'Pacific Rim' (2013) - Guillermo Del Toro's Mecha VS. Kaiju film.

[Roger Rambo]

Crappy regional marketing is really the only way to explain what's going on with Pacific Rim in China versus Japan.*


I mean, this is a movie where the Chinese characters got virtually no lines, and were basically relegated to redshirt status in an actual fight, where as the heroine of the movie was a Japanese actress (not a really popular one in Japan, but still Japanese) who played a big role in most of the big action sequences in the movie. The movie went by with barely a blip in Japan, and in China it's gone on to be one of the highest grossing western movies in that country.



*Though I suppose one other thing to consider is that Japan may still be sensitive to the 2011 Tsunami and Fukishima plant leak, and so a movie about nuclear powered robots fighting tsunami/typhoon esque sea monsters might not be something everyone is particularly eager about.

[LoweGear]

Japan has no problem with nuclear bots in anime though, and they have animes where they have nukes in practically everything but name. I doubt the nukes have everything to do with that.

I'm still at this point firmly believing in the WB Sabotage conspiracy theory. A company known for its good ad campaigns suddenly underpromoting an expected blockbuster on the eve of the studio that created it splitting off from WB? The circumstantial evidence is so painful that it makes too much sense. That account of where apparently no one outside Tokyo has even heard of Pacific Rim kinda makes the point clear.

Despite the box office numbers though, the loads of Japanese Pixiv fanart coming through before and after the movie showing kinda indicates that those who watched it really liked it, if one uses fanart quantity + quality as a measure of something's popularity.

Images

Also, one of the nicest looking Jaegirls I've seen so far

Sorry; dynamic content not loaded. Reload?

[bhl88]

Originally Posted by ANN thread post about article of Pacific Rim director getting free Madoka stuff

Having deliberated Pacific Rim AND My Little Pony with a Japanese otaku friend, I've concluded that both shows carry some good deep-level influence from Japanese entertainment, but that both fail to deliver surface level comparison. That is, I was able to get him to agree that Pacific Rim had general storytelling that made it appeal more to the Japanese audience than most American films (that don't gather appeal directly from their American exotic-ness), but many "mecha otaku" like him were agast at 1) the dialogue, and 2) the visual design and how the action scenes went. He claimed they were both too "American" to capture what was best about Japanese mecha--the designs and color scheme and such. A possibility I came up with was how dreary and dark the lighting and atmosphere is most of the time, preventing the color scheme from standing out too much. As for My Little Pony, he said that he likes it (or what I showed him) in the sense that it is more "reserved" than most Western cartoons he's seen (he's not particularly a cartoon fan, though), but it's very childish and... the characters are ponies, which are a huge turn-off and nothing like what an anime of its intent or genre would usually be like.I want to delve into this kind of discussion further, though. I feel like our short discussion gave me ideas and theories, but I'm more interested in talking to someone more adept to contemporary Japanese storytelling than my friend is.

Probably needs more missiles and more lighting (story... Hmmm... It's probably something in the dialogue).

[AbridgedTroll]

Tacit Ronin the Samurai Jaeger!!

She was supposed to be in the role of Cherno Alpha before Del Toro revised his scripts,still,she is an awesome Mark 1 Jaeger though

[Guido]

Originally Posted by ElCachicamo

China is the only place that give a shit about this movie.

Rocket Olive

BoxOfficeMojo has updated it's info for Pacific Rim, but only for the domestic and Chinese markets.

Domestically, the film has closed it's fifth week screening on cinemas and has accumulated a total of $ 98,401,000 millions.

For China, the film has just closed it's third week screening on cinemas and has become absolutely non-stop reaching and breaking the $ 100,000,000 millions milestone.

Overall, summing the domestic and all overseas markets, Pacific Rim up to now has made a world wide total of $384,401,000 millions.
So, the movie has earned the double of its production budget, though one friend told me that this film will become a safe if it manages to reach or surpass the $ 400,000,000 millions milestone.

