There is a saying, don't blame your brother for not being a person, just blame your sister-in-law for being too charming, so Lin Xiaoguang has always followed the rules in front of Xiao Taohong, and resolutely does not do anything that is sorry for Lao Xu.

But the reality is that Xiao Taohong doesn't give Lin Xiaoguang a chance to be a good person at all.

Xiao Taohong's intentions are also obvious, if Lin Xiaoguang is unwilling to give in to her, then she is likely to hit others with her ideas.

In the end, Lin Xiaoguang adhered to the principle of "fertilizer and water do not flow into outsiders' fields", no matter how contradictory and entangled he was, he had to do it as a last resort.

To get back to the point, the explosive box office growth of the Chinese market in the past two years has also forced Hollywood to start paying close attention to every move of Chinese films.

Four years ago, Lin Xiaoguang's "Thai Embarrassment" created a mainland box office record of 1.267 billion, and it was not until last year's Spring Festival that it was broken by Stephen Chow's "Journey to the West", and this year's Spring Festival Lin Xiaoguang's "Detective Chinatown" and this summer's "Monster Hunt" also set a record of breaking 100 million at the single-day box office for three consecutive days.

Therefore, for "Hong Kong", the latest work of Xu Zheng and "Embarrassment", the mainstream media in Hollywood have paid attention to it before the release of "Hong Kong".

"Variety", "New York Times", "Los Angeles Times" and other mainstream media in the United States all released film reviews during the release of "Hong Kong".

"Variety" wrote in the article that although the funny way in the film is not the kind that will make people laugh, the ubiquitous tribute to classic old films is "smart and emotional", whether it is Xu Lai and Yang Yi painting a movie poster wall together, or the protagonist's chase in the building of the "den of sin", all originate from the most classic Hong Kong film genres, and these genres are now "gradually declining in order to cater to the mainland market".

"Variety" also believes that "Hong Kong Embarrassment" is somewhat similar to "Pancake Man", which was just released in Beimi, "They all set the story in a specific Chinese context, and some of the subtle comedy points may not even be visible to Xiangjiang audiences." ”

In addition, the "Los Angeles Times" also compared "Hong Kong" directed by Xu Zheng with "Thai Embarrassment" directed by Lin Xiaoguang four years ago, and believed that ""Thai Embarrassment" is like a down-to-earth love letter written by Lin Xiaoguang to mainland audiences, while "Hong Kong Embarrassment" looks like an all-encompassing love letter written by Xu Zheng to Xiangjiang Films."

The headline of the New York Times film review was: ""Hong Kong Embarrassment is part MV, part buddy movie".

The audience commented: "Director Xu Zheng's "Hong Kong Embarrassment" is quite funny, but it is not as good as Lin Xiaoguang's "Thai Embarrassment" and "Chinatown Detective". ”

Of course, the release of the film in North America does not mean that the film will enter the mainstream of the Chinese people.

is also recently released in North China, "Return", "Wolf Totem" and other films have freshness scores given by critics on the mainstream film review website "Rotten Tomatoes" in the United States, while films such as "Get Out!

Although the film has English subtitles, according to the reporter's observation, 99% of the viewers who watched "Hong Kong" are Chinese faces - and the vast majority of them are Chinese people from the mainland who usually read Weibo.

However, the target audience of "Hong Kong Embarrassment" still showed a high enthusiasm for watching the movie.

Phoenix.com reporters visited two theaters in Los Angeles during prime time on Friday and Saturday, and both screenings were full before the opening, and the atmosphere during the screening was also very enthusiastic, especially when the classic Hong Kong film songs sounded.

But on the other hand, because the audience is mainly mainland students and young office workers, some jokes involving "mid-life crisis" in the film have not received much response, such as the "bed scene" between Xu Zheng and Zhao Wei in the opening scene, which seems to have caused the "embarrassment" of the student party audience.

In terms of the overall atmosphere, the performance of "Hong Kong" is far less than that of "Detective Chinatown" at the beginning of the year.

The reporter also interviewed more than a dozen viewers immediately after the show, and most of the viewers said that they saw the promotional information from Weibo and WeChat Moments, and they had all watched "Thai Embarrassment" and "Chinatown Detective" before.

Whether it is a high school international student, a middle-aged audience who has immigrated to the United States for more than ten years, or a Hong Kong audience, everyone generally says that "there are a lot of laughs, and the movie is very funny".

