The King of Huayu Science Fiction

Chapter 31 The Fermentation of Overseas Word of Mouth

On the second day after "The Night the Comet Came" was launched on Netflix, Dorian posted his own film review in his movie column on Twitter.

The title is: A Delicate and Small Fable
【A deceptively simple film made with a minimum of cast, crew and budget, and enough imagination to create a small but beautiful fable.

……

Alternate or parallel universes are an old concept that we've seen countless times in comic book movies, and it's not always fascinating, but if done right like this one does, the concept does become all the more fascinating because of it.

……

Given the ingenuity of "The Comet" and the fact that it's a film of an expanding, imaginative universe spawned by eight actors and a single room, any doubts about its ending ultimately seem trivial.

And hopefully those filmmakers sitting atop the hills of Hollywood can take some time and money out of nine-figure blockbuster budgets to create something small and refined. 】

Fortunately, Dorian, a professional film critic, has always had good reviews, so there were no replies such as "Have you received money?", "Who bought it" under his article.

There was a reply saying: [I just went to see this movie, only to realize that it is not an English movie?Dude, the threshold for watching movies is a bit high. The Japanese in the movie is still something, and only the subtitles are in English. I can’t do it at the same time. Can’t I dub it? 】

The reply exposed a major shortcoming of North American audiences at this time. They couldn't "do two things at once" while staring at the screen and the subtitles at the bottom of the screen.

Unlike Chinese audiences who can listen to English, Japanese, Korean, Thai, German, French, and even Spanish in movies and TV shows, and simultaneously understand Chinese subtitles and watch movies smoothly, North American audiences, especially white people Most of the audience has not developed this ability at this time.

Therefore, unlike the foreign films released in Huaguo theaters, people usually choose the original sound between the original sound and Mandarin dubbing. North American audiences will naturally choose dubbing when watching foreign movies in cinemas.

Of course, this is not bad. Like Russia, there are several countries that would rather use dual-track dubbing than pure subtitle translation.

This ability also needs to be cultivated slowly. In fact, Netflix has made a great contribution in this regard.

Coincidentally, a similar reply appeared after the comment about not being able to watch foreign movies "with one mind and two minds".

It's just that this reply is complaining about subtitles.

"wong9394": [I am from Huaguo, and I watched "Night of the Comet" with English subtitles on Netflix.For those who don't understand Chinese but watched English subtitles, we may not be watching the same drama.The translation is terrible. The original dialogue is well written, but there are many places that have not been translated, even upside down. I doubt whether it is a machine translation. 】

The user with the Twitter account "wong9394" is an overseas student from Huaguo, named Wang Zhen. Netflix has launched a Huaguo movie, and it is also a sci-fi suspense thriller movie. This news has been posted on several forums in the study abroad circle. It has spread all over the world, and even many Chinese people know about it.

In fact, many overseas Chinese students, including Chinese, are concerned about the motherland, and even care about any little things that happen in the motherland. Maybe it is because they are separated by oceans, and they are not used to cultural and food exchanges. Many international students have built a closed wall in social interaction. , On the contrary, it made them miss the motherland even more, and even reacted more strongly to any progress and positive news in China than domestically.

Of course, there are also those who are just the opposite, wishing that their hometown would get worse, treat negative news as a treasure, and want to cut it clean.

When unable to integrate into the mainstream society, what often happens is that one has a greater sense of belonging to one’s motherland and ethnicity, or makes a clear cut with one’s origin, or even surrenders a name.

At present, the international student circle is still dominated by the first type.

To Wang Zhen's surprise, this movie from the motherland is not only novel in theme, but also reliable in quality. It rushed to the 12th place in "Programs from Other Regions" only one day after it was launched on Netflix. With a few professional film critics, more praise than no criticism, seeing this trend, it is very likely that it will be able to rush to the first place in "Programs from Other Regions" in a few days.

Cultural products from the motherland can cause waves and be welcomed in the United States. Even if the works do not contain any Chinese culture, they are enough to excite many foreign students and Chinese in the United States.

These international students even took the initiative to promote and repost on the Internet, hoping to make the word-of-mouth spread faster.

If Chen Jingxing sees this scene, he will definitely not be surprised, because in his previous life, when Korean film and television pop culture spread across the ocean, Korean students and many Koreans also promoted it everywhere and were proud of it.