[RobotCat]

China confirmed for superior tastes =P

[Child_of_Sierra]

Makes me wonder... how did they market this in China? It's not like the Chinese Jaeger and its pilots had a big role. Why was it so effective compared to Japan and America...

[Chaos2Frozen]

Originally Posted by Child_of_Sierra

Makes me wonder... how did they market this in China? It's not like the Chinese Jaeger and its pilots had a big role. Why was it so effective compared to Japan and America...

America we all know had shoddy marketing in general, as for Japan the theory is that the Japanese are pretty much desensitised to the genre.

But yeah, I'm also interested in how China, Russia and South Korea are different from those two

[Guido]

Originally Posted by Chaos2Frozen

America we all know had shoddy marketing in general, as for Japan the theory is that the Japanese are pretty much desensitised to the genre.

But yeah, I'm also interested in how China, Russia and South Korea are different from those two

Well, from what bhl88 and I read is that a few Japanese spectators complained that the film was too "American" when it came to the depiction of the Jaegers and the fights- the designs, the color schemes, other stuff.

A good relief, that always kept my expectations very low about how the film performed in Japan.

But seriously, too "American" they say? I think they took the film too seriously.

Del Toro clearly stated that he did not intend to add or establish anything new for either the Kaijuu or Mecha genres with Pacific Rim. Rather he made the film itself to act as either a love letter or tribute poem to the Kaijuu genre.

He never said his intention was to make the film to feel in such a way to garner, accomplish, and/or to capitalize on Japanese expectations. Or maybe I got sidetracked with that last comment.

Hence, if I unintentionally hurt somebodys' feelings out there, then please accept my sincere apologies.

[aohige]

Originally Posted by Guido

Well, from what bhl88 and I read is that a few Japanese spectators complained that the film was too "American" when it came to the depiction of the Jaegers and the fights- the designs, the color schemes, other stuff.

A good relief, that always kept my expectations very low about how the film performed in Japan.

But seriously, too "American" they say? I think they took the film too seriously.

Del Toro clearly stated that he did not intend to add or establish anything new for either the Kaijuu or Mecha genres with Pacific Rim. Rather he made the film itself to act as either a love letter or tribute poem to the Kaijuu genre.

He never said his intention was to make the film to feel in such a way to garner, accomplish, and/or to capitalize on Japanese expectations. Or maybe I got sidetracked with that last comment.

Hence, if I unintentionally hurt somebodys' feelings out there, then please accept my sincere apologies.

I suppose you intentionally disregarded the overwhelming positive feedbacks from those who DID watch it, and instead went for the few complaints just so you can spin this post?

[ArchmageXin]

Originally Posted by aohige

I suppose you intentionally disregarded the overwhelming positive feedbacks from those who DID watch it, and instead went for the few complaints just so you can spin this post?

The box office number isn't gonna lie....Japan couldn't even match countries a fraction of its size, coming behind nations like Hong Kong and Singapore for pete's sake.

I just don't understand why people expect Japan to be an auto-win when Japan didn't even have their own robot. If I was the director I would at least swap out the Austrian one for a Japanese one at least.

China $100,100,000
Russia - CIS $20,585,546
South Korea $18,186,611
Mexico $15,735,208
United Kingdom $12,567,339
France $8,322,663
Australia $7,402,438
Germany $6,033,923
Malaysia $4,920,534
Singapore $4,061,776
Hong Kong $3,981,456
Argentina $3,890,687
Philippines $3,757,203
Thailand $3,748,193
Italy $3,716,505
Japan $3,100,470

[Helius]

Originally Posted by ArchmageXin

... the Austrian one

I wouldn't mind seeing an Austrian Jaeger - "ze Kaiju ist too stronk! Hurry, get to da choppa!!"

[ArchmageXin]

Originally Posted by Helius

I wouldn't mind seeing an Austrian Jaeger - "ze Kaiju ist too stronk! Hurry, get to da choppa!!"