But there are also many viewers who think that "Hong Kong Embarrassment" is far less good than "Thai Embarrassment" and "Detective Chinatown", and can only say "okay".

"I came to see this movie specifically. I watched "Thai Embarrassment" before and also watched "Detective Chinatown" - mainly because I particularly liked Xiaoguang's movies, but I didn't expect to find out after entering the cinema that this "Hong Kong Embarrassment" was directed and acted by Xu Zheng, and I was very disappointed. A male viewer said.

Some viewers even pointed the finger at Bao Bell, who replaced Huang Baoqiang, thinking that his performance was too blunt, and he would only laugh, lacking Huang Baoqiang's natural joy.

However, Xu Zheng still loves him very much: "Bao Bao is under a lot of pressure, and he also knows that he will be compared with the previous actors, but he has performed very well and hopes that everyone will give him more opportunities." I believe that he will also have a better performance in the future, including now that Stephen Chow's movies have also been filmed with him. ”

Regarding the audience's mixed evaluations, Xu Zheng naturally has something to say.

"Everyone only saw the comedy part of "Thai Embarrassment", but in fact, many of the things that Xiaoguang wanted to express did not fully achieve the effect he wanted, so in "Hong Kong Embarrassment", I hope that there can be a sudden, do what I and Xiaoguang have always wanted to express, but many people will say, 'Hey, you want to express it now'"

Regarding everyone's negative evaluation, Xu Zheng was also a little helpless, so he could only comfort himself and said: "Anyway, no matter how I do, I can't achieve everyone's satisfaction, maybe my skills are not enough, and I haven't reached Xiaoguang's level, if it's enough, maybe everyone can feel what I want to express." ”

Obviously, a few days after the release of the movie "Hong Kong", public opinion is no longer the same as at the beginning, and only good things are said.

As the old saying goes, as long as the tide is low, people can see who is swimming without pants, and in the same way, a movie can be released for a few days before the public can gradually understand the quality of the movie.

Therefore, many media began to report that although it set a number of records, the movie "Hong Kong Embarrassment" was scolded by many film critics.

Some industry insiders said that the box office success of "Hong Kong" should be attributed more to the solid audience base laid by Lin Xiaoguang's first two films, as well as excellent market promotion, rather than being well-made.

Lin Yuan, an expert at entertainment consulting firm Yien Consulting, said: ""Hong Kong's Embarrassment is undoubtedly the most successful film promoted in the Chinese film market this year. ”

Lin Yuan said that the timing of the release of this film is appropriate, covering the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day, and the publicity work is also very clever.

"The first press conference was held in March this year to promote the film, and a number of press conferences were held in the following months," she said. Every time, we will create a topic to attract the attention of the people and non-people. ”

Li Zhixin, a professor at the School of Arts at Shaojing University, also said that the number of moviegoers in mainland China has increased significantly in the past 10 years, and box office records have been broken in recent years.

However, Professor Li also added that the quality of domestic films has not improved by leaps and bounds as the number of moviegoers.

"Audiences aren't interested in movies that have depth of thought or deal with serious topics these days," he said. ”

Many critics also considered the film to be of average quality.

According to the report, Douban, one of the most active and influential film review stations in the mainland, only scored 63 points out of 10.

In comparison, Lin Xiaoguang's previous director of "People in Embarrassment: Thailand" had a score of 7.5 points.

Film critic Yang Shi also solemnly concluded that the film was a failure overall.

"It captivates people with a comedic shell, but there are few classic laughs," he said. The few scenes that make people twitch the corners of their mouths slightly are not because of humor, but because of funny. ”

Yang Shi also said that the film "Hong Kong Embarrassment" presents too many things, sometimes it is like a road movie or comedy, and sometimes it seems to analyze the mid-life crisis and nostalgia for youth, Xu Zheng intercepted so much material, but lacked the kind of control of Lin Xiaoguang.

But no matter how bad the film is to the outside world, there is no doubt that "Hong Kong" is still very popular.

And Xu Zheng became one of the most box office appealing film directors because of the box office explosion of "Hong Kong Embarrassment", but also under the pressure of many external public opinions.

Lin Xiaoguang is actually okay, anyway, he made a lot of money with the movie "Hong Kong", and he didn't have to be scolded, so he turned around and comforted Xu Zheng, asking him to ignore the theories of those brick families and let him make his next movie well.