In another time and space, after the release of Ang Lee's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", China's big newspapers and tabloids were talking about the movie, thinking that Ang Lee had a long face for Chinese-language films. And in the United States, it is even more outrageous, when it is the hottest, there are newspapers talking about this movie almost every day, and some American film critics even call it a masterpiece in film history.

The praise of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" in the American media is inevitably fueled by the distributor behind it, but the popularity is more due to the excellent quality of the film itself. From the perspective of film technology, the cinematography and soundtrack of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" are absolutely top-notch in the world, and the scene where Jade Jiaolong steals the Qingying Sword at night is perfect. (By the way, its photographer Bao Dexi, who was in the crew of "Ancient and Modern Wars of the Qin Warriors" at this time, was a contracted photographer of Oriental Entertainment Agency)

The deeper reason is that Ang Lee repackaged the oriental aesthetics and martial arts elements and presented them to Western audiences with a Western-style value, which made it impossible for Western audiences to watch the movie. That's why some people say that Ang Lee's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" was filmed for foreigners.

Kang Jianfei's "Notes on Tomb Robbery" is similar to "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", but he is not as literary as Ang Lee, throwing away the so-called cultural connotation, and producing a wonderful commercial film in Hollywood's blockbuster mode.

Whether it is Xu Ke's "Shushan" or Kang Jianfei's "Qiannu Ghost", due to cultural barriers, many Chinese understand things at a glance, Western audiences seem to be more difficult, and it is difficult to appreciate the charm inside.

But "Tomb Robbery Notes" is different, its story takes place in modern times. Kang Jianfei is also not trying to spread any Chinese culture. When he made a movie, he only thought about how to tell the story well and how to shoot it so that everyone could watch it well.

And so. Kang Jianfei succeeded, because the audience was really cool to watch, and they were addicted after watching it. This film doesn't need to burn your brain, you can drink Coke with a popcorn bucket, eat and drink at the same time, and spend two hours happily with your little friend and girlfriend.

It is precisely because it is a popcorn commercial film that the American media's evaluation of "Tomb Robbery Notes". It's nowhere near as tall as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. But as a high-quality blockbuster commercial film, it's enough to be touted by American critics — and part of it is paid for by the pen.

"The Hollywood Reporter", one of the two major entertainment industry newspapers in the United States, spent half of the page evaluating "Tomb Robbery Notes" this time: ""Tomb Robbery Notes" is based on director Kang Jianfei's novel of the same name. However, according to him, the story was written first, and then it was decided to write a novel.

Hollywood directors have made many adventure genre films, if you want to compare one with "Tomb Robbery Notes". That must have been Spielberg's "Indiana Jones." The most appealing thing about Indiana Jones. lies in the mysterious treasures, thrilling adventures and strong exotic atmosphere in the film, which are perfectly reflected in "Tomb Robbery Notes".

If I had to say something different, it would be that the style of the film is very different. In the past, the adventure films that American audiences were familiar with basically had a distinct western style, even "Indiana Jones". "Notes on Tomb Robbery" has a mysterious oriental charm, and the popularity of this film is very successful because it refreshes people's consistent impression of adventure films, and the novelty of watching the film will inevitably stimulate the growth of the box office......"

The Hollywood Reporter film is decent. said the excellence of "Tomb Robbery Notes", but he didn't exaggerate it too much.

Some other newspapers above. Some film critics who have watched it have begun to tout as hard as they can, thinking that "Notes on Tomb Robbery" is a rare commercial film classic.

There are many people who praise, and naturally some people scold. There are even some who scold for the sake of scolding, purely picking bones in eggs, so that they can attract attention and show their uniqueness.

Whether it is praise or scolding, it is undeniable that "Notes on Tomb Robbery" has become popular in the United States, and major newspapers have commented on this film.

"Notes on Tomb Robbery", which grossed only $16.74 million in the first week, is still far from "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles", which was also released on Friday but grossed more than $25 million in the first week. But judging from the box office decline in the second week, "Tomb Robbery Notes" is not inferior to "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles".

The box office of "Tomb Robbery Notes" in the second weekend was 15.88 million, only from the three-day box office of two weekends, the decline can be said to be negligible, and the weekly box office in the second week soared to 29.49 million, with a total of $46.23 million in 10 days in two weeks. Although it is far from the box office of 64.34 million in the first ten days of "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles", the box office gap is getting closer after all.

In the third week of its release, the decline of "Tomb Robbery Notes" is still very low, with a cumulative box office of $70.08 million in 17 days. At this time, "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" has been released for 24 days, with a cumulative box office of 96.88 million, and the box office gap between the two movies continues to shorten.

Two and a half weeks later, "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles," which had been screened for 41 days, finally finished filming, grossing $127 million in North America. Perhaps because of the impact of "Tomb Robbery Notes", the box office of "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" is more than 8 million less than the original time and space.