Opps. haha.

[aohige]

Originally Posted by ArchmageXin

The box office number isn't gonna lie....Japan couldn't even match countries a fraction of its size, coming behind nations like Hong Kong and Singapore for pete's sake.

I just don't understand why people expect Japan to be an auto-win when Japan didn't even have their own robot. If I was the director I would at least swap out the Austrian one for a Japanese one at least.

Um, nothing I said contradicts the numbers?

The reviews from Japanese who SAW the film are overwhelmingly positive.
I read thousands.. I mean LITERALLY thousands of posts and blog entries, you know? And been following it for months, daily?
Have YOU?

It's just that, those who bothered to go in the first place were few, and it bombed in the box office.

You do realize critically well received does not equal success, right?
Right?

[ArchmageXin]

Originally Posted by aohige

Um, nothing I said contradicts the numbers?

The reviews from Japanese who SAW the film are overwhelmingly positive.
I read thousands.. LITERALLY thousands of posts and blog entries, you know?
Have YOU?

It's just that, those who bothered to go in the first place were few, and it bombed in the box office.

You do realize critically well received does not equal success, right?
Right?

And I am sure you also ignored the negative ones too. Frankly, "reading thousands of positive blogs" are not evidence of any real success. The box office still remain the most honest (and what matters) as assessment.

At this moment, Del Toros are still sitting on a razor's edge not knowing if Pacific Rim II will succeed. But if a film couldn't win on its own merits but depend on a group of "fanboys" to watch it twice or five times in order to break even, it is not going to produce a success.

[aohige]

Originally Posted by ArchmageXin

And I am sure you also ignored the negative ones too. Frankly, "reading thousands of positive blogs" are not evidence of any real success. The box office still remain the most honest (and what matters) as assessment.

At this moment, Del Toros are still sitting on a razor's edge not knowing if Pacific Rim II will succeed. But if a film couldn't win on its own merits but depend on a group of "fanboys" to watch it twice or five times in order to break even, it is not going to produce a success.

Do you read Japanese?
I'm sure you don't. Do you need me to post the entire threads? And translate them?
Otherwise you don't believe what I say? Oh, I'm sorry, of course even if I did all that, you wouldn't believe me.

First. I did NOT ignore negative posts. I said the reactions were overwhelmingly positive. For maybe every twenty-thirty positive, excited reviews from geeks, there were maybe one or two "I didn't like it". How the hell did I ignore those? Explain yourself before calling me a liar.

Second, those who excitedly praised the film were mainly geeks who went to see the film. Sadly, there were not very many of them, and majority of film goers (which consists greatly of girls who care not for these types of films) did not bother going to see them.
I have spent, observing Japanese reactions of the film for months. Yes, it's a geek film, yes, due to that, it bombed.

What you say, about the failure and whatnot DOES NOT IN ANY WAY CONTRADICT what I said. So no, I'm not arguing you on market failure, general lack of interest, or any of your points about Del Toro. Because it has nothing to do with what I said. Can you at least accept that point?
I never even implied "reading thousands of positive blogs" are evidence of any real success". That's a complete failure of reading on your end bro.
I wasn't talking about success at any point of the posts. I was talking about reactions of those who saw the film. Two completely, unrelated, things.

[james0246]

Originally Posted by ArchmageXin

And I am sure you also ignored the negative ones too. Frankly, "reading thousands of positive blogs" are not evidence of any real success. The box office still remain the most honest (and what matters) as assessment.

Boxoffice does not equal quality. The people that actually went and say the film generally liked it (or they didn't dislike it). The problem is, not a large amount of people went to see it or potentially wanted to see it to begin with (for various reasons).

Originally Posted by ArchmageXin

At this moment, Del Toros are still sitting on a razor's edge not knowing if Pacific Rim II will succeed. But if a film couldn't win on its own merits but depend on a group of "fanboys" to watch it twice or five times in order to break even, it is not going to produce a success.

