The most watched Japanese film of 2015, Attack on Titan, finally opens on August 1. The sales of the original comics have exceeded 50 million copies. As a new generation of national comics, "Attack on Titan" is not only popular in Japan, but also in the entire Asian region. This live-action movie has been creating buzz since the production news was released in 2011. Although the release of the work was delayed by two years due to the change of director, it did not seem to affect the media and audiences' attention to the film. Since the announcement of the cast last year, the live-action "Attack on Titan" has been the most watched work in Japan. The 4D version, D-BOX, 3D, and 2D release methods are the first time in the history of Japanese films. Within a month before the release of the film, despite the fierce competition in the domestic film market: "Terminator 5" ", "Avengers 2", "Theatrical Version HERO2", "Children of Monsters", "Mind mobilization" and other works have been released one after another, but "Attack on Titan" still occupies the conspicuous section of the major media, it seems that everything is moving towards The "box-office blowout" momentum is advancing.
But the fact is not as smooth as the producers imagined. This summer, Japan ushered in an incredible "blockbuster filming". In addition to the above-mentioned works opening in July, starting from August, "Minions" (July 31), "Jurassic World" (August 5), "Mission Impossible 5" (August 7) Japan), "Naruto the Movie" (August 7th) hit together, and the Japanese market has always had the tradition of "selling a long line of movies", the simultaneous release of nearly 10 masterpieces must only be exchanged for a tragic " Box Office Battle". The original producer of "Attack on Titan" had a good plan. The release of "Attack on Titan Part 1" on August 1 just took advantage of Japan's summer vacation schedule to try to sweep the film market and increase the awareness of "Giant". At the end of the summer vacation on September 19, "Attack on Titan Part 2" will be released strongly. However, the form was much more severe than expected. Moreover, the launch of the character stills of "Attack on Titan" immediately aroused strong complaints from fans, and the desire to watch the movie has actually been questioned, and the bloody "giant cannibalism" scene will scare away many Japanese female audiences, you know The main audience for the Japanese film market is the "female audience". In this situation full of "questions", "Giant" walked into the theater. In the first weekend, "Attack on Titan: Part 1" received a box office figure of 600 million yen, which is the second best start of this year's Japanese live-action film, second only to "Theatrical Version HERO2" starring Kimura Takuya. This number is not a bad number for a comic book that was controversial in advance, and it is indeed lower than the producer's expectations. They may not have thought that "Minions", which were released at the same time, had such an amazing "box office energy". In fact, if "Minions" were not released one day earlier to Friday (new Japanese films are basically released every Saturday), "Giant"'s first weekend box office champion is likely to miss ("Minions" 550 million in the first weekend) , which premiered Friday at 190 million). Of course, the final result can at least cover up the "embarrassment" of the first weekend, but in fact the problem has just begun.
Although we won the championship at the weekend, we can find some problems from a set of data. According to the viewing report of "Attack on Titan Part 1" on the first weekend, the ratio of male to female audiences for this film was 62:38, and the majority of the audience were high school students, college students and 20-year-olds. If it is still "healthy" in terms of age, the ratio of males and females is doomed to the fate that it cannot go far at the box office. Friends who are familiar with the Japanese film market may know that the high-grossing works in Japan are basically dominated by female audiences, and this tendency is more obvious in local Japanese works, and the male audience of "Attack on Titan Part 1" has more than 6 floors. Indirectly illustrates the female audience's attitude of "staying at a distance" towards the film. In addition, the film's poor reputation may further affect the film's box office trend. The score of this film on the Japanese portal yahoo is only 2.12 points (out of 5 points), although this number may be due to malicious scores, but it is indeed an indisputable fact that this film has encountered bad reviews. Even if Japanese audiences belong to the kind of audience who don't care about "other people's opinions", for the summer movie market with many "options", "Attack on Titan Part 1" has indeed experienced a decline. Looking at the box office performance of the "Giant" three days before the working day (August 3-August 5), it will be found that the "capture" of the student audience was not successful. People" and other animation works were suppressed, and the box office rebounded only in the evening, but this "recovery" is only relative. In the box office results of the three days before the working day, "Giant" did not beat "Minions" once, and on the third day of the working day (August 5), with the release of "Jurassic World", "Giant"'s The audience was further captured by the "dinosaurs", and the appearance of "Tangge" two days later will bring a huge shock wave to the "Giant". It is expected that the final box office of "Attack on Titan Part 1" will exceed 3 billion days. Yuan has been considered a success, and it is not surprising that it is less than 3 billion yen. In fact, compared with the figures of "Attack on Titan Part 1", the producers should be more worried about the "Attack on Titan Part 2" released on September 19th. box office.