"Tomb Robbery Notes" finally failed to surpass "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles", and officially released the film after 39 days of release, with a box office of $108 million, and currently ranks third in the North American box office list this year. At the top of the list is "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles", and in second place is "Hunting Red October" produced by Paramount. However, when the summer and year-end files come, when the blockbusters are like clouds, the rankings of the three films will drop a lot, but the top ten at the annual box office is proper.

There are two or three Chinese films that have entered the top ten at the annual box office in North America, but "Notes on Tomb Robbery" is the first to break 100 million at the box office.

A few years ago, although Xu Ke's "Shushan" was relatively popular in Europe, because it encountered too many Hollywood blockbusters when it was screened at the end of the year in the United States, the number of screenings was greatly reduced, and the North American box office only got more than 10 million.

The box office of the movie, in addition to the film itself, is also very important, schedule, publicity and luck. The publicity offensive of "Tomb Robbery Notes" has been done frantically, and the schedule is a spring file that is not too competitive, and only one "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" has been released for two weeks in the same period to grab the box office, so the box office will rise hulala, not as tragic as Xu Ke's "Shushan".

In the American media, "Tomb Robbery Notes" has become the favorite for Best Foreign Language Film at next year's Oscars, not to mention that it can win the award in the end, at least the nomination is certain.

It is also a coincidence that "Notes on Tomb Robbery" premiered before the Lunar New Year, just past the commercial release date of this year's Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, and can only apply for next year's Oscar. If it had been released in Hong Kong a month earlier, "Notes on Tomb Robbery" would have met a strong contender for this year's Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, "Cinema Paradiso."

However, Kang Jianfei has no hope of winning the award, many films that make Americans feel fresh can be nominated for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, but in the end, there will definitely be no commercial films, all of them are some movies full of literary style.

Kang Jianfei doesn't care too much about whether he wins the award or not, because he doesn't need to rely on the trophy to prove himself at all, and making money is the key.

In order to continue filming and making money, when "Notes on Tomb Robbery" was released in the United States, Kang Jianfei followed Liu Zhenwei to Kuala Lumpur.

……

"This is a villa area built in the 70s, and most of the residents are wealthy Chinese." Liu Zhenwei walked on the streets of the community, pointed to the houses on both sides and said to Kang Jianfei.

The whole community is a small two-story western-style building, and the buildings in the community are a little old for more than ten years, but they are just right for filming.

In the 70s, the Chinese were the majority of the population in Kuala Lumpur, and nearly 60% of the population in Malaysia's capital at that time was of Chinese descent. However, due to various policy and other reasons, the Chinese only account for half of the population of Kuala Lumpur, and it is still decreasing.

Kang Jianfei walked through this Chinese community, and there were Chinese signs everywhere, and a local could communicate with a local who spoke Mandarin or Cantonese.

Kang Jianfei pointed to the buildings in front of him and said, "Trumen's home can be chosen on this street, I think those ones are good." However, Truman's place of work has to be found again, I don't know if there is a suitable place in Kuala Lumpur, if not, I will go back to Hong Kong to shoot. ”

"No, you should be able to find it." Liu Zhenwei said.

Over the next few days, the two decided on the location.

The home of the male protagonist Truman was rented from a local Chinese named Chu Chongxin. Kang Jianfei's movies are very popular in Malaysia, or Hong Kong films are very popular here, and the owner Chu Chongxin happens to be a fan of Kang Jianfei, and the process of renting a house is very easy.

As for the company where Truman usually works, Kang Jianfei chose an office building with only six floors in the heart of Kuala Lumpur.

After returning to Hong Kong, Kang Jianfei threw a list full of advertising types to the marketing department of DreamWorks. The people in the marketing department peed when they saw it, and they saw that there were as many as 18 kinds of advertisements for coffee, watches, insurance, cars, tableware, beer, etc.

There are more than 10 types of product placement advertisements in a movie, and the people in the marketing department can only complain in their hearts: Big brother, are you making movies, or are you going to shoot advertisements?

In the film "Truman's World", Truman has lived in a reality TV series since the moment he was born. This TV series is broadcast 24 hours a day, and even Truman sleeps live, except for him and his wife or going to the toilet. And the entire TV series relies on product placement to make money, so "Truman's World" blatantly carries out advertising placement.

From the internationally renowned Nescafe and Patek Philippe watches, to insurance companies in Hong Kong and beer brands in Taiwan, "Truman's World" has attracted a total of more than 40 million advertising sponsorships in just half a month.

As soon as this news came out, it stunned their counterparts in Hong Kong. No matter how awesome other directors are, they will sell films, and they can make a lot of money by selling films before the movie is started, this kind of director is a very powerful director. No matter how favored Cheng Long is by advertisers, the sponsorship fee of the film can get tens of millions, and Kang Jianfei's tens of millions of product placement advertising fees are already another level that is difficult to achieve. (To be continued......)