Frankly, I'd prefer if Del Toro went back to making his 'Mountains of Madness' film. Sadly, with Pacific Rim's slight under-performance (I actually believe it is performing as well if not better than an American-based Kaijuu feature with no real drama or romance and no stars could/should perform), I doubt he could ever get his R-rated Lovecraft story made...

[ArchmageXin]

Originally Posted by aohige

Do you read Japanese?
I'm sure you don't. Do you need me to post the entire threads? And translate them?
Otherwise you don't believe what I say? Oh, I'm sorry, of course even if I did all that, you wouldn't believe me.

First. I did NOT ignore negative posts. I said the reactions were overwhelmingly positive. For maybe every twenty-thirty positive, excited reviews from geeks, there were maybe one or two "I didn't like it". How the hell did I ignore those? Explain yourself before calling me a liar.

Second, those who excitedly praised the film were mainly geeks who went to see the film. Sadly, there were not very many of them, and majority of film goers (which consists greatly of girls who care not for these types of films) did not bother going to see them.
I have spent, observing Japanese reactions of the film for months. Yes, it's a geek film, yes, due to that, it bombed.

What you say, about the failure and whatnot DOES NOT IN ANY WAY CONTRADICT what I said. So no, I'm not arguing you on market failure, general lack of interest, or any of your points about Del Toro. Because it has nothing to do with what I said. Can you at least accept that point?
I never even implied "reading thousands of positive blogs" are evidence of any real success". That's a complete failure of reading on your end bro.
I wasn't talking about success at any point of the posts. I was talking about reactions of those who saw the film. Two completely, unrelated, things.

I accept the fact you read a whole bunch of Japanese blogs, and many of them, based on your sampling, are positive. There, happy?

And I will assume you were some what objective, based on your sampling.

And I will finish by saying the ultimate arbiter of a film's success will be its box office numbers, because it is an unbiased data that is most likely not fudged. Yes, 500 years from now on Pacific Rim might be studied by high school student as a form of art...but right now it cannot be qualified as a absolute success.

Furthermore, I will argue I am not anti-Japanese over a film that is not even produced in Japan. I am actually more sad China had a box office blow out on a film that is based in Hong Kong but couldn't find one Chinese actor. Are we done now?

[aohige]

Originally Posted by ArchmageXin

I accept the fact you read a whole bunch of Japanese blogs, and many of them, based on your sampling, are positive. There, happy?

And I will assume you were some what objective, based on your sampling.

And I will finish by saying the ultimate arbiter of a film's success will be its box office numbers, because it is an unbiased data that is most likely not fudged. Yes, 500 years from now on Pacific Rim might be studied by high school student as a form of art...but right now it cannot be qualified as a absolute success.

Right, right, right..... but I'm not even arguing that.

I'm talking about reactions of those who watched it, and how it was received. NOT amount of people who saw it, and how it fared in box office.

Basically you're arguing a point that was never disagreed on, or even in argument, yet, for some reason, keep bringing it up when it's completely irrelevant.
Btw, not just blogs but mainly forums as well, thousands of posts in various forums. And public cinema review sites obviously.

Furthermore, I will argue I am not anti-Japanese over a film that is not even produced in Japan. I am actually more sad China had a box office blow out on a film that is based in Hong Kong but couldn't find one Chinese actor. Are we done now?

I am grateful for the success met in China, and if a sequel was made, a Chinese main cast would be awesome and appropriate.

[ArchmageXin]

Originally Posted by aohige

I am grateful for the success met in China, and if a sequel was made, a Chinese main cast would be awesome and appropriate.

I doubt it, even right now Americans are complaining there are TOO MUCH Chinese presentation in Hollywood movies (Red Dawn villain change, Iron Man/Looper's 4 min worth of Chinese-only materials etc)

Pacific Rim is just new fodder on how Hollywood is kneeling to their Chinese overlords.