Chinanews.com, Beijing, February 24th (Reporter Gao Kai) Since the film "The Poisonous Tongue Lawyer" (Hong Kong title "The Poisonous Tongue") was released in Hong Kong, China on January 21, 2023, it has repeatedly broken box office records. At 18:00, the total box office of the film has exceeded 100 million Hong Kong dollars, becoming the first Hong Kong-produced film in Hong Kong history to break the box office.
The film officially opened in mainland China on the 24th.
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As a film producer, Jiang Zhiqiang, a veteran Hong Kong filmmaker, accepted an exclusive interview with this agency a few days ago. He said, "The most convincing story is always a good story."
Jiang Zhiqiang, who has been in the Chinese film industry for more than 40 years, was the "behind the scenes" of many popular films. Regarding the record-breaking box office results of "The Poisonous Lawyer" in Hong Kong this time, the veteran filmmaker said frankly, "I didn't expect it. "
"Because I have confidence in the content and production, I have always been confident in the box office of "The Poisonous Lawyer", but to be honest, I really didn't expect it to be so good." In Jiang Zhiqiang's opinion.
The biggest strength of "The Poisonous Lawyer" is "the story is good", and on this basis, the director has completed the task of "telling the story wonderfully".
"As a typical feature film, a well-written story and a well-directed filming are the biggest reasons for the box office success," Jiang Zhiqiang said.
The core of "Poison Tongue Lawyer" tells a story with very typical oriental values. The lawyer Lin Liangshui played by Huang Zihua launched a battle of dignity to defend the law in order to protect the single mother who was deeply involved in the case of female abuse.
The whole story of the film is told naturally, smoothly and full of suspense, the court scenes are wonderful, coupled with the Hong Kong flavor of fireworks, the characters are distinctive, real and delicate.
Photo courtesy of the interviewee of the stills of the movie "The Poisonous Lawyer"
Perhaps because of this, some viewers are worried about whether the Mandarin version of the film will damage its original flavor. In this regard, Jiang Zhiqiang said that some specific films may have different understanding thresholds due to differences in regions and languages, but As a comedy-dramatic film, the film language of "The Poison Tongue Lawyer" is delicate and vivid in terms of character creation and detail processing, and because of this, "the audience is not satisfied with the content of the film during the process of watching the two versions. There shouldn't be much of a difference in feeling."
It has achieved high box office and high reputation in Hong Kong. Some people believe that "The Poisonous Lawyer" represents the noteworthy success of Xingang films to a certain extent. Regarding the recovery of Xingang films and Hong Kong films, Jiang Zhiqiang said frankly, "In fact, I really don't The concept of Xingang films." This Chinese-language filmmaker who has been associated with films for a long time once again emphasized the decisive role of "good stories" on the big screen.
He said, "For me, the most fundamental thing about movies is not the form, but how to tell a good story."
This time, Wu Weilun, who was in charge of writing the story of "The Bad Tongue Lawyer" and finally "telling it well", was a senior screenwriter before, but as a director, he is still a newcomer.
Prior to this, many of the films that Jiang Zhiqiang supervised or participated in the investment were the works of new directors. Regarding this, he bluntly said that the script that can move him is always the script, "The script of more than 100 pages determines everything, because Not only can you find out whether the story is good or bad, but you can also see how much thought the person put into it."
For a long time, Jiang Zhiqiang has been committed to bringing Chinese films abroad.
Talking about the export of Chinese films, he said bluntly, "I have done it, some successes and some failures, but in any case I am very optimistic about the future, because recently I have seen many directors, especially those from the mainland, they are all very good. , Hong Kong also has many outstanding young directors, I think this is our confidence for the future, I am very confident."
Jiang Zhiqiang emphasized that for commercial films, if they want to successfully go overseas, they first need to achieve absolute success in their own market, "It is impossible for us to make a film that Chinese people don't like and send it overseas, so we must put our own market first. Well done, let’s talk about overseas.”
In the past three years, the entire film market has experienced many ups and downs. Jiang Zhiqiang expressed full confidence in the present and future of the big screen, "Since the beginning of this year, everything has recovered and everyone's confidence has returned. We have a market and Many outstanding talents make good use of these resources to present good stories on the big screen. The so-called ideal future is actually as simple as that, and I am very optimistic.”
"I also have confidence in the box office performance of "The Poisonous Lawyer" in the mainland. The audience is always willing to accept a good story. The audience in Hong Kong has already proved this movie with their movie tickets." Jiang Zhiqiang said.
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