National Tide 1980

Even though Japan is a small country, its economy has risen rapidly with the support of the United States after the war, and it has quickly entered the ranks of developed countries.

Whether it is the degree of development of the entertainment industry or the development scale of the entertainment market, it is among the best in the world.

Moreover, because the market in mainland China was still limited by the planned economy operation model at this time, there was almost no market space for opening up to the outside world, and both the development level and market value of the entertainment industry were quite primitive.

Therefore, Japan's entertainment industry firmly occupies the prominent position of first in Asia and second in the world.

It has become Asia's largest and leading presence.

This can be easily felt as long as you are in Japan at this time.

Because if you just walk on the streets of Japan, you can see promotional posters for concerts and new movies everywhere.

In the most prosperous areas of various cities in Japan, there are always bands spontaneously formed by music lovers performing on the streets.

Especially in Tokyo, theaters and movie theaters are everywhere in the downtown area.

Here, you can see far more European experimental art films and films from unknown Asian countries than you can see in Paris and New York.

Even the rental business of records and video tapes is very prosperous, and rental houses providing related services are everywhere.

In addition, Japan's cultural copyright development is relatively mature, and its management is also the most stringent.

All things considered, Japan can indeed be called a paradise for literary and artistic creators.

In other words, if a movie, a novel or a music album can sell well in Japan, the income gained by the production company and the creative staff will be considerable.

Taking movies as an example, unlike in China, they only rely on copies of the movies themselves or box office revenue to make money.

There is also income from copyrights, original sound albums, video tapes, brochures, and movie peripherals.

It's definitely a huge profit.

If you are lucky, it is not impossible for the creative staff to directly achieve financial freedom.

However, we must also admit that the Japanese entertainment market has its own particularities.

The current creative prospects and survival situation of Japanese film companies are actually not very optimistic.

First of all, Japan is the younger brother of the United States. Its film market is completely open to the United States. It is very easy for American films to obtain permission to be released in Japan.

It was nothing at first.

In the 1960s, Japan's local box office accounted for more than 70% of the total box office, and film companies made a lot of money.

The 1970s were also good. This figure was basically maintained. The so-called "Japanese paintings" did not lose to the "foreign paintings" imported from overseas.

Each studio has its own unique system and is able to maturely complete the production of the entire industry chain. It has produced a large number of classic films that have had an impact on world cinema. It can be said to be the peak period of Japanese film industrialization.

Therefore, this period is also called the "golden age" of Japanese movies by Japanese filmmakers.

But in the 1980s, as capable filmmakers left large studios one after another to set up their own production companies, the large studio system that had supported the Japanese film industry for decades gradually collapsed.

At the same time, changes in lifestyle have also caused movies to lose their once extremely powerful ability to create stars.

The new generation of stars is increasingly coming from television actors and talent show icons.

It happened that at this time, the United States began its violent cultural export.

The American film industry received support from the U.S. government, and large-scale commercial films began to be mass-produced.

As a result, the Japanese film industry began to decline from its peak, and it quickly went downhill.

In just ten years, the box office of Japanese domestic movies has completely collapsed - less than 30%, and it is running towards a quarter.

To put it bluntly, Japanese films were impacted by American blockbusters much earlier than Hong Kong films.

Moreover, Japanese local filmmakers are still not strong enough to beat the American Hollywood model.

In addition, there is something very special about the Japanese film market.

The most popular ones are not live-action movies, but animated two-dimensional and animal-themed movies.

Throughout the 1980s, the few remaining domestic box office sales of Japanese films were actually supported by TV series and animated theatrical versions.

Don't even look at the movies released in Japanese theaters every year. There are more than a thousand movies, but most of them are not Japanese movies.

Even if they are local films, many live-action films will not receive special attention and will be released within a limited time without any announcement.

Take 1986 and 1987 as an example.

The box-office champions of "Banghua" films in the past two years are "The Story of a Cat" produced by Toho in 1986, and the other is "Hachiko" produced by Shochiku.

In 1986, "Nobita and the Iron Man" from the Doraemon series ranked fourth at the local box office.

In 1987, the Doraemon series "Nobita and Dragoon" ranked second at the local box office.

To put it bluntly, among the movies that can really make money for movie companies, the proportion of live-action movies is not advantageous.

The real situation of the Japanese film industry is that because we are not in the information age, people in this era cannot fully understand the industry characteristics revealed by these data.

In the last ten years of the Showa era, the major Japanese studios that had not yet discovered the code of wealth were lucky enough not to starve to death.

Both Toho and Toei relied on pre-sale tickets to keep running, and organized large numbers of audiences to watch movies, so they barely managed to avoid bankruptcy.

