A Chinese Odyssey has invested more than HK$ 60 million, and Stephen Chow is one of the investors. In order to match the schedule of the New Year's film, Moonlight Box was first released on 1995 1 month, and the box office was once hot. In two days, the total box office revenue of 60 cinemas in Hong Kong was more than 5 million Hong Kong dollars, slightly lower than Jackie Chan's "Red Fan District". In the same year, A Chinese Odyssey was released in Shanghai and then in three northeastern provinces, and the box office was once in a good situation. "Getting off to a good start" didn't last long, but then the overall distribution took a turn for the worse. Even in the most popular Hong Kong market at that time, it ended up with 25 million yuan. The final box office of The Great Sage Wedding released more than a month later was only 29 million yuan. Although it was able to recover the cost, it was far from Stephen Chow's previous films. In Beijing, A Chinese Odyssey was regarded as a case of distribution failure.1In February, 1996, Moonlight Box was released as a winter vacation film, and The Great Sage's Wedding appeared in May. Both films only ended at about 200,000 box office, and some film companies decided to replace A Chinese Odyssey with domestic films two days later to avoid more losses.

The above information comes from a certain encyclopedia, which is very tolerant. Especially when it was released in Hong Kong, Stephen Chow was scolded for cheating money. The audience said that he could not understand it. It is understandable. After all, before the westward journey, everyone was impressed that Stephen Chow's films were all "Jing Wong", such as a trickster, a do-it-yourself sesame official, and the top scholar Su Qier. It is hard not to be disappointed.

However, for this reason, Stephen Chow also used the series of Odyssey to redefine Stephen Chow.

The second part, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

Come on, let's not admit that before Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was nominated for the Oscar, the evaluation was very bleak.

Including Yuan Heping, who won the Golden Award for best martial arts guidance because of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, didn't like this movie, saying that no one had ever filmed martial arts like this, and this was not a martial arts movie at all (it was mentioned in Ang Lee's autobiography "Ten Years' Sleep in a Movie Dream").

The Hong Kong media, at that time, was also full of spit. With the comments of movie bosses, director Ang Lee in Taiwan Province couldn't make an authentic martial arts film (at that time, the commentary was also published in the entertainment edition of Southern Metropolis Daily and other paper media, which caused many people not to be optimistic about this film, and I don't know how many people still have an impression).

Hong Kong Entertainment Notes also alluded to the temptation of the International Chapter to send a brother when filming, and said that the International Chapter hooked up with the old schemer to get the role of the hostess, and thus overwhelmed Yang Ziqiong. In short, the film was treated as a popcorn movie, and no attention was paid to it at all. Unexpectedly, when the Oscar nomination came out, Hong Kong Entertainment Notes were all beaten in the face, and the International Chapter and Hong Kong Entertainment Notes also made an issue (which was also related to the immature response of the International Chapter at that time)

Ang Lee made his name at home and abroad with this film, and rewritten the definition of China's martial arts films. Since then, literary martial arts blockbusters such as House of Flying Daggers, Heroes and Promise have emerged one after another, and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon has since stepped onto the altar that has been imitated and never surpassed.