[2024.03.25] STARS TRY TO SAVE THEIR MOVIES FROM THE END OF THEIR THEATRICAL RUNS

GAMER GIRLS has collected around HK$ 332,000 at the box office, a less than ideal performance

The BACK TO THE PAST team promotes for GAMER GIRLS without any hesitation

Wong Yau Nam frequently attends audience appreciation screenings
courtesy of on.cc

Wong Yau Nam and Angela Yuen Lai Lam have recently released new films. Although their films were full of sincerity, they have not performed well at the box office. The team could only appeal to the audience online for support. Wong Yau Nam's new film lost at the box office but won awards and word of mouth, while Yuen Lai Lam's new film was severely criticized online.

The movie NIGHT KING (YEH WONG) and BACK TO THE PAST (CHUM CHUN GEI) have been successful at the box office, the former has exceeded HK$ 100 million and the latter has received 96 million. While everyone have looked forward a small comeback for Hong Kong films, the Wong Yau Nam and others starred CIAO UFO (JOI GEIN UFO) and the Yuen Lai Lam, Kayan Ng starred GAMER GIRLS (DIN GAING NUI) have reached critical level at the box office, suffered from drastical schedule drop and might possibly be forced to end their runs. The teams have spoken up online in the past few days, hoping for movie fans to support the films at the cinemas.

CIAO was completed 8 years ago but due to a variety of reasons was not officially released until recently. The film used the UFO incident in Wah Fu Estate in the 80s to depict the changes of the times through the growth of the little small protagonists, was well received by the audience in preview screenings. It has also received a good response at various film award ceremonies, including a total of 10 nominations for the Hong Kong Film Awards. Originally the film was expected to make an impact at the box office; but unfortunately, as of 6 days after its release yesterday, this production with an investment of nearly 20 million surprisingly only received about 2.24 million at the box office!

Lead actor Wong Yau am frequently appeared at audience appreciation screenings and promoted hard, but from the photos the cinemas were only half full. However he has not given up as he continued to promote hard online. The film's producer and screenwriter Amy Chin Siu Wai also appealed on the Internet, "The opening box office was less than 200,000. I hope if everyone who has seen it and think it is worth recommending, please help again with a strong push; otherwise seeing UFO will be difficult next week!" In an interview yesterday, she said, "The box office is very important. We also want more people to go to the cinemas to see the efforts of the team and actors."

As for GAMER the situation has been even more dire. The film has been successfully filmed after receiving 5 million from the government from the "6th First Feature Film Initiative". As of the 12th day in release yesterday, the box office has not been satisfactory and the number of theaters will be reduced from 35 to 2 in the second week. The relevant parties have not released the box office figures for a long time, actually the total was only about 322,000. The team had no choice but to try to save themselves, forming a team with only the resources they had to thank the audiences and hoping to fight until the last minute. Fortunately they had the support of many fellow travelers, the SNOWBALL ON A SUNN DAY (GUM DOR BO) and BACK TO THE PAST audience appreciation teams have quickly agreed to shoot videos to promote together.

Director Veronica Bassetto spoke up online. "GAMER GIRLS itself is a story about being denied, falling down and getting back up. This is exactly the situation of our creators. Although the box office is difficult, we will continue to find a way." She also expressed her hope that their hard work would be seen, and star Yuen Lai Lam also left a message, "I hope so too!" However, a large number of negative comments has poured in online, which has been truly discouraging.