Daily activities are completely shameless in order to make money. They have taken advantage of the increasing popularity of video recorders and made "pink movies" that can meet the special needs of men and "rush" in a private environment. Only in this way can they maintain the vitality of continuing to cultivate successors in the film industry.

And Shochiku is completely resting on its laurels. In addition to Torajiro's "The Pain of Man" series, there is also "Hachiko", which has been copied countless times.

Throughout the 1980s, there was basically no noteworthy contribution to Japanese film history.

For example, "The Man in the Burning House" filmed last year was almost the last ditch effort of the president.

But unfortunately, the result was neither bad nor good, with a box office score of just over one billion yen.

As a production company that also owns its own theater chain, Shochiku Pictures can indeed make a profit.

But purely from a producer's point of view, if the cost is recovered solely through local box office revenue, it would be a small loss.

This is in line with the old saying in China - it is tasteless to eat, it is a pity to discard it, and it is just a passing line.

Therefore, if we compare it like this, "Li Xianglan", which was originally at a disadvantage among live-action movies in terms of genre, can achieve such a box office result on its opening day, which is really unexpected for many industry experts. An eye-popping strange thing.

Therefore, when countless theater and film critics were shocked to discover that Matsumoto Keiko's production company had made a super-grossing biographical film, Little Dark Horse, without making any noise, their eyes immediately focused on it.

Soon, several cultural magazines and newspapers, including "Picture Weekly", which aims to support the development of the film industry, published reviews of "Li Xianglan" on the second day of its release, hoping to comment on the film's popularity. Conduct objective analysis and explore the reasons.

At this point, regardless of whether these film critics can find a suitable reason or whether they can see through the real reason, most people have given relatively positive comments on the quality of the film.

Some people even went out of their way to praise it, praising it as "the best work reflecting the theme of war this year" and "a film that expresses the bitterness of being an unparalleled beauty."

After all, the film here has an investment of up to one billion yen. It is a top-notch blockbuster in Japan, and it is also above average compared to Hollywood in the United States.

Especially in mainland China, everything is value-added consumption.

Whether it is the exterior scenes, props, costumes, or actors' styles, they are all top-notch. The creation of a real sense of history is close to perfection, and the level may not be lower than that of "The Last Emperor" filmed in the Forbidden City in the same period.

And since their personal careers are at stake, directors Yoshitaro Nomura and Keiko Matsumoto also fought hard this time.

In order to seize this last chance to make a comeback, the old director tried his best.

From shooting to editing, everything was done with extreme caution, repeated research, and several brainstormings before taking action.

Keiko Matsumoto, in order to avoid making the same mistake as the studio she just bought, once again fell into bankruptcy.

From the moment I got the script, I have been trying to figure out the character in my mind.

All I could think about was how to show the helpless desolation and frail beauty of a beauty in troubled times.

Under these comprehensive factors, to be honest, this biographical film can at least be rated 80% in terms of quality compared to films of the same type, making it one of the rare masterpieces.

With good industry acclaim, what is even more gratifying is that after the film was sent to many television news stations by Japan's Women's League and became a hot social topic, the social impact of this film still remains It didn't stop there.

Because what followed was also the approval and support of several female politicians in Japanese politics.

For example, Tagako Doi, who has just become the tenth generation chairman of the Socialist Party, wrote a special article in the "Tokyo Shimbun" in order to gain more female supporters.

In addition to saying that "Japan should thoroughly reflect on the crimes of militarism and establish a new friendly and peaceful relationship with China," more importantly, based on Li Xianglan's experience combined with the rising feminist movement in Japan, she also hopes that Japan's imports will eliminate gender discrimination.

Whether in the workplace and education, in politics and the business world, or even in the family, she believes that Japanese women should have more equal status.

And this kind of appeal made by political figures has undoubtedly further expanded the influence of this film.

Even if it is inevitable that some right-wing elements in Japanese politics will voice their opposition, there will also be some supporters of machismo who will criticize it.

But none of this matters.

Because no matter whether the reviews are good or bad, which side wins in the end, it is equivalent to soft articles that further promote the movie.

At the same time, there is another thing that cannot be ignored, that is, because the film involves too many songs by Li Xianglan, it is actually equivalent to a musical.

You know, the old songs that Li Xianglan sang famously are called classics because they have the characteristics of never fading.

After re-arrangement, even if it is played now and re-interpreted by Matsumoto Keiko, it is still fascinating enough.

In particular, the theme song "Please Don't Go" plagiarized by Ning Weimin was performed by Teresa Teng herself. The sad and beautiful melody can directly touch the hearts of the audience.