The affirmation of the disadvantaged culture by the superior culture will resonate with the disadvantaged group of the same origin, whether it is active affirmation or passive affirmation, it does not even matter whether he is dissatisfied with his motherland.

Even Wang Zhen is planning to cooperate with several partners to re-translate "Night of the Comet", and contact Netflix to ask for their translation.

"Well, it's a pity that it wasn't released in theaters, otherwise it would definitely have a good box office performance, and we can also go to the theater to support it together."

Wang Zhen chatted regretfully with his friends.

Wang Zhen rented a house with several roommates who were also overseas students from Huaguo, and the Chinese people in the surrounding communities are also very concentrated. If "Comet" is really shown in the cinema, Wang Zhen is sure to mobilize the surrounding Chinese to go to the cinema to support it.

It has to be said that although the overseas Chinese only cheat Chinese people, the Chinese still prefer to hold groups.

"Yeah, maybe we can reproduce the success of "Spiritual Shadows"!"

"Hey, that's a bit exaggerated. There are so many pseudo-documentary-style movies, and there is no second one that can compare to "Spiritual Shadows". The success of "Spiritual Shadows" cannot be replicated."

"Actually, this movie was released online in China, and it didn't have any box office results. It's a bit difficult to get Hollywood distributors to go to theaters. Besides, Netflix is ​​not bad. Maybe more people will see it and spread it more widely. "

"Hey, I was the first to discover it. I found out that this movie was highly rated on the domestic Internet. After I watched it, I found it was really good. It was completely different from the previous domestic movies. I wondered if there would be a chance to be introduced. In the US market, I didn’t expect it to come true.”

"I saw it on the domestic Internet. The director of this movie is about to make a second movie. It is said that it is still a suspenseful sci-fi movie with elements of police and robbers added. Maybe it will continue to be available on Netflix."

"Then I guess it won't be Netflix, maybe it will be screened directly in cinemas. Hollywood always pays special attention to successful experience."

It is difficult to put foreign films into the North American market, but it is also easy to say. Hollywood attaches great importance to the so-called "successful experience".

Jackie Chan, Ang Lee, and Guo Shi from Chen Jingxing's previous life are examples of success. With successful experience, even if the quality of the later movies is not very good, they can still gain the trust of Hollywood distributors and even theaters, and give them generously. Arranging films, of course, corresponding to this is the "failure experience" Hollywood also attaches great importance to.

Although "Comet" did not go to theaters, if it can achieve iconic success on Netflix, it can be regarded as a half-stepping stone.

Dorian's film review is just the beginning, and more and more film critics and general audiences have noticed this dark horse movie that is playing on streaming media.

"Night of the Comet" quickly received more than five reviews from professional critics, earning Rotten Tomatoes a fresh certification.

[Seriously, don't read this review until you've seen the movie.The less you know, the more you'll enjoy this fine-tuned thriller, which cleverly uses its tiny budget to maximize a grippingly delicious story.As with all great thrillers, what's scary isn't what's on the outside, but what the outside does to the inside, which means that what we see from the film isn't just inside the characters, it's also mirroring the inside of the audience. 】

[This is not a big-budget sci-fi novel with fancy special effects and bells and whistles.This is a group of ordinary people who deal with some kind of supernatural phenomenon in a very conventional way and with common sense understanding.You don't have to deal with evil people who are malicious for no reason, or who do something stupid and illogical in order to create drama for the movie, or a brave person who does something stupid in the name of nobility.I like this a lot, the characters are normal for the most part.You didn't hate any of them, and you didn't particularly love any of them.They're the kind of people you meet in your community on a regular basis. 】

A clever micro-budget sci-fi film that takes place entirely at an ordinary dinner party, the movie proves that clever ideas and a strong overall performance can completely outweigh the thrills of expensive visual effects. 】

[If you're like me, you're likely to cynically see today's sci-fi movies as the same story, with superheroes flying around New York fighting aliens over and over again.So it's worth examining small-budget sci-fi films that don't have huge budgets, productions that rely on story rather than visual effects or star power.When you stumble upon it while streaming, I think you should give it a try. 】

Rotten Tomatoes Freshness: 88%, audience rating 81%.

This score is enough to rank in the top three among science fiction movies in the past ten years.

(End of this chapter)