Wong Ching Po’s crime thriller The Pig, The Snake And The Pigeon has emerged because the second largest Taiwanese movie of all time on launch in mainland China, having grossed over $69.5m (RMB 500m) amid a simultaneous worldwide launch on Netflix.
Distributed by Star Alliance Motion pictures, the movie opened third on March 1 on the tail finish of the Chinese language New 12 months interval, behind festive hits Article 20 and Pegasus 2. But it surely climbed to primary on its third day of launch and has since been topping China’s day by day box-office chart for 16 consecutive days, beating different new releases reminiscent of Dune: Half Two, which opened on March 8.
Its cumulative takings reached $74.5m (RMB 536m) as of March 19, surpassing Our Occasions, which took $49.7m (RMB 358m) in 2015, to grow to be the second highest-grossing Taiwanese movie in mainland China. It is just behind Extra Than Blue, which took $133.1m (RMB 958m) in 2019.
“It’s refreshing for the mainland viewers to see the depiction of an anti-hero because the protagonist. This prompted a debate and the movie simply went viral,” Star Alliance Motion pictures’ distribution director Zhu Lingzhao advised Display in regards to the title’s box-office success.
Zhu additionally shared the Beijing-based firm’s distribution technique, which included preview screenings over two days in 10 key cities earlier than the previews expanded to 38 cities in complete. On the identical time, the movie was promoted on video-sharing platform Douyin the place it grew to become a scorching trending matter.
Star Alliance Motion pictures has beforehand distributed Hong Kong movies reminiscent of Septet: The Story Of Hong Kong and I’m Livin’ It in addition to the latest re-release of Japanese filmmaker Shunji Iwai’s 1995 romantic drama Love Letter. The Pig, The Snake And The Pigeon is the corporate’s most profitable launch to date.
Within the movie, Taiwanese star Ethan Juan (Monga) performs a terminally sick fugitive who decides to do away with two infamous gangsters and take the crown of the most-wanted legal. Chen Yi-Wen (A Solar) and Gingle Wang (Detention) co-star together with Hong Kong actor Ben Yuen (Suk Suk).
Director Wong, born in Hong Kong and based mostly in Taiwan, injects Hong Kong-style motion sequences and pacing in his newest movie, which is known to have been barely edited for its brutality and violence for the mainland launch. He beforehand gained the very best new director prize on the Hong Kong Movie Awards for 2004’s Jiang Hu and finest director at Moscow Worldwide Movie Pageant for 2010’s Revenge: A Love Story.
Whereas the movie is a runaway success in mainland China, it has fared much less nicely in its house market, the place it opened on October 6 final yr and grossed simply shy of $1.6m (NT$50m) – a decent however not record-breaking consequence. The movie went on to obtain seven nominations at Taiwan’s Golden Horse Awards together with finest director for Wong and finest actor for Juan, successful a single award for finest motion choreography.
Veteran Taiwanese actress-producer Lee Lieh (Detention) produced the movie via her firm An Perspective Manufacturing. Distribution Workshop handles worldwide gross sales.
Netflix began streaming the movie globally on March 1, the identical day it opened in China’s cinemas.
