everyone in the interview:

"after a scene, the pain was so severe that i couldn't even step into the bathtub."

people who practice martial arts are very brave, and they often fight for real. these are movie secrets, and they can also explain the real effect of boxing and kicking. when using weapons, it is definitely not "teach a woman a few simple moves, and she can defend the bow and knock down a few people."

it’s fine to design it this way, but the same thing still applies:

the movements must look good and the details must be reasonable.

the martial arts department played an indispensable role in making this design possible.

this martial arts industry must be about martial artists who have gone through thousands of trials and tribulations, not a virtual and abstract "martial arts industry".

in the early years, action scenes required real skills and abilities. people in the industry could tell at a glance whether one was good at fighting or not.

02

xu haofeng's martial arts scenes are different from the commonly known martial arts films. he pays more attention to "intention", but he himself is certainly not willing to admit this. according to the words of a real kung fu master:

if all fighting was like the street fighting in "the master", basically everyone could become a martial arts master.

in all his action designs, there is often a kind of imaginary moves visible to the naked eye——

"come over here, yes, over here, and then i'll take off your weapons. and you, my fist floats over, i'll sideways and tap you, and you'll fall to the ground, okay. that's it."

in fact, most martial arts directors do this on the set. the only difference is that they pay attention to "anti-joint restraint" and "lever principle", which can be seen if you watch most action movies carefully.

xu haofeng doesn’t have that. the effect of “force” doesn’t exist in many of his works.

therefore, ordinary audiences would not understand why one person loses when two people fight each other without much effort.

actors have it easier. after a scene, if they bump their legs, even if the injury is serious, they will recover automatically if they are sent to the hospital later.

so some of the people around me who practice martial arts and fighting have basically read xu haofeng's martial arts novels:

"oh oh!"

no one said, "this is a clever move, this scene is brilliant."

they usually know to spend money to buy movie tickets, but they never watch xu haofeng's movies.

just one thing:

how can you manage to unload someone's weapons weighing dozens of kilograms without using force from your waist, legs or shoulders during a fight?

“several dozen kilograms” may seem light in weight, but if you really lift it up and play with it for a few times, i guarantee you will be out of breath.

what's more, when you swing it to hit someone, even if it's a prop, you have to show strength.

others don't, they insist on making light of heavy things.

i remember that in "crouching tiger, hidden dragon", michelle yeoh had just rushed forward a few steps with a water-ground zen staff, and was nearly knocked down by the staff because her center of gravity shifted backwards. this had some comedic effect, and secondly, it truly showed the weight and texture of the weapon.

these rarely appear in xu haofeng's films.

the terrible thing is that even though it’s fantasy, he doesn’t use wirework and doesn’t like flying or hiding in the ground.

so his kung fu movies are different from those of others.

so who is cheering for xu haofeng?

at least for now, i haven't seen any article on the internet that explains the rationality of the action sets. most of them are about what weapons are used in this movie, their origins, and the types of boxing and kicking.

it all sounds good when it comes to meaning, but i'm clueless when it comes to practical application.

the problem is that if you shoot action scenes, you have to consider the audience's understanding of kung fu and the principles of actual combat application. or just do "dongfang bubai" and hit the air with one palm, and everyone will fall down, and no one will take it seriously.

the bad thing is that this thing is always taken as true.

03

real kung fu fighting doesn't necessarily look good.

but real kung fu does not mean "ugly" kung fu, nor does it mean fake kung fu.

today, kung fu movies have been passed down, but there are few pure kung fu movies. most of them are integrated with police and gangsters, gun battles, and even horror movies. for example, "fatal induction" directed by james wan has a scene of killing people in a police station, which requires visual continuity. this kind of action scene pays more attention to power and smoothness.

in the early years, hong kong martial arts went to hollywood. behind films like "the three musketeers" and "blade" were directed by people like xiong xinxin and donnie yen. the european and american actors are well-known and muscular, and the visual effects created by their good physical fitness are great.

after donnie yen returned to china, in response to the downturn in kung fu films, he was the first to use free fighting in "flash point" and "spl", which also emphasized physical combat and physical fitness, and the audience will see some relatively realistic action scenes.

but no one would think that in real life, someone could stand up after being punched and kicked like that.

this is how times have changed.

indeed, we used to see news about children going to shaolin temple to learn martial arts after watching a certain movie, but that was something that happened 20 or 30 years ago.

nowadays, when people talk about traditional martial arts, most of them are not good words.

for example, i saw on the internet that a group of martial artists from a certain place were sparring with each other. they had agreed to exchange ideas, but as they were fighting, they got anxious and both sides used the turtle fist. while they were fighting, they were still talking:

"how many times have i let you do that?!"

many people want to show the true face of martial arts, so for decades, if they don’t talk about fanciful ideas, martial artists must pay attention to routines, and all boxing and weapon fights must look good.

xu haofeng said"there is no such thing as routine in martial arts. we treat martial artists as a profession.", this is idealistic.

of course, some people agree with his point of view.

for example, some young artists have no experience in martial arts and design movements based on their imagination. they don't know the basic principles of "joint restraint" in military boxing. xu haofeng's movies are suitable for these people. as luck would have it, they can also praise the angles, camera movements, optics, aesthetics and other aspects, which makes the movie feel very good.

but the mass market disagrees.

to sum it up simply, if we can show the saying “one force defeats ten skills” in a movie, it would be a great progress.

however, today’s audiences would rather fast forward to watch the opponent’s performance even when watching real kung fu fighting scenes. what they want is to feel the excitement of the fight and it must look very “real”.

xu haofeng couldn't do that.

he is still immersed in his own "martial arts world" and is unwilling to show anything realistic, largely because he is avoiding the opinions of professional martial arts instructors.

the idea is very pure:

your play must be acceptable to people.

he wasn't, he was just gesturing to go on stage.

then a bunch of artists continued to praise:

"he said he was just hitting randomly, but he wasn't hitting randomly, he was clearly well prepared..."

as a result, the film completely flopped amid the already sluggish film market.

as mentioned above, the market environment is only one aspect, and audience sentiment and public perception are the main reasons:

i'm too lazy to watch a real fight now, let alone the way you fight.

looking at all of xu haofeng's kung fu films to date, those that are critically acclaimed but not commercially successful are all considered niche films. if fans had to go to the cinema and pay for them, the screening schedules and box office would not be so bleak today.

it is quite similar to the "xingxiu sect" which every time appears, is surrounded by people, and shouts "xingxiu old immortal, you have boundless magic power, great supernatural powers, and are coming to the central plains". however, when they really face the enemy, everyone scatters.

then continue to be stubborn:

"the ground is slippery and the turf is bad."

the chinese national football team may give thumbs up, but the film market and audiences will not.

kung fu is not about mysticism, and movies are even less about mysticism.

the chakravartin also made it very clear in "sword rain":

"practice martial arts if you want to, and practice acrobatics if you want to. if you want to practice martial arts and do acrobatics at the same time, who will die if you don't die?"

some people say that they hope this type of pure kung fu film will still retain a certain market, and i agree with this in principle.

but no matter how the market reacts, i believe the audience has their own right to vote.