介绍:
The strangest thing is going on in China's film market. The most criticized movie "Switch" made by Chinese TV producer Jay Sun now ranks the first in terms of daily grossing. Nine days after its release, the film has already secured 26 million yuan, in comparison, Hollywood blockbuster "Star Trek: Into Darkness", with higher ticket price on average, sold for just a little more than 33 million yuan in three weeks.
It is an interesting phenomenon because "Switch" is widely considered an awful movie. Internet users on China's biggest online movie database Mtime give it a rating of 2.3 out of 10, making it one of the lowest-rated local blockbusters that somehow made to Chinese cineplexes.
Part of the reason is the movie's sizeable 160-million-yuan investment. Unlike regular movies, the production of "Switch" was a commercial activity right from the start. Details of the film's budget and marketing strategy were outlined even before a script was ready. And based on my personal observation, the movie carries a dozen embedded adverts, such as for a domestic insurance company, an overseas cell-phone producer, a foreign automaker, a Chinese online shopping website, among many others. With this amount of input, the producer must have tried every means within his power to install it in Chinese cinemas.
Meanwhile, the producers had reason to assume that their movie will sell. For starters, they included superstar Andy Lau and celebrity model Lin Chi-ling in the cast. The influence of Andy Lau is of course beyond any doubt. Lin Chi-ling is a better model than actress, but her huge fan base is always ready to be tapped. To reward their earnest support, Miss Lin showed off her exquisite body in more than 30 different outfits. And to complement Lin's presence and keep the audience constantly excited, more good-looking, female support actresses were seen wearing queer clothing and doing acrobatic fighting.
Also, the amount of investment brought as much advantage as pressure. The director could squander to his heart's content on various luxuries. From Dubai to Tokyo and China's tourist city Hangzhou, the filming crew traversed half of the Eurasian continent to collect the most stunning pictures, and these include shots of the Hotel Atlantis and the Khalifa Tower as well as the movie debut for the Burj Al Arab luxury hotel. Director Jay Sun had had much experience making promotional videos for tourist cities, he could totally have done this blind-folded.
Despite their confidence, the producers were well aware that their movie had a fatal flaw, that is, the story. The movie was meant to emulate a James Bond movie, in which a secret agent protected a valuable piece of national treasure. Normally a director would have filled the movie with action and get it over with, but our dear director seem to have decided that he wanted more than that. So he extended his beloved experiment of a film to include romance and thriller, yet wasn't able to find a focus in his scattershot pursuits, so the result was a movie that has puzzled, if not infuriated, many viewers. Director Jay Sun was very nervous before the film was released, and it was only after the bad movie became a topical one and brought in revenue by the millions that he started feeling relaxed.
The popularity of "Switch" is creating trouble in the movie industry, particularly when owners of movie theatres are increasing its screening at the expense of low budget movies that are really good but can't afford an expensive promotion campaign. Perhaps the viewers should stop voting for the bad movies, otherwise they'll be left with no choice when more of bad topics take over.
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