At the end of the film, this song not only made the story touching enough, but the song itself also left a very deep aesthetic impression on the audience, and it became popular in one fell swoop.

In particular, Yoshiko Yamaguchi herself publicly expressed her love for this theme song.

When he was interviewed by the TV station, he not only hummed a few lines himself, but also expressed his affirmation and gratitude to Teresa Teng. He also said that he hoped to have the opportunity to sing with her on the same stage.

As a result, the spread and speed of this single have also reached a higher level, and it is no surprise that it quickly rushed to the major on-demand charts.

There is no doubt that whether it is this single or the entire movie soundtrack, it is inevitable that it will be a hit.

As for how many copies can be sold in the end, it all depends on Taurus' ability to strike while the iron is hot.

In short, with the combined efforts of the right time, place and people, this "Li Xianglan" actually has the status of a "pig in the spotlight". It seems that it has the characteristics of a phenomenal movie, and it seems that it can be seen without going to the cinema once. It seems like it's out of date.

Then it is impossible for ordinary people not to be affected, and naturally more people want to watch this movie.

And as long as they have watched it, almost no one in the audience has anything bad to say about this movie.

Women, of course, are speaking from a subjective standpoint, and have to protect the film's reputation simply out of empathy and the need to protect their own interests.

At the same time, due to their beauty-loving nature, many people also like the way Matsumoto Keiko dresses in movies and the cheongsams and jewelry she wears.

As for men, they also think it’s pretty good to watch, after all, the quality of the film doesn’t stretch their crotch.

Not to mention how beautiful and charming Matsumoto Keiko looks in all kinds of cheongsam on the screen.

Just talking about such a large shooting cost, together with a small prop and a small supporting role, it is not enough to make a truly epic work, just like the "Tiger Tiger" co-produced by Japan and the United States many years ago.

Having just watched "Top Gun", they have already regretted that Japan has not had a decent big-budget movie for many years.

This is a large-scale investment production in which Japanese companies dominate.

If the criticism is too harsh, won't Japanese film companies just follow the old path of the past?

If you only know how to cut costs and make small-minded films, how can you compete with American films with deep pockets?

Out of national self-confidence, in order for Japan to have a strong film industry, it must also support a wave of support.

Of course, this and this... incidentally are also to please my girlfriend.

If I dare to say something bad, my girlfriend might fall out!

In this way, after "Li Xianglan" earned 294 million yen at the box office on its premiere day in Japan, its reputation was exaggerated by the media and spread by word of mouth among moviegoers, causing the box office to continue to maintain a good momentum.

It only took seven days after its release to become an absolute dark horse, taking in 1.37 billion yen at the box office, successfully breaking through the 1 billion yen mark.

So the theaters that screened the movie "Li Xianglan" are seeing their revenue continue to increase.

More independent movie theaters finally couldn't sit still, and they called Matsumoto Office and Fog Studios one after another. There was an endless stream of theaters proactively contacting them to arrange movies for them.

It only took a week to find an independent theater that was willing to show "Li Xianglan".

From the original seven families, it increased to thirty-five.

At the same time, influenced by the popularity of the movie, Yamaguchi Yoshiko's autobiography was also popular in bookstores again.

The movie soundtrack album and theme song single sold hundreds of thousands of copies, which was better than movie tickets.

The movie brochure was sold out because only 50,000 copies were printed.

In a private transaction, someone originally asked for a price of 1,500 yen for something that was originally worth 300 yen.

If it's that bandage - the creatively packaged and unopened one, it can even be sold for 2,000 yen.

But the most popular ones are the Chinese snacks, palace cakes and handicrafts that Ning Weimin sells in the cinema every day using Songzhu Cinema as a promotion platform.

Snacks and pastries are sold out every day. If it is a weekend, they cannot be sold at night.

This time, he asked his employees to bring jewelry, lacquerware, silk figures, paper fans, small mirrors, straw insects, etc. from China. They are all almost sold out and the prices are higher than those at Huiwentang Bookstore.

For this reason, Ning Weimin was not only happy, but also a little regretful.

If he had known that the movie would have such strong promotional power after its release, he should have gotten a batch of cheongsam from the capital this time.

He believed that at a price of several hundred thousand yen each, they would definitely be robbed. This was a mistake on his part.

Yes, in fact, the film industry makes money very quickly, and the rate of return is so high.

As long as it becomes popular, the audience will support it, the box office accumulation will increase day by day, and the surrounding products will sell like crazy, its ability to attract money is staggering.

In this way, the box office of the "Li Xianglan" movie began to launch a ferocious impact towards 2 billion yen or even higher with an unstoppable trend.