Small comment: The giants are attacking, and Dongbao special photography is new
In fact, the "Attack on Titan Part 1" will be so maliciously scored this time, and the main reason why it will cause many criticisms is not the seemingly clumsy special effects, but the problem still occurs in the script. Japanese audiences are well aware that Japanese film companies do not have the operating funds of the United States to operate a "super masterpiece", so Japanese audiences are not very concerned about the special effects of the movie, they are more concerned about the "entertainment element" in the "super masterpiece". In the past, the biggest problem with Japanese masterpieces was the "script", so this time, in order to create the best "entertainment screenplay", the producer invited Japan's most famous "Hollywood film critic" Machiyama Chihiro to participate in the scriptwriting. Machiyama, who sneered at Japanese entertainment masterpieces, also showed his ambition to make a big deal. But it backfired. In the author's opinion, Machiyama's script is not much better than Higuchi's masterpiece "Japan Sinking", but it has deeply hurt many "original parties". For a long and unfinished comic, it is reasonable to make some adaptations in the script, but this time the script can no longer be described as "adaptation", in addition to retaining some main content, whether it is the protagonist's personality , or the intersection between various characters, the movie version of "Attack on Titan" can be regarded as an "original work", especially the ambiguous interaction between "Mikasa" and "Soldier" can make the "original work" The party" directly exploded. And even if the feelings for the "original" are completely put aside, the script written this time is still relatively bad, the lack of coherence, and the abrupt appearance of the "sex" element will make the audience feel inexplicable, so many audiences said that they saw the scene where the real person appeared. Can't wait to "fast forward" because it's so boring.
However, aside from the script, "Attack on Titan" is another excellent "special shot" movie. As mentioned above, due to the market size of Japanese movies, it is impossible to shoot "super CG masterpieces" like the United States, so "special photography" movies have become a unique film culture in Japan, and its peak moment is naturally the East. Po's special feature film series. You can say that the special effects of "Attack on Titan" are far from American blockbusters, but it is enough to bring you back to the best era of "special photography". In fact, during the release of "EVA: Q", the short film "Giant Soldier Appears in Tokyo", which was released at the same time, left a deep impression on many people, and the director of the short film was Shinji Higuchi. As a super special film fan, Higuchi Shinji has a "special film feeling" that is not lost to anyone. At the same time, he is also one of the best special effects directors in Japan for his research on new film technology. And "Giant Soldier Appears in Tokyo" is the product of "special photography in the new era", but as a short film, Higuchi is just a small test, and the real challenge is left to the film "Attack on Titan". The realistic model production continues the high level of "Titanic Soldier Appears in Tokyo", and more importantly, as a "New Era Toho Special Work", Higuchi gave the "Old Toho" the best tribute gift. Seeing the scene of "Giant Cannibalism" in this film, Teshafan's first reaction must be the classic work "Frankenstein's Monster Sanda vs. Gellar", which influenced "Pacific Rim" director De Toro director There is a very shocking scene in the special film of life - the cannibal scene at Haneda Airport. From the perspective of current technology, this work may be outdated, but the "sense of fear" he brings to people is unmatched by many CG masterpieces today. And this "Attack on Titan" has also achieved such an effect. The sense of occlusion caused by the "giant wall", the fear emanating from the giant's debut, and the sense of powerlessness it brings (the IMAX effect is quite good) makes people feel The suffocating giant's roar is the success of the film. The atmosphere created by this huge gap runs through the whole film, and "despair" is also fully reflected. In addition, the giant's expression is also one of the highlights of the film. Due to the use of real-life expressions, the "giant" in the film looks more "emotional" than in the comics, while the favorite "saliva" and "body fluids" in Japanese B-level works The appearance of the "element" also makes the giant closer to the "biological" attribute than the "monster". The "sex" element mentioned above was originally a good development for the "giant", but unfortunately it was "inexplicable". ' was ruined.
The live-action version of "Attack on Titan" is so vigorously "opened". As many film critics have said, the live-action works adapted from the original comics can't escape the "scolding" no matter how they shoot, so we might as well try Accept this slightly incomplete "giant" with the mentality of watching an ordinary entertainment movie.
Originally published in Tencent, please do not reprint
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