"The Voice", a large-scale spy film starring Zhang Hanyu, Zhou Xun, Li Bingbing, Huang Xiaoming, Wang Zhiwen, Su Youpeng and Yin Da among others, will be publicly released on September 30th. It is the only film in the National Day release schedule capable of rivaling "The Founding of a Republic". "The Voice" tells a story set during the War of Resistance against Japan: after a high-ranking official of the puppet government was assassinated, the Japanese army thoroughly investigated the underground anti-Japanese organization, triggering a series of breathtaking stories.
Despite the fact that "The Founding of a Republic" features more than a hundred stars, Wang Zhonglei, producer of "The Voice", frankly said there was no pressure. He said that it would be no problem for "The Voice" to easily surpass a box office revenue of 100 million yuan. "The Voice" sells its suspenseful and tense storyline as well as the acting showdown between movie emperors and queens. Its greatest significance lies in adding one type to Chinese commercial films - spy films. Moreover, "The Voice" goes beyond the narrative style of Chinese mainstream films, no longer expressing patriotic feelings in a false, exaggerated or empty manner. Entertainment packaging can also contain patriotic feelings."
The recently concluded week-long National Day holiday has left us with much to savor. During the National Day period, competition between box offices at various cinemas was intense. During the long vacation, "The Voice" ranked first with a total box office income of 150 million yuan, while "The Founding of a Republic" ranked second.
This year's National Day holiday movie market is mainly dominated by domestic films. Adding up new and old films, there are more than ten: "The Founding of a Republic", "Earth Shock", "The Voice", "Tiananmen", "Young Heroes", "The King of Elks", "Pirate Cat", "Happy Running", "Big Stomach", "Chronicle of Wolf Disaster", "Royal Tattoo", "Dear China", "Gentleman", "Prequel to Monkey King" and "Field of Wheat". Their themes, types and styles are all different.
The richness of film types, as well as various preferential and promotional activities held by cinemas, made all major cinemas in Guangzhou crowded with people during the National Day period, creating the highest box office peak so far this year. The Tianhe Cinema began to constantly display the words "all sold out" for prime-time movie tickets on its electronic screen in the ticket hall starting from 6 pm. In the afternoon of October 2nd, the Chinese Plaza Cinema had many fully packed screenings, with no vacant seats. The newly opened Baixin Plaza store and the Sun City Plaza store under Golden Eagle Cinema of Guangzhou reached their peak audience numbers since their opening. The Flying Cinema located in the bustling area exceeded an average daily box office of 400,000 yuan. The Municipal First Palace Cinema, Youth Palace Cinema and Mayflower Cinema in the Beijing Road business district entered the peak viewing period after the conclusion of the National Day military parade on October 1st. Even the special 9:30 am screening set up by the Municipal First Palace during the holidays attracted more than 500 people to watch.
Among the many types of films, and given that this year's National Day marks the 60th anniversary, red tribute films are the most appropriate and popular among domestic films. Compared to "The Founding of a Republic", which has been shown for half a month, the newly released spy film "The Voice" is obviously more popular. By the end of the National Day holiday on October 8th, the national box office revenue of "The Voice" had reached 150 million yuan, making it without question the box office champion of the National Day release schedule.
According to a cinema manager, the box office revenue of "The Voice" in Guangzhou approached 20 million yuan, making it reasonable for it to become the box office champion. The highly popular spy theme, excellent production, wonderful performances, and a plot full of twists and turns have resulted in the overall quality of the film being top-notch, worthy of being called an excellent domestic film. It was expected that it would be enthusiastically pursued by audiences. As for "The Founding of a Republic", which ranks second in the National Day box office, its performance was also satisfactory, even unexpectedly good. The film earned more than 20 million yuan in box office revenue in Guangzhou in the half month before National Day, and its box office revenue in the first three days of the National Day holiday was almost equal to that of "The Voice", evenly matched.
In the situation where "The Voice" and "The Founding of a Republic" occupy six or seven tenths of the screening times at various cinemas, other films can only "accompany" them. The comedy "Gentleman", the fantasy film "Chronicle of Wolf Disaster" and the war film "Field of Wheat", these three medium-budget films performed satisfactorily, following closely behind "The Voice" and "The Foundding of a Republic".
The prosperity and strength of the country also bring us different spiritual enjoyment. While we walk into the cinema, we also wish our country a better future. Sixty years make one cycle; our country is young at sixty years old. The future of our country will be even better and more prosperous.
At the premiere of "The Voice", many people had already watched the 122-minute movie "The Voice", but basically all the viewers said it was not enough and too short, they wanted to watch more. It was revealed that if "The Voice" exceeds 300 million yuan in box office revenue, a 3-hour complete version DVD will be issued, allowing everyone to get their fill.
It was learned that the complete version of "The Voice" includes a large amount of character backstories and stunning scenes, but for various reasons, they did not appear in the public cinema version. Just for the scene where Huang Xiaoming checks Li Bingbing's body password, the crew shot 15,000 feet of film, almost equivalent to the length of a whole movie. There are also complicated relationships between Gu Xiaomeng (Zhou Xun), Li Ningyu (Li Bingbing) and the theater actor Liu Linzong. Huang Xiaoming even had an entire "treasure hunt" clue completely deleted. Regarding such a radical adaptation, director and screenwriter Peter Chan said: "This is the challenge I want to complete for viewers who have read the original novel. Even if you've read the novel, you wouldn't guess the story would be like this." So what about those who have seen the movie? Is there no suspense left? Zhang Hanyu summed it up in one sentence: "This movie is worth watching twice."
There are reasons why this movie became a hit before its release. It is believed that more than 90% of the audience who attended the premiere gave positive reviews, calling it the best movie of